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Tire Balancing

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by john1701a, Dec 1, 2004.

  1. john1701a

    john1701a Prius Guru

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    Prime Advanced
    When I took the Prius in today to have the tires rotated and the brakes inspected, I decided to have the tires balanced too. My gut told me to "go for it", even though there was no feel or visible evidence stating that I should. So I did.

    The result was intriguing. They said all 4 tires were off by 10 (grams, I assume) and speculated that the shop I used to install them had equipment in need of calibration.

    What does that mean in terms of MPG? Does it signify that because the weights were not optimal MPG was slightly impaired? I've been stating that my observations indicate a 1.5 MPG hit by switching to these high-traction tires. Could it really be 1.0 MPG instead? That would be great... but a bit frustrating, since my average will take forever to recover now that I've driven 9,021 miles that way.

    Anyone have some insight on this discovery?

    By the way, the results of the brake inspection revealed that after 24,917 miles of driving, both the pads & shoes were in good shape and worn down by only 1 millimeter.
     
    #1 john1701a, Dec 1, 2004
  2. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Well, I'm not sure if a slightly unbalanced wheel would have all that great an effect on MPG. Especially if you couldn't feel the vibration.

    The OD of a tire determines how critical wheel balance is. There are plenty of cars out there with 14 & 15 inch wheels that may never have been balanced, and the owners probably don't even feel it.

    On the other hand, my 2000 GMC had P265/75 R 16 tires, which have a 31.5 inch OD. I always had random vibration issues on smooth pavement that drove me bucking fonkers.

    I finally solved most of that problem by putting on P245 75 16 tires, which were factory standard anyway. Around 29 inch OD. The tires appeared to be much easier to balance and more importantly, KEPT their balance.
     
    #2 jayman, Dec 2, 2004
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