martinb

Any recommendations about a shop in the Cherry Hill, NJ area that does road force wheel balancing? I called some of the likely places (NTB, Just Tires) and was kind of surprised that they DO NOT do it, even though they sell high performance tires.

Ideally, it would be someplace that sells Michelin tires and handles warranty claims (e.g. Elite Acura sells the tires, but doesn't handle warranty issues), in case the Pilot Sport A/S on my car are too out of round to be balanced...

I can keep calling around until I find a place, but a recommendation would save me time.

On a related topic, I replaced a Type-S wheel that had some visible lateral runout in attempting to get a good balance (to no avail) and found that it pays to shop around. Check out Delray Acura on-line. Their price is $168 + 6% shipping. Acura Owner Link says $196.58. A local Acura dealer quoted $258 as their rock bottom offer! Another dealer had one in stock and matched Delray's price.

Thanks!

@sport

Try this......

http://www.tirerack.com/installer/index.jsp

martinb

Thanks for the info. I found Tires Plus in Mount Laurel on the list. (A number of other places that are listed as doing road force balancing say they don't when called.)

I think I'm going to give Costco, where I purchased them, another (4th) try to balance these tires before sinking $100+ more into them.

If that doesn't work ??

On a related note, how much balance weight is reasonable? The new TL-S wheel with an almost new Pilot Sport A/S has 3 oz. One of the other wheels has 6. This seems like too much, but I never really took notice before of how much weight was used. I wonder if they didn't line up the matchmarks? Where are the marks on a TL-S wheel, anyway?

sb65

IMO, your best bet is to get them Road Force balanced. It pinpoints where the weight should be as well as identifying if the tire is out of round or a rim could be bent.

I just had mine RF balanced after 3 unsuccessful attempts to balance by just spinning them and found that 2 of the new Yoko Avid V4s are out of round and I have one slightly bent rim.

By the way, if I am looking at the right part at Delray Acura (47200 S0K J01) for my 2003 TL-P, then that price is at or less than what I can get a refurb rim. I'm going to call some local dealerships to see if they will match that price, or I'll order from delray. It is showing as $167 plus shipping, which is a good deal! I checked Acura Owner Link and they show it as $270.

martinb

I found a link on Hunter's site to locate GSP9700 machines:

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/FindLocations.

There are actually a number of shops in the area, mostly car dealers, who have them. Maybe it can be done for less than $100. There must be a place on the list that can handle the Michelin warranty if any of the tires turn out to be defective.

martinb

I called to find out which of their dealers who can handle potential warranty issues is equipped to perform road force balancing. They don't know, and indicated that they don't recognize it as a valid technique!

So if I get my tires road force balanced and a tire problem turns up, I apparently can't expect them to replace a tire based on that information!

martinb

Tires were fine, wheels were fine. I hated to spend the extra money, since balancing was included in Costco's price, but after so many tries, it didn't appear that they were ever going to get them balanced.

sb65

So did the RF balancing do the trick? Are they balanced better now?