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South/Central Jersey or Philly area Road Force Balance recommendations?

PLF8593

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Philly
Car(s)
19 Alltrack 6MT
I am now going on year 2 of incessant, nigh-unsolveable issues with my wheel/tire situation, and literally thrown over a thousand dollars at the problem, including completely replacing my entire set of wheels as well as tires, going through different types of hub rings (aluminum, plastic), have gotten multiple alignments and balances, even gotten suspension components replaced under warranty...

I even got a new fucking car, because I thought I had ruled out the possibility of the issue being my wheels/tires, since I had completely replaced every aspect of them and the issue PERSISTED... So I thought the suspension was FUBAR. Lo and behold, I swap the wheels/tires from my previous car over to the new one, which tracked straight, had no vibrations, and generally just drove the way it's *SUPPOSED* to on the OEM Austins w/ Pirelli Cinturato P7s...

And the exact. Same. Symptoms. Have moved to my new car.

At this point, the only 2 remaining options are: get the wheels and tires checked out by a *QUALITY* Euro shop that's gonna charge me at least a hundred bucks simply to diagnose the problem, then whatever they charge to do a road force balance for 4 wheels (assuming the issue is simply a matter of getting a *good* balance).

Or, I cut my losses, and buy OEM wheels and abandon my prospects for enjoying the benefits of an aftermarket wheel setup.

This has really sucked, and I'd like to think I learned a lot in the process... But I just want it all to be over and have my car drive the way it should with my nice wheels and tires :(

So, to that end... Who in the Philly/South/Central Jersey area has had wheel/tire issues, and had them solved by a competent shop via road force balance? I'm never taking my car to a triple A or tires plus again for even something as simple as a tire rotation. I need to invest in a torque wrench, because at this point I'm just very untrustworthy of any business's ability to do anything correctly.

Excuse my profanity, but this has just been a never ending shit show for me and as a college student who's already stretching his budget to even drive this car, I really don't have the money to be dealing with all this. *le sigh*
 

am215

Ready to race!
Location
PA
can't make any recommendations but I'm researching places that road force balance as well. if you go on Hunter's site they have a locator, then you can look up reviews from there.
 

PLF8593

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Philly
Car(s)
19 Alltrack 6MT
True, but from what I've heard, the skill of the operator using the hunter machine has a bearing on whether you actually get your money's worth out of the pricey road force balance. Hoping to find someone who's had a good experience with it in the area.
 

2015WhiteGTI

Go Kart Champion
My buddy owns Bimmerworks in West Chester, PA.
He has a ton of high end exotics with $12,000 wheels coming in for mounting and balancing due to the quality of his equipment.
http://www.bimmerworks.com/

It may be that your wheels are bent. All the balancing in the world will not help if your wheel is bent. It could be the hub is bent on the barrel. Most people think a wheel is bent when you have a hit on the barrel, but it could be the hub and that's more difficult to see/find.
 

PLF8593

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Philly
Car(s)
19 Alltrack 6MT
There's no vibration which makes it difficult to believe that there's any physical damage to the wheel. It's just bizarre, unsteady, fishy dynamics that seem to be caused by improperly balanced wheels. Honestly, i'm so done with it now that i'm just going with OEM wheels
 

codypka

Go Kart Champion
Location
New Jersey
Piggybacking off your thread. Would love to here recos for a road force place in south jersey. I hit a giant pot hole a couple weeks back that's causing a vibration above 70mph. Its driving me crazy

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
 

davewg

Ready to race!
I used the AAA garage in Mount Laurel on Route 73 last year due to a 70 mph vibration. Service was excellent. They use torque wrenches and not impact guns for lug bolts. You can watch them work from the waiting area.

They do standard and road force balancing.
 

chuncomunco

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
NY
I am now going on year 2 of incessant, nigh-unsolveable issues with my wheel/tire situation, and literally thrown over a thousand dollars at the problem, including completely replacing my entire set of wheels as well as tires, going through different types of hub rings (aluminum, plastic), have gotten multiple alignments and balances, even gotten suspension components replaced under warranty...

I even got a new fucking car, because I thought I had ruled out the possibility of the issue being my wheels/tires, since I had completely replaced every aspect of them and the issue PERSISTED... So I thought the suspension was FUBAR. Lo and behold, I swap the wheels/tires from my previous car over to the new one, which tracked straight, had no vibrations, and generally just drove the way it's *SUPPOSED* to on the OEM Austins w/ Pirelli Cinturato P7s...

And the exact. Same. Symptoms. Have moved to my new car.

At this point, the only 2 remaining options are: get the wheels and tires checked out by a *QUALITY* Euro shop that's gonna charge me at least a hundred bucks simply to diagnose the problem, then whatever they charge to do a road force balance for 4 wheels (assuming the issue is simply a matter of getting a *good* balance).

Or, I cut my losses, and buy OEM wheels and abandon my prospects for enjoying the benefits of an aftermarket wheel setup.

This has really sucked, and I'd like to think I learned a lot in the process... But I just want it all to be over and have my car drive the way it should with my nice wheels and tires :(

So, to that end... Who in the Philly/South/Central Jersey area has had wheel/tire issues, and had them solved by a competent shop via road force balance? I'm never taking my car to a triple A or tires plus again for even something as simple as a tire rotation. I need to invest in a torque wrench, because at this point I'm just very untrustworthy of any business's ability to do anything correctly.

Excuse my profanity, but this has just been a never ending shit show for me and as a college student who's already stretching his budget to even drive this car, I really don't have the money to be dealing with all this. *le sigh*


I had a similar issue except they are with a set of Audi flat fives i've got off of CL. They were pretty beat up when I got them, so I had them refurbed.

When I went to go put them on the car, I noticed a vibration around 60 - 70 mph. I brought them to a local high end tire shop and had them road forced.

After getting them road forced, the problem persisted. I then brought them to another local wheel shop to check if the wheels were bent in case the refurb job was bad. No bends were found, the wheels are straight. (Flat fives are pretty strong wheels to begin with)


I finally took a close look at the wheel lug holes and noticed on one wheel the all the lug holes were ovaled out. That was the issue. When I was tightening down the lug bolts on the ovaled out lug holes, it was causing the wheel to not align properly to the wheel hub and kind of offset the wheel a little to one side. That was enough to cause the wheel to vibrate.

Lug hole ovaling or wallering is usually caused by under torquing wheel bolts/lugs causing the bolt/lug to loosen and grind away at the lug hole.

To remedy the issue, I had a set of 42 Draft Design 5mm spacers with hub centric feature built in that aligned the wheel properly and torqued it to 90 lbs.

So far i've been checking that wheel every week to see if the wheel bolt torque is holding. So far so good.

Sorry for the long rant, but just wanted to share in case it could be related to your issue.
 
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