Went to kwik-fit

Lum

With the balancing, no tyre is perfectly balanced, if you look at new tyres they will actually have a marking on the sidewall that indicates where the heaviest point on the tyre is. Fitters are supposed to line this up with a notch on the wheel that indicated where the lightest point on the wheel is.

You never get these lined up perfectly, in fact half the time the fitters don't even try. You just correct it with balancing afterwards, so therefore if your tyre has been off the rim, it needs rebalancing.

Notmyrealname

Lum wrote: »

With the balancing, no tyre is perfectly balanced, if you look at new tyres they will actually have a marking on the sidewall that indicates where the heaviest point on the tyre is. Fitters are supposed to line this up with a notch on the wheel that indicated where the lightest point on the wheel is.

ROFLMAO. Never seen one on a wheel or a tyre. Are you seriously suggesting that they do this for every single wheel and tyre when it is far cheaper when they already balance them with weights anyway?

And if they did have them and did line them up, how is that going to alter anything?

s_b

Notmyrealname wrote: »

ROFLMAO. Never seen one on a wheel or a tyre. Are you seriously suggesting that they do this for every single wheel and tyre when it is far cheaper when they already balance them with weights anyway?

And if they did have them and did line them up, how is that going to alter anything?

er you line the dot up to the valve
look here
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=86379

all you do is make yourself look utterly stupid in every motoring thread you post on
you say you are an ex mechanic,hardly surprising really is it because no one would want you working on their cars when you know sweet miss adams intimately or was it jack

Lum

It's a bit more complicated than that. As that thread states there are actually two dots, one lines up with the notch in the wheel like I stated and the other lines up with the valve.

In practice it's usually possible to do both as every tyre and wheel is different and nobody is going to go hunting through a pile of tyres to find one with the two dots perfectly spaced to match your wheel, so you just aim to get them as close as you can.

If you do this then the wheel will be easier to balance and need fewer balancing weights to do it, which is a good thing.

Of course most tyre fitters don't bother as lining up a couple of dots requires too much effort and thought whereas modern balancing machines require neither.

This is why I always go to my local place and try to get mine done by the old guy who works there, rather than the teenagers, as he actually does it right.

Can we talk about matching up run out lines now?

Rupert_Bear

When we have a puncture we take it to our local Kwik Fit and they never charge.

Norman_Castle

When we have a puncture we take it to our local Kwik Fit and they never charge.

Great, I'll nip to New York next time I have a puncture.

Rupert_Bear

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Great, I'll nip to New York next time I have a puncture.

I have tried changing location from New York. I was there for about 2 months and cannot seem to change back to London.

andygb

Rupert_Bear wrote: »

When we have a puncture we take it to our local Kwik Fit and they never charge.

Kwik Fit is a business - how do they make money if they do jobs for free?

SHIPSHAPE

£20 is crazy, any old garage would do it for a tenner or even a fiver.

Joe_Horner

andygb wrote: »

Kwik Fit is a business - how do they make money if they do jobs for free?

Same as any of the places who used to offer free puncture repairs. The puncture repair is free but they strongly recommend that you have the optional valve and balance, which they charge for.

You're perfectly entitled to say no thanks to those bits but few people do.