Auto Gossip

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32666, 23 July 1971, Page 11

Auto Gossip

by

pensions. Not only comfort is involved either, for unbalanced wheels can affect stability, and lead to greatly increased tyre wear. But you have to make sure your wheels are balanced properly, by someone who really knows what he is about. Not only front wheels need balancing, either: out of balance wheels at the front will cause a bad vibration felt both through the car and through the steering-wheel, but out-of-balance rear wheels can also cause an unpleasant vibration which can be felt through the car at speed. On many modem cars, badly out of balance wheels can cause vibration at speeds as low as 30 m.p.h. Well decorated A friend of mine recently

A.J.P.

had trouble with unbalanced wheels on a utility vehicle after he had a new set of tyres fitted. At open-road speeds, the vehicle was almost uncontrollable, he said. So back he went to the suppliers, and insisted that the wheels be balanced. When he got the vehicle back, the wheels were well decorated with lead weights —and the balance still was not right. One wheel, in fact, had 17 ounces of lead on it —at 60 m.p.h. the equivalent of about 201 b extra tugging away at the steering. Back to supplier I told him I thought this was clearly wrong, and that so much weight could even lead to' eventual steering wear—let alone the dangerous situation which