Just a quick question.

 

So I was feeling lazy but want to swap my  wheels front to back due to tyre wear.  I have necessary tools but thought I'd phone Qwick Fit to see how much it would cost for them to do (hopefully nothing).

 

Anyway they said it would be around £7 a wheel at worst - for balancing.  I know they're trying to make a job, but then I thought - is it something that actually should be done for swapping wheels round front to back??

 

Obviously I'll do the swap job myself now but wondered about the re-balancing.

 

Thanks all - as usual.

If they are balanced already ? then swapping Front to Rear, will not require them to be re-balanced

Cheers nige! Well they were balanced when the tires were put on but now they've done thousands of miles.

 

No way of telling if they're still balanced but why would they really go out?  They've worn fairly evenly.  The fronts have worn on the outsides more than the insides, noticeably, but they've always done that on this car regardless of having tracking done so it seems normal.  Just time to put em on the back to get the most out of them.  I have a bit of vibration in the steering wheel that comes and goes at 70+ on the motorway but it's small considering the car's done 136,000 miles.  Be interesting if to see if it goes away when I do the swap.

I'm guessing they have to charge for something through the till and a balance is the cheapest option on there. 

Tyres don't stay in balance for ever, so it is possible that the ones that are on the rear MAY need to be rebalanced upon moving them to the front BUT - then again, they might not!

You could always do the swap (don't forget to reset the tyre pressures correctly) and take it for a drive - If there is any 'wobble' in the steering, then they definitely need balancing.

 

There are TWO types of out of balance: (1) STATIC which, as it's name implies, does not need the wheel to be rotated.

As the wheel has width to it, i.e. it is more than a thin disc, it also needs to be in (2) DYNAMIC balance, otherwise it would tend to 'rock' from side to side if out of balance. Dynamic balancing does need the wheel to be spun up to speed.

The larger the wheel diameter, the lower the speed at which an out of balance situation will be noticed through the steering wheel.                                                                                            In theory at any rate (as you probably wouldn't be able to achieve this in practice!) if the first out of balance phase took place at - say - 60mph, it may be possible to 'drive through this out of balance phase, but it would then return as the second phase at twice the speed (in our example, 120mph. - that is why I said that you may not achieve it in practice.

 

Happy new year.