Wheel weights

[JPB WORLDWIDE]

for the second year in a row, I’ve been losing wheel weights and been needing to have most, if not all wheels rebalanced after track days.

Anyone else experience this often? I’m assuming the higher brake temps are melting the glue off and they’re flying off on track. Not the biggest deal but would like to make this part of general maintenance and a forethought moving forward.

 

[scrllock]

Lot of people don't bother balancing track wheels for this reason. You can try high temp aluminum tape to try and mitigate it.

 

[JPB WORLDWIDE]

Not balancing track wheels!? Why would that be a good idea when so cheap?

 

[scrllock]

Not balancing track wheels!? Why would that be a good idea when so cheap?

Because the weights come off anyway?

 

[toothofwar]

I have seen the aluminum tape trick before also. I'm looking for black just to hide the shiny on my black wheels.

 

[EEeegolf]

This is totally new to me. I've raced quite a lot with many different wheels (adn cars). Never had problems losing weights.
Only thing I can think of is the wheels are not cleaned properly before gluing the weights on.

 

[DerHase]

Not properly cleaning prior to install is hands down the #1 reason as @EEeegolf pointed out.

#2 is using the cheapest shit Amazon or Ebay or HF has to offer. Almost all of it is trash. I threw away like 4 different boxes of weights because they all sucked so much.

I have my own tire machines at home and you can use aluminum tape (must be THICK or it'll come off in small pieces which SUCKS when removed) as a bandaid.

I've found the Mr. Lugnut weights to be best for cost vs quality. Never had problems with them falling off, and actually have to use a rubber eraser wheel to fully remove all the old sticky stuff. It's soft and conforms to the wheel unlike the thin paper like backing a lot of weights have. I don't even bother with the aluminum tape now unless someone specifically requests it. My wheels were on track for 7 days on a single set of tires (flipped on the wheels and rebalanced partway through) with zero weights ever falling off.

https://www.ebay.com/p/21041958641?iid=125109081095

I've also got a roll of this
https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/perfect-equipment-wheel-weights-1-pa-pereq-200624str/11453449-P
that I save for $$$$ wheels that I balance. They just look a bit nicer and worked well. I had experience using it when I worked at Carmax. Managed to find a barely used roll on Ebay for like $80.

 

[jay745]

Put some flashing tape over the weights

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

Good idea with the flashing tape.

Wheel weights fall off at the track all the time. Never bothered replacing them. Tire Rack weights hold on just a bit longer than local garage weights from my experience.

 

[JPB WORLDWIDE]

To the people running wheels unbalanced - you’re not feeling anything on track and worries they may be hindering performance just slightly?

 

[scrllock]

Check balance after a couple days of hard lapping with the weights still on, they're already way off.

 

[Salami]

Check balance after a couple days of hard lapping with the weights still on, they're already way off.

I thought it was crazy not balancing the wheels but now that you mention tire wear and how much I know it affects the balance it seems almost completely pointless.

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

To the people running wheels unbalanced - you’re not feeling anything on track and worries they may be hindering performance just slightly?

Not from my experience.

 

[Type_RS_59]

I used to use black duct tape over the weights on my black track wheels and never had an issue.

I’ve also had weights fall off of clean freshly powder coated wheels that were stored in a hot shed.

 

[EEeegolf]

We are balancing about 20-30 sets at work every day. Not for road use but hard driving. Never had issues with weights coming off.
From my view it's really difficult to see the problem.
The centrifugal force even tried to push them harder on the wheel.