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I went to the local Walmart auto service center to drop off some used motor oil this morning. I do my own oil changes, and Walmart lets me dump the used oil with minimal hassle or wasted time. Normally, I have to wait a couple of minutes for a mechanic to come outside and open up the waste oil dump, but today all the mechanics were lounging around the shop. No vehicles were being serviced - kind of a surprise since they are normally busy at 10 am on a nice weekday morning.
After my used oil got dumped, I asked the mechanic why the place was empty. The answer floored me. He said about half the customers at the Walmart auto center are buying tires and have the tires installed. However, for many weeks they have been out of stock of the balancing weights that are mounted on rims - obviously a key item that you can't do without for a safe and complete tire install job. It may take many more weeks before a shipment of tire balance weights arrive! So, they have plenty of tires in stock, but can't do any tire installations because of the balance weights!
Anyone else heard of this? I have heard of chip shortages and wire harness shortages for new cars, but low tech stuff like rim balancing weights? Walmart has more buying clout than almost anyone on earth besides Amazon, so it is amazing they can't get a supply of these little weights.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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There have been a lot of spot shortages of many things related to the pandemic, the "great resignation" and the Ukraine War.
Since about 2010 lead tire balancing weights have been banned, like lead gun shot. Tire balancing weights are now made of Zinc.
Zinc comes from over 50 countries with Canada being the leading producer, followed by Russia, Australia, Peru, United States and China. That being the case, it's not surprising that with the war going on some issues with zinc products are happening.
I noticed that both Harbor Freight and Grainger sell them. If I needed tires I would probably go buy a bunch of them and then trade for part of the installation cost.
I never balance my tires. I think it's a useless expense. The damn thing weighs 20lbs or more, a 2 oz weight isn't going to cause much wiggle. I have a tire machine in my shop and in over 20 years of doing my own tire work I've never had a vibration issue from a tire mis-balance.
You might just skip the balance and come in later if the tires do shake.
I never balance my tires. I think it's a useless expense. The damn thing weighs 20lbs or more, a 2 oz weight isn't going to cause much wiggle. I have a tire machine in my shop and in over 20 years of doing my own tire work I've never had a vibration issue from a tire mis-balance.
You might just skip the balance and come in later if the tires do shake.
This is completely wrong.........I've seen a tire "hop" on the balancer and after a weight is installed it spins perfectly, no hop.
I never balance my tires. I think it's a useless expense. The damn thing weighs 20lbs or more, a 2 oz weight isn't going to cause much wiggle. I have a tire machine in my shop and in over 20 years of doing my own tire work I've never had a vibration issue from a tire mis-balance.
You might just skip the balance and come in later if the tires do shake.
its not the static unbalance, its the dynamic. centrifugal force is a biotch...
The tires on all of my cars for the last 20 years would disagree.
Back in the day (late 70's early 80's) we never balanced the tires on race cars either. That's when I knew it wasn't really necessary.
I never balanced the tires on my race car, either, but race tires are a LOT lighter that your average "passenger car, steel belted radial". Secondly, a race car transmits so much vibration throughout the car, that a slight imbalance, even at 100MPH would be barely noticeable. And secondly, race tires have a VERY short usable life, and more often than not, are hand mounted, right at the track, so there's no place to balance them.....
The tire wear in this video has nothing to do with balance. Wear on one outer edge as this looks like it was on a misaligned front end. Either toed out or negative camber.
Why would a balance issue cause fairly even wear on one edge of the tire?
Bear in mind that tire shops get paid to sell any service they can get you to buy. $10 valve stems, $20 spin balance, 'you need shocks/struts', it's disgusting. The only thing more scammy than a tire balance is to pay a shop to sipe (google it) your tires. Lots of shops do this kind of stuff, and they talk down to you like you're a simpleton if you even question them. (It's why I do my own tire work. I buy tires online and do 'em myself)
EDIT:
I just read the youtube comments and everyone says the same thing I did.
Last edited by tommy64; 04-25-2022 at 07:25 PM..
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