Why Wheel Balancing Is Important for Maintaining Your Tires

Comprehensive Tire Services in Calgary

Tire Pirates is the dependable one-stop source for tire service. You can count on us for all types of wheel repairs at our Calgary tire shop. We’re committed to ensuring customers have the best-quality tires and providing installation and repair that gets you the most out of them.

One of our most important wheel services is the proper balancing of your wheels. Our skilled car mechanics in Foothills and Chinook are experienced at aligning, repairing, replacing, and balancing automotive wheels. We also service brakes, heating and air conditioning, and steering and suspension systems. Equipped and staffed to balance wheels, we can precisely even-out the weight bore on each axle, thanks to a highly sensitive machine that senses weight differences down to a fraction of an ounce.

Advantages of Wheel Balancing

Even distribution of weight enables each tire and wheel to travel evenly, particularly when a vehicle is moving fast. Weight is rarely evenly distributed around a wheel. The valve stem hole alone creates a slight weight imbalance. This process is advantageous because:

• It prevents the wheel from wobbling while the vehicle is moving.
• An imbalance creates vibrations at high speeds inside a car, due to an imbalance in outward force on the wheel assembly.
• Vibrations can cause uneven wear on the tires, leading to premature damage and affecting handling.
• Tire wear changes the balance, and a tire shop may need to rebalance the wheel, often when the tires are rotated.

When we balance your wheels, our car mechanics:

• Remove the vehicle’s tires and wheels.
• Mount them on an advanced balancing machine.
• Spin the wheels to see if their weight is balanced evenly.
• Attach small weights to correct imbalances.
• Re-install the tires and wheels to your vehicle.

Wheel Services

Tire Pirates provides additional services at our Calgary tire shops. Our car mechanics are skilled at wheel alignments, which prevent vehicles from shifting from side to side on smooth roads. Alignment problems can cause uneven tire wear and tread wear to occur much faster. Expensive components of the steering system may also be damaged.

Signs you need a wheel alignment include the car pulls to one side or another, it wanders, or there are unusual vibrations or changes in steering response. The steering wheel may even be crooked. Our mechanics check for signs of misalignment to ensure no other factors are affecting your ride. They can detect subtle changes in wheel angle from the center as seen from the front (camber) or the angle of the steering pivot as seen from the side (caster). Variations in distance between the front and back of front tires (toe-in) can also be examined.

We’re also skilled at repairing minor tire damage, and we are experienced in new and used tire sales for all budgets. For information on wheel balancing and other wheel repairs and services, and where you can find “wheel balancing near me,” contact us online or at 403-907-0394 in Foothills or 403-907-0431 in Chinook.