Are these special?

I asked my dealer, and he sent me the traditonal silver finish kind. These match my wheels, so I was looking for these. To the left is the adhesive where it looks like one was lost. I have adhesive on both sides in the rear, and I have a vibration at 35-45 mph in the rear, thought they could be out of balance.

I'm going to put the PS2's on this week, good time to balance.

Thanks,

John

Attached Images

wheelweight.jpg (62.7 KB, 47 views)

John - Not sure what your question is... there are several different types of adhesive-backed weights available - depends on the shop. If you've got vibrations like you say, then is more than likely a balancing problem. When you get them balanced, make sure it's done on what's called a "road-force" balance machine that simulates the tire running on the road. Most shops use the Hunter 9000. Out where you live, your dealer might be the only place that has one of these.

When you change to the PS2s, make sure when you put the new wheels on that your torque the bolts to 96# per Porsche's specs.

brad

Thanks Brad-

I'll call the shop tomorrow to find out about the balancing machine. I'm making the trek to the dealer next week, so I could have them do it, I'd rather not pay for it twice.

I know I have a few questions in there. I'm most wondering about that weight itself, and where I can find them. You know, the shiny, lead, square ones that are pretty common? I like those painted silver ones, but I'm having trouble finding them.

Also, if you look to the left of the weight, the dark spot is residual adhesive. I wonder if the weight was thrown, or taken off and the tech didn't clean it off. I'm not sure about the balance procedure, i.e. put the weight on, check, put another on, oops too many, take that last one off. Makes sense, huh?

John

I'm not sure about the source of the weight you have pictured - you might try a Google search to see if you can find them. If you can find them, then maybe you can ask your installer to order some. As far as finding good installers with good balancing equipment - you might want to go to tirerack.com and click on "installers." Then plug in your zip code on the next screen, and you'll get a list of their recommended installers in your area. Usually, the individual installer listings have the list of equipment each installer has. Again, you're looking for "road-force" balancing.

As far as the residual adhesive, it could be a number of things. A good road-force balancing machine gives the tech the reading right away - there's no trial-and-error - you get a readout, and you put the weights on, so swapping shouldn't be an issue unless the tech just made a mistake. It could have been thrown off, or been an old weight... I've never had someone clean up old weight adhesive at the time of install.

brad

Dealer has Hunter DSP9000. Local installer has a Hunter (no designation).

Does your early reference to the Hunter mean that it does Road Force?

John

The Hunter (DSP9000) that the dealer has is definitely a road-force machine (I think Porsche dealers are required to have road-force balancing as a minimum spec in their shops)... Hunter makes lots of models - not all of them road-force machines. If the local one isn't road-force, you should use the dealer or someone else local that is... road-force balancing really makes a huge difference, IMHO... for the kinds of tires and wheels you have on a Porsche, it's really by far the most accurate and best way to go.

brad

I am not a fan of looking at the wheel weights on such a large a beautiful rim. On my motorcycle I use a green slime that automatically balances the tire from the inside out. It is truly amazing stuff. I wonder if it would work on the Porsche....

The slime sets inside the tire and is distributed by centrifugal force. The tire is always perfectly balanced, even if a chunk gets torn out of the rim is bent. The stuff just oozes over to where it needs to be (after a mile or two of spinning) and voilla.... Plus, no ugly tire weights to throw up at that glassy paint.

-Kyle

__________________
2006 CS, Arctic Silver, Black Leather, Prefered Plus.
Bad a$$ and loving it...

Kyle,

I am not sure of the physics of that, but "Slime" is used in Motorcycle and bicycle tires as a way of dealing with small punctures to prevent flats. On a tire that is constructed of less rubber such as a Bicycle or Motorcycle tire there is less chance that the tire will be sufficiently out of balnce as to require substantial weight. As tire get larger, as on cars (let's for get about off-road trucks) the amount of weight needed to counterbalance an inconsistency in the mass is much greater.

You can buy slime to put into auto tires, but you have to put in a lot to get the desired "self-healing" properties. This is essentially what those "Fix-a-flat" cans are. You wouldn't want to pour in 2lbs in weight so you can save 3 oz. on the inside of the wheel no matter how unsightly the weight. Again, you can check the physics on this, but I am inclined to think that if your wheel is out of balance and spinning out of round, more material may be drawn to the heaviest part rather than balancing it out.

Dave

Brad -

My tire place has the only road force one in town.

Slime sounds good, I wonder if anyone else has heard of that?

john,
the wheel weights in your picture are factory wheel weights. even dealers won't have them...they do look better but offer no other benefits from the generic ones at the local tire shop.

That's good news... go with the road force balancing - don't put slime in your $300 tires to try and balance them...

brad