How Precise are Wheel Weights Located?

I noticed wheel weights off my front passenger side wheel laying in my driveway pulling in today. New tires on new wheels recently mounted and balanced. I see some residue from the double stick tape still on the wheel. I can just reapply the weights with new tape but it’ll be off by 2-3”. Would that be a big deal? Or should I just go back (shop is like 45m. away) and have them rebalance?
Thanks in advance.

 

Humans put those weights on. It's as good as the person.

I worked at America's Tire / America's Discount Tire / Discount Tire for 3 years a while back.

Some people really cared. It was cool to have a customer come in and say, I have vibration at 150 mph. I don't want that. And I would calibrate the machine in front him them so it was nice and fresh and not off, then set the machine to maximum granularity which I think was only a quarter ounce. And the cut those sticky wheel weights even smaller to get it as exact as we could. The. It was nice yo have them come back and say how well it worked.

And then we had a couple guys who would suck on the lead wheel weights (not kidding). Sounds like you got one of these guys.

 

If you can see old adhesive tape residue, why would it be off by 2-3"?

 

You should complain at least. You may get a-free alignment or rotation. Stick on wheel weights can be tricky. Sometimes too much cleaner is used and they stick all the way. Or worse they just stick them on a dirty wheel.

 

Weights are about 6” in length and I can only see about 2” of residue. It won’t be exactly where they were.

 

^I would stick the weight back on as closely to its original position as you can. If you get more vibrations than usual, go back to the shop and ask them to rebalance. Or go to a local shop and pay $15-20 to get it rebalanced. An hour and half round-trip would cost you as much in gas.

 

Yeah, the shop is closed until the 15th and I leave for a trip the 18th. The truck is going to be at the dealership tomorrow so might just have them balance and throw the weights back on.

 

Well, first off thanks for being one that cared. This shop was otherwise great, gave me a smoking deal on some new Toyo RT Trails, and they’re known to be great at alignments, haven’t had an issue w/ 2 alignments yet. The guy just dropped the ball on this one.

 

Sorry for your bad luck.

My local Discount Tire proprietor is one of the good guys. I'm not looking forward to having find another one when I move away.

 

Could have been something totally benign. Like he just accidentally didn't clean the wheel or failed to remove the tape or to push it against the wheel. Maybe something out of the ordinary happened and he got distracted. Like someone punched him in the balls(this happened a lot where I worked) If you know how many weights were there and can tell exactly where it was you can order them online, clean with alcohol before applying.

Probably need to go back.

 

Agreed. You need to go back and have the wheel re-balanced. Being a little bit off could likely make a big difference. Especially if it was 6 inches of weights. And the tire, subsequently, could wear unevenly. And then you've got another problem.

Make the time to rebalance before your trip and be done with it.

 

thats what you call laziness by the tire tech. They are supposed to clean the area and prep for the best adheasion. I know its a long drive but Id take it back and have it done properly. Id also watch them do it right or have them atart over.

 

I finally found some guys at Discount Tire I could trust. Next time I go back, every single one of them is gone. It hadn't been 3 months. I didn't care for the attitude I got from the guy trying to check me in. I left and went to a different location and started all over. Finding responsible workers is the pits these days....