Different wheel weights on every wheel?

[03mustangdude]

Just had tires mounted at discount and I have different wheel weights per wheel, they say its normal, is it really?

2- 20x9 1 has 4 weights other one has 6
2- 20x11 1 has 6 other has 0

They are the exact same wheel with tire.

[Mach1]

totally normal

[03mustangdude]

Learned something new everyday. Thank you.

[Slow Five-O]

totally normal

Yup

[Cooter]

I would 180 any tire needing more than 2.5oz personally

[Mach1]

looks like his needed 1 and 1.5oz

[03mustangdude]

Just seemed weird since they are brand new from the manufacturer never been mounted.

[racrguy]

No tire is perfectly balanced from the factory. A lot of wheels aren't perfectly balanced either, if you have a TPMS wheel it only exacerbates the problem.

[cool cat]

I would 180 any tire needing more than 2.5oz personally

Most guys are too lazy to put forth that much effort. They would rather call it "defective" and try to return it to the vendor.

[00pooterSS]

Just seemed weird since they are brand new from the manufacturer never been mounted.

Wheels and tires are not perfect, even new, the manufacturer does the best they can but they can only do so much. For instance, there is a hole in the wheel for a valve stem, that makes the balance of the wheel imperfect, then you stick a valve stem in that hole or a pressure sensor and that becomes worse. That is just a small example of why they need to be balanced.

If they were perfect tire balancers would not exist. It is completely normal and every tire and wheel on every car needs to be balanced. Cooter mentioned turning the tire on the wheel. That is because the wheel and the tire will have some amount of imbalance, depending of the orientation of the imbalance of each, the weight required can be lower or higher. If the off balance of each is opposing each other then the weight differences cancel each other out. If the heavy spot of the tire is in the same location of the heavy spot of the wheel the imbalance will be worse.

No wheel or tire is the same in it's imperfection so different weight is 1000000000% normal.

For what it's worth, I have been in the tire business 15 years and have seen maybe 10 or so instances in which a wheel/tire assembly did not need weights added to be balanced. That is just due to plain luck, definitely not normal to not need weights.


from wikipedia:
When tires are fitted to wheels at the point of sale, they are measured again on a balancing machine, and correction weights are applied to counteract the combined effect of the tire and wheel unbalance. After sale, tires may be rebalanced if driver perceives excessive vibration.