I just ordered some snow tires for the Subaru, and I'm going to mount and balance them next week.

The shop I work in has tire mounting and balancing equipment, but their supply of weights is tragic at best. Where can I go to learn about the different wheel weights so I can figure out what to buy for my different wheels?

The weights that came off the Subaru wheels say 62, Zn, F, and the weight. My other sets of wheels that will need balancing in the future are stock Subaru wheels, stock miata wheels, and 6ULs. I'm just trying to figure out what to buy besides some stick-on weights.

 

Well, I knew this wouldn't be a popular topic, but I figured SOMEBODY would be able to point me in the direction of some information.

 

i use stickonnz..

 

Might want to superglue them or something. Perhaps other people have had better experience. I tend to loose mine everytime i get to speed.

 

Stick on put on a clean surface has helped me a lot in the the past. A lot of tire places don't clean off the spot before sticking the weights on. Hence they leave. Just had to do my 97 for the 3rd time in a few months cause of this. And clip ons get sucked off of off road tires in the mud fyi. And scraped off in the rocks.

 

I'm going to buy some stick-onz for the outer side but there is a regular lip on the inside and I'll probably use hammer-onz for that part. They have a supply at the shop, but it's a pile of unlabeled weights so you have to find the right weight in the right shape. It can be done.

I successfully figured out how to use the tire-mounting machine, which was an adventure. it's got 5 foot levers, two joysticks, and one other fun button. They didn't have any stick-onz so I'll have to buy some and go back to do that later. Seating the bead (or whatever it's called) is frightening and makes me think the tire is going to explode.

 

Ha ha you get used to that. Try seating the bead on low pro Bridgestone runflats, bitches don't seat till 80+ PSI. Makes a loud boom. But seriously just get some sticky weights (you really have to buy them?) for both sides, clean the surfaces really well and stick em on where the balance machine tells you to. Done-zo.

We just got one of the brand new automatic tire machines, 5,000 levers and buttons and it does everything for you. Super complicated and time consuming.

 

When I worked at BBS North America, I used a machine like that to mount all the RX wheels that go on the VW GLI and the 21" BBS on the Toureg. That machine ROCKS.


When I balance my wheels, I ALWAYS wipe the area off with brake cleaner before adding the weights...never had them come off. On my track wheels, I just static balance them (one weight on the inside lip) and have never had a problem with that.