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Bubble wheel balancer
Slimy38 - 10/3/16 at 10:48 AM

Has anyone ever used a bubble wheel balancer? One of these;

Bubble balance, wheel balancer , quick and easy wheel balancing E4G 9600

I'm not looking at saving money here (if a wheel balance is a tenner tops then this is five balances), more that I don't want to have to get my wheels to a fitter who may or may not actually treat them with any respect.

prawnabie - 10/3/16 at 12:14 PM

I work at the Renault garage in willenhall, your welcome to balance them here if you can use the machine

britishtrident - 10/3/16 at 12:53 PM

Bubble wheel balancers do work for static balance but proper dynamic balance could only be found very roughly by trial and error using road testing moving the weights from the inside to the centre line of the rim.

cliftyhanger - 10/3/16 at 05:12 PM

I have one, it seems to work OK and I have no complaints.
Back in the day that is all that was used!

bi22le - 10/3/16 at 05:49 PM

My A048 are not even balanced, just fitted.

It is for track only use. I can't feel any noticable vibration but would not say it's faultless.

owelly - 11/3/16 at 01:07 AM

I'm happy with the results from a bubble-balance. I have a proper balancer but not all wheels fit it. My Transit wheels won't fit on my balancer so had to be static-balanced. I pile the weights on the rim until it balances and then share the weights on the inner and outer rims.

Slimy38 - 11/3/16 at 08:19 AM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
My A048 are not even balanced, just fitted.

It is for track only use. I can't feel any noticable vibration but would not say it's faultless.


I once had a set of decent wheels that I took to a proper specialist, he knew the significance of the red and yellow dots (coincidentally that was also using a Yoko tyre, A520 IIRC) and he managed to set up three out of four wheels without using any weights. The fourth required one weight but I could tell he wasn't happy.

Problem is this will be for a tintop that does motorway miles, the 'perfect storm' for unbalanced wheels.

BenB - 11/3/16 at 03:10 PM

Without wanting to thread hijack- what's the symptom of a poorly balanced wheel? My tin-top has developed an annoying trait. I can feel a "wobble" on the steering wheel. It's happening at multiples of 18mph which makes me think "wheel". If I go 18mph and take my hands off the wheel ("private testing track only of course officer" the steering wheel wobbles left and right quite a bit. We got to drive down the motorway recently and the traffic meant it was hovering mid 50s- very annoying!!! I've checked and my passengers can feel it as well (IE via the seats).

It doesn't look like I've lost any wheel weights.

CNHSS1 - 11/3/16 at 04:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by bi22le
My A048 are not even balanced, just fitted.

It is for track only use. I can't feel any noticable vibration but would not say it's faultless.


the softer the tyre the more pointless balancing is. With slicks where the tread migrates around the crown of the tyre as they get up to temp anyway, they would be forever wrong. So long as the rims are straight softer track/race tyres pretty much self balance. its a bit odd going out of the paddock on what feels like 4 x 50pence pieces (thye flat spot as they cool) but as soon as they are warm they are fine. worth cleaning all the paddock crap off between run though with stiff brush (type for rubbing down a horse) or surfoam

CNHSS1 - 11/3/16 at 04:07 PM

quote:
Originally posted by BenB
Without wanting to thread hijack- what's the symptom of a poorly balanced wheel? My tin-top has developed an annoying trait. I can feel a "wobble" on the steering wheel. It's happening at multiples of 18mph which makes me think "wheel". If I go 18mph and take my hands off the wheel ("private testing track only of course officer" the steering wheel wobbles left and right quite a bit. We got to drive down the motorway recently and the traffic meant it was hovering mid 50s- very annoying!!! I've checked and my passengers can feel it as well (IE via the seats).

It doesn't look like I've lost any wheel weights.


worth checking wheels aren't bent, amazes me at how many are and yet still don't vibrate. mount up and spin up at speed to see if the rims are true. a lot of modern oem wheels are a bit soft as well as cheap aftermarket bling rims, the low pro stiff sidewall tyres survive potholes, but sometimes the laods sent into the rim enough to bend it!

Slimy38 - 11/3/16 at 06:12 PM

My wobble started as visible steering wheel wobble, I swapped wheels front to back and now the steering wheel is solid and I get a nice a$$ massage on the motorway.

I do actually have a run out gauge that I might try, as long as I can mount them on something predictable.

Slimy38 - 12/4/16 at 12:08 PM

Small update, I managed to pop out at lunchtime to a Hi Q, ten seconds on the balancing machine showed a six inch flat spot on the rim. Ironically the wheel itself is actually balanced, I'm guessing whoever fitted the tyres just went ahead and balanced it up last time without noticing the wheel wasn't round.

At least now I can spend the £50 from the bubble balancer on getting the wheel repaired.