Brand-new wheels out-of-spec? Need input!

[Alphonse]

Hello TMC

I recently purchased a set wheels from a popular online vendor - not naming them for now.

I took the wheels to Costco to mount a new set of Bridgestones. Tech told me he could see run-out in all four wheels. Thus, he was not comfortable balancing them. See video below. You can see the crisp line in the barrel behind the spokes very slightly fluctuating.

I took the wheels home and spoke to vendor. Vendor told me there could be excess powdercoating on the wheel hub - turns out there was. So I removed it. I took the wheels back for another try. This time, different tech different manager.

They told me that this "run-out" was normal and that I shouldn't expect any wheel to be absolutely perfect. I just reiterated what the other tech had told me. They said they'd balance the wheels.

They balanced two of them. They said that the other two were calling for "excessive" weight for a new wheel and tire (3.5 ounces). They advised me to reach out to the vendor again and ask what's up.

My questions:

1. Is that amount of run-out in a new wheel concerning?
2. Is 3.5 ounces of weight excessive?

Thanks!

 

[Ludalicious]

The only weights I generally see on rims are on the opposite side of the valve stems. I constantly see cheap wheels with weights stacked on top of each other. Same goes with tires. Cheap tires will not 100% balance out perfectly and some will just not balance at all. I assume these are either cheap cast rims or terrible forged quality. I would return them and go somewhere else. Remember these are electric vehicles with tremendous amounts of torque. Buy the best wheels you can afford. JM2C

 

[Scooby24]

I believe the usual sized weights are .25 oz so 3.5 would be taking 14...that does seem quite excessive.

 

[Ludalicious]

Also watch when they mount them. Allot of people are lazy too. A good wheel tech will actually dismount the tire and reposition it in on the rim.

 

[Sam1]

Hard to make an accurate assumption from a rough video. But, from the perspective of a random person on the internet, that looks pretty significant.

As for the balancing issue, here's a little excerpt from tirerack

"
How many wheel weights are too many?

While there is no industry standard, the general consensus of what is too much weight is when it takes more than 1% of the assembly weight to bring it into balance.

Let's take a test example of one incident I recently encountered when a customer expressed concern that 15 wheel weights were used on his 19" BMW wheel and tire package. Is 15 weights too many? Let's find out.

• Each stick-on weight is a quarter of an ounce
• 15 weights on one wheel = 3.75 ounces
• 19x8.5 wheel weight = 27.5 pounds
• 235/35R19 tire = 24.0 pounds
• Total package weight = 51.5 pounds or 824 ounces
• 1% of that = 8.2 ounces

15 weights (3.75 ounces total) is very reasonable given the total weight of the wheel and tire in this example.
"

 

[Dolemite]

Hard to make an accurate assumption from a rough video. But, from the perspective of a random person on the internet, that looks pretty significant.

As for the balancing issue, here's a little excerpt from tirerack

"
How many wheel weights are too many?

While there is no industry standard, the general consensus of what is too much weight is when it takes more than 1% of the assembly weight to bring it into balance.

Let's take a test example of one incident I recently encountered when a customer expressed concern that 15 wheel weights were used on his 19" BMW wheel and tire package. Is 15 weights too many? Let's find out.

• Each stick-on weight is a quarter of an ounce
• 15 weights on one wheel = 3.75 ounces
• 19x8.5 wheel weight = 27.5 pounds
• 235/35R19 tire = 24.0 pounds
• Total package weight = 51.5 pounds or 824 ounces
• 1% of that = 8.2 ounces

15 weights (3.75 ounces total) is very reasonable given the total weight of the wheel and tire in this example.
"

This is what I was going to post - I hope they're not just covering their asses. Seems reasonable?

 

[Sam1]

This is what I was going to post - I hope they're not just covering their asses. Seems reasonable?

As far as the wheel? I don't think that's paint overrun. You can see multiple edges fluctuating in and out, almost at the same point. I'd guess something was up with the wheel itself.

But again, that's a poor video to make that claim on. The OP should take the wheel to a local wheel repair place and have them gauge it, that would tell them in 30 seconds if it's warped for any reason.

 

[dsgerbc]

Wheel manufacturers have spec for run-out on the face of the wheel, but it's much looser than allowable runout where it matters - the bead.

Cheap tire-mounting places (Costco included) suck for anything performance-related (read tires with stiff sidewalls). If you're mounting performance tires, paying someone to properly roadforce-balance your wheels/tires is likely worth it. They'd rotate the tire on the wheel, possibly swapping tires between wheels, to find a combination that minimizes the potential for vibrations.

Cheap places tend to blame wheels/tire manufacturers for their beat-down equipment. I recently took a set of brand new wheels/tires to a local Firestone. A set of replacement new tires later that RF-balanced just as bad as the first one, they tried to blame the wheels. I had them dismount the tires and measured runouts myself and all of those came out pretty good. Took the wheels/tires to a much more expensive shop and everything balanced out just fine.

 

[Alphonse]

Thanks for the insight! The more I look into this the more it appears Costco might be wrong here.

Why are they stating 0.25 oz increments for each weight when the weights say 5 Fe (5 grams)? That's a big difference when you add a few weights!