How often to get tires balanced?

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I have a new set of Michelin Defenders on my Civic. I plan on rotating them religiously to get the most life out of them. I bought them at Discount Tire so they will rotate and balance them for the life of the tire but I prefer to do my own rotations since I like to do it and I HATE other people touching my car.

So my question is how often should I bring my car in to have them re-balance the tires? Just when I notice a vibration in the wheel at speed? Another thing to note is that I had a 4 wheel alignment done right after getting the tires so they should wear well.

Thanks!
 
I see no reason to re-balance unless you are literally dismounting the tire and changing out the wheels, or you notice abnormal wear/ride issues.
 
Until a weight falls off and you have severe vibrations.
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No need for a balance if they ride smooth.

I'd prefer to rotate them myself. Much much faster than sitting and waiting for them. But then it isn't documented and they can deny warranty because to them, they were beer rotated.

I had them deny warranty tire replacement on my VW. One of the Michelins got big flat spots and was super loud on the freeway. Couldn't drive with it on the front, had to be on the back. They said since there wasn't documentation for one of the rotations (dealer rotated at oil change time) they couldn't replace it.
 
Like others said, only when there's a vibration. The less someone else touches your car, the better
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Thanks for the responses. I will only bring it in for a re-balance if I notice a vibration. It really doesn't make sense that the tire would become unbalanced unless a wheel weight fell off (and I can tell you I do not curb the alloy wheels!) or if it was wearing really bad.

This is fine with me because I go to great lengths to avoid other people touching my car. Tires are the only thing I can't do myself.
 
Originally Posted By: 2010Civic
Thanks for the responses. I will only bring it in for a re-balance if I notice a vibration. It really doesn't make sense that the tire would become unbalanced unless a wheel weight fell off (and I can tell you I do not curb the alloy wheels!) or if it was wearing really bad.

This is fine with me because I go to great lengths to avoid other people touching my car. Tires are the only thing I can't do myself.

It's okay if you like to rotate tires yourself, I don't like to do it because it took me so long up to 1 hour or longer.

When I had my tire balance/rotate at DT(AT in SO Cal), they actually checked for balance first if a tire is out of balance then they would remove the weight(s) and re-balance the tire.

So, if all 4 tires are in good shape they would not re-balance any.

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Take it to Discount Tire and give the guy $5 to rotate your tires.

My local guys didn't accept the tip, they said "Thank you, but we can't accept".

I tried twice without success, so I stopped.
 
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A lot of places don't rotate for free anymore unless you bought the tires from them. I don't even think discount does that anymore. They want like 17 dollars to rotate. Not even worth rotating them. I've never understood the purpose of rotating them, other than having four evenly worn out tires. I'd say wait until they're worn down about 50 percent then put the backs on the front and they will be even. On my truck if you kept the tires on the back I bet they would easily go to 100,000 miles.
 
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Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
A lot of places don't rotate for free anymore unless you bought the tires from them. I don't even think discount does that anymore. They want like 17 dollars to rotate. Not even worth rotating them. I've never understood the purpose of rotating them, other than having four evenly worn out tires. I'd say wait until they're worn down about 50 percent then put the backs on the front and they will be even. On my truck if you kept the tires on the back I bet they would easily go to 100,000 miles.


Front and rear tires don't wear evenly on most cars. This is because the front tires do all of the steering which will tend to wear them down faster. Most cars are also front-heavy which will accelerate wear, and even AWD cars tend to be front-biased for power delivery.

Then you have RWD performance cars like mine that tend to wear out the rear tires twice as fast as the fronts.
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I have gone to DT and did just a rotate without balance.

They will do that because it is easier for them.
 
Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Take it to Discount Tire and give the guy $5 to rotate your tires.


Did you read anything before posting? DT will rotate and balance them for free for the life of the tire. Why would I give them $5? And besides that wasn't the question at all.
 
I have changed countless tires that were never rebalanced. All too often on a re-balance you could end up with a problem, if there wasn't one before. And, as far as free lifetime rebalance, and rotations, as a one man shop, that would be all I would have time to do everyday for nothing. Why?
 
I have lifetime rotation and balance that comes with the tires I buy at Discount Tire. I have the rotated every 6K and have them re-balanced at the same time. If it does not cost anything extra, why not re-balance them?
 
You might want to look at your receipt more closely; Discount charges (at least here in Dallas) $16/tire for the lifetime rotate and balance service. If you're not getting them rotated at Discount you're not getting your money's worth. Could have saved that $16/tire and just had a balance done a la carte at the time of purchase.
 
Originally Posted By: dmdx86
You might want to look at your receipt more closely; Discount charges (at least here in Dallas) $16/tire for the lifetime rotate and balance service. If you're not getting them rotated at Discount you're not getting your money's worth. Could have saved that $16/tire and just had a balance done a la carte at the time of purchase.

This $16 is for mounting with valve stem and lifetime rotation/balance. DT doesn't have 1 time mounting/balance.
 
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