Wheel balancing evens out the weight around a wheel and tyre so it spins smoothly. No tyre or rim is perfectly even, and a few grams in the wrong place shows up as a shake through the steering wheel or the seat once you pass about 80 to 100 km/h. A balancer spins each wheel and shows exactly where to add small weights. Tell us the vehicle and what you feel, and we pass your request to independent tyre shops and fitment centres in your area, who quote you directly, free.
Static and dynamic balance
Static imbalance is a heavy spot that makes the wheel hop up and down. Dynamic imbalance is uneven weight across the width of the wheel, which makes it wobble side to side. A modern computerised balancer measures both by spinning the wheel on a shaft, then tells the fitter how much weight to add on the inner and outer plane and where. Weights come in small steps, often 5 g, so the result is fine enough that you should not feel it at highway speed. The wheel must sit on the right cone or adapter for its centre bore, or the reading is wrong from the start, so a careful fitter cleans the hub face and checks the fit before spinning.
Clip-on or stick-on weights
Clip-on weights hammer onto the rim flange and suit steel rims and many alloys. Stick-on weights go inside the barrel of an alloy where they are hidden behind the spokes and will not mark a painted or diamond cut face. If you have just had wheels refinished, ask the shop to use stick-on weights only, cleaned and placed carefully, so the new finish is not scratched.
When a wheel needs balancing
- Every time a new tyre is fitted, see tyre fitment
- After a puncture is repaired from the inside, because the tyre came off the rim (tyre repair)
- After a rim was straightened, welded or refurbished
- When a weight has fallen off, often after a pothole or a gravel road
- When a vibration appears at a certain speed
If a wheel needs a lot of weight or will not balance at all, the rim may be bent. A dial gauge shows the runout, and a bent rim repair may sort it.
Balancing is not alignment
Balancing stops the shake; wheel alignment stops the pull and uneven wear. Both are often done together. Some shops also offer road force balancing in general terms: a roller presses on the tyre while it spins to find stiff spots in the tyre and rim, and the tyre can be turned on the rim to match its high spot to the rim's low spot. Ask whether the shop has it if a vibration persists after normal balancing.
What to put in your request
- Vehicle type, rim size and how many wheels
- The speed at which the vibration starts
- Steel, painted alloy or diamond cut rims
- Whether tyres or rims were recently repaired
- If you also want an alignment check
Wheel Balancing for drivers, fleets and workshops
- Private car owners: a shake through the steering wheel on the highway after a pothole knocked a weight off
- Enthusiasts, 4x4 and performance drivers: large low-profile wheels and big 4x4 tyres that need careful, hidden weights
- Company and rental fleets: rental and courier cars balanced at each tyre change to keep tyre wear even
- Dealers, panel shops and insurers: used cars balanced before a test drive so nothing shakes at highway speed
- Tyre shops and wheel workshops: wheel repairers sending straightened or refinished wheels for a final balance
- Truck, bus and taxi operators: minibus taxis and buses whose front wheels shake on long runs between towns
- Farms: farm bakkies that lose weights on corrugated gravel roads
- Mines and construction sites: site vehicles with mud packed inside the rims that throws the balance out
Frequently asked questions
How often should wheels be balanced?
The shake is still there after balancing. What now?
Do trailer and caravan wheels need balancing?
Do you balance wheels yourselves?
Wheel Balancing by province and city
- Johannesburg
- Pretoria
- Centurion
- Midrand
- Sandton
- Randburg
- Roodepoort
- Krugersdorp
- Randfontein
- Germiston
- Boksburg
- Benoni
- Kempton Park
- Alberton
- Vanderbijlpark
- Vereeniging
- Durban
- Pinetown
- Pietermaritzburg
- Richards Bay
- Newcastle
- Ladysmith
- Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)
- East London
- Kariega (Uitenhage)
- Mthatha
- Cape Town
- Bellville
- Paarl
- Stellenbosch
- George
- Worcester
- eMalahleni (Witbank)
- Middelburg
- Secunda
- Mbombela (Nelspruit)
- Rustenburg
- Brits
- Klerksdorp
- Potchefstroom
- Mahikeng
- Polokwane
- Tzaneen
- Kimberley
- Upington
- Bloemfontein
- Welkom
- Sasolburg