Balancing tires increase gas mileage?

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i had my tires rotated and balanced at DT the day after memeorial day. after that something did not seem right . there was a vibration and thumping and the cRV seemed sluggish. After a while i got tired of it so decided to take it back to DT to have it checked.

I took it to a different DT than i usually go to as i have lost trust in them. when i originally got the tires they balanced them wrong and i had to go back to get it done again.

The DT i went to was great. they check it and put it on a hunter road force machine. they said the balance was all messed up and that a couple of the tires were out of round. guy told they got it the best they could and if there are issue i need new tires.

the hunter seems to have worked as it drive smooth and normal now. What is odd is i seemed to have picked up a couple of MPG according to the dash. even on the highway, in the past i would rarely see it go over 25 MPG. coming back from the DT on the freeway i saw 27.3 .

So does balance affect mpg? can it affect things like acceleration which was an issue after i get the rotate and rebalance?
 
I don’t see why not although the effect on fuel economy might be slight. They may have inflated your tires up some more as well and that would have a bigger effect on FE. Check your tires psi.
 
I don't think balancing is likely to impact mpg in a measurable amount, but tire pressure will. It is possible your tires were low on pressure and were increased by whoever did the balancing.
 
Originally Posted By: PimTac
I don’t see why not although the effect on fuel economy might be slight. They may have inflated your tires up some more as well and that would have a bigger effect on FE. Check your tires psi.


checked that. went in with 35 came home with 35psi.
 
The amount of energy to shake your car with a unbalanced tire has to come from somewhere and its not zero, but 10% of highway mileage sounds a bit high. I'll say its 2-3% from the tire and the rest was a tailwind or slight downhill.
 
If course it can. The less energy needed to turn the tires, the better the mileage.
Depending on how out the tire is, energy is consumed shaking the car.
 
If the tire is noticeably vibrating, there is wasted energy, something is going side wise. How much?
My first vehicles were old trucks with typically 650 x 16s bias plies and tubes. Never a shimmy and never a balance weight. Was the vibration dampened by the inner tubes, wheel bearings ,kingpins, leaf springs, etc of the old trucks?. How long has wheel balancing been around?
 
Originally Posted By: Rat407
http://www.dnr.louisiana.gov/assets/TAD/education/ECEP/auto/d/d.htm

There you go!
cheers3.gif
 
If you fill them with helium will MPG improve due to lightening of the vehicle?
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
If you fill them with helium will MPG improve due to lightening of the vehicle?


Of course, but you'll lose traction on curves and the off ramps so don't do it
 
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