New Michelin balance question

Hey, thanks to all of you for your responses. I'll look tomorrow and see if anything is on the insides.

Stick-on weights sound nice. I was kinda frustrated when I saw areas void of clear coat from where the old weights were. I can see spots where the clear came off- shaped just like the old weights. Which leads me to another question....

Should I paint a little something on there to keep it from decay? Can a guy buy a little bottle of clear? And just paint it on with a little brush? Not too concerned about appearance- but if I could prevent bubbling down the road, I would. I'm envisioning something like those little bottles of Testor's enamel like I used on models as a kid.

 

Coincidentally, I just saw a recent model year taco last week with bubbling around the rims. Same wheels as my stockers. And I'm in the snow belt with lots of ice melt chemicals.

 

As I remember from 15yrs back working at a tire shop, Average tires shouldnt need much over an oz on either side. Very large tires are an exception. That being said, if more than an oz is needed, the tire should be slipped on the rim tand re balanced. Those little red an yellow dots on the lip of the tire are indicators to help with the initial mounting.

I think the yellow mark lines up with the valve stem and the red spot is the "heavy" spot..

Like I said, its been 15+ years, but most shops today just bang 'em through and dont care if it takes 8oz to balance a 235/65/16

 

ususally the tire store will use the clip weights (as shown in the picture) if the rim will fit them. however they usually will use sticky weights if you request it. also, older rims may take more weight

 

I don't think the age of the rims has anything to do with needing more weight....

If you do not have weights on inner and outer they weren't balanced properly. Sticky weights on the middle are not as accurate and are a compromise.

 

When I buy a set of tires, I tell them I want the spot lined up where it's supposed to be (yellow near valve stem is what I was thinking, but I've never worked in a shop.) If you let them know that you're aware of how they should be properly mounted, they can usually pull it off. If you don't say anything they probably don't pay it any mind at all like llibrm said.

I bought a set for my former T100 a couple decades ago. Pulled out onto the interstate and got up to speed and was immediately concerned about shaking. Took it back. They rebalanced after confirming it was wrong. I pull back out onto the I-way, same thing. Shaking at highway speed. So then I started working on getting them to take the tires back because I assumed they must be out of round (defective). That led them to have their balancer recalibrated. After that they balanced them a third time and it was money. Who knows how many poorly balanced sets of tires went out their door before a picky doosh came in and b!tched.

I usually have mine rebalanced every third rotation or so.

 

sorry, didn't explain properly, I meant more that older rims can be "less round" because of use/abuse and therefore take more weight

 

I just checked. No weights on the insides of the tires.

 

A quality rim may be balanced and a quality tire may be balanced so if ya got both ya may not need weights.

 

Had to have my new ko2's road force balanced after the initial balancing caused vibrations above 50 mph. Rides closer to the stock tires I replaced after 8k miles. Toyota charged me $50, didn't trust Sears to redo them.

 

Only if traditional balancing doesn't give a proper balance/ride. And while the RoadForce feature is the cat's meow in fine tune balancing you have to have a tech who knows how to use the machine properly and is willing to take the proper time to do so.

Actually that's backwards. The mold release on the tires will take a couple hundred miles or so to wear off, and the tire will become gripper when it's gone. Yes, you may have more grip than the old tire (for various reasons in various conditions) but you will not have max grip till the mold release is gone.

In 2-3 years any special grip from the compound of the tire will be pretty much gone. It's why on my sports cars I tried to pick tires that would be tread worn in about that time period (from mileage) so I didn't feel bad replacing them. Or at least I had an exuse the wife could visually see.

 

Yeah I think I'm just feeling a grip difference because the old tires were more worn. I was on MS2's before. There was a ton of tread left on them (8/32 left with 48k miles on them). Interesting what you say about the compound and 2-3 years. I noticed a significant decrease in traction when I hit ~40k miles- Which would have been at about the 3 year mark. Not a deep snow traction decrease, but a wet pavement traction decrease. Totally within acceptable limits and by no means terrible- but a difference that was certainly perceptible. I really liked the MS2's. So far, the Defenders seem pretty much identical.

 

i work for a tire shop and this is very common for these michelins

 

The large weights are common? What do you attribute this to? Or do you mean something else?

 

That comment is way too unclear, please clarify.

 

Just curious why you replaced your MS2s that still have half the tread remaining?

 

I wanted to try the 265-75's. My MS2's were 245's and i was able to sell them for $325 on Craigslist. That's half what I paid for them. Figured it was worth the upgrade.

 

well ive work for discount t***e for the last 6 years and that unpractic amount of weight is common in other words these tires are shit !

 

They have computerized equipment that will tell them how much weight and where they need it. The tires have more to do with it than the rim surprisingly. When I threw on a used set of Wrangler's, one rim has 6 weights on it, another with only 2. When I put a brand new set of MS2's on, there were hardly any weights (done at same shop) Factory wheels are usually built nice and symmetrical, so it's more than likely the tires. I wouldn't worry about the one not having one as long as it rides without vibration on the highway...