How to Balance Your Car Tires By Hand

Learn to get your car's wheels and tires in working order on your own

Reviewed by Jason Shackelford

Last Updated: February 4, 2025

Balancing your wheels after the tires have just been mounted is a must, and you should do it regularly every time you do a tire rotation. Balancing your wheel can increases the life of the tires, and save your money in the long run. Unbalanced wheels can cause static vibration to the vehicle, dynamic vibration to the steering wheel, uneven tread wear on the tires, poor fuel mileage, and possibly unsafe driving.

Steps

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Before you can begin to do anything, make sure you are protected by wearing some safety equipment. Make sure you are wearing steel toes boots, long pants, safety glasses or goggles, and gloves.
Make sure the tires that you have on the rims are good for the road. No cracks on the sidewall, and to have at least 4/32nd (50%) of tread depth.

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Before mounting the wheel onto the machine, make sure you have your center caps off (if you have them), and the old wheel weights from the previous balancing off. This is to ensure that you get the most accurate results from the machine.
After you have done all the previous steps, you can now safely mount your wheel onto the machine. Once it is on, double check to make sure that the wheel is snug tight.
Once the wheel is on, the machine will want to know the size of the rim. You will have to measure the height of the rim, as well as the width
Depending on the machine you're using, it may have a feature which allows you to choose what type of vehicle this wheel will be going on so it can put the proper amount of road force when it’s being tested.
If you don’t do this before closing down the hood, it will ask you if you have done it or not to be a reminder.
Once you have measure your rims and have chosen the proper type of vehicle, you can simply presses start or close the hood.
Once the machine has finished testing the road force and balance the wheel, it will tell you how much weight it wants and what side of the wheel.
Once you have install the wheel weights, you want to rebalance the wheel to make sure you added the proper amount of the wheel weights, and at the proper spot of the rim it has asked.
After rebalancing your wheel and it says “ok”, you are now done and can take the wheel off the machine. The wheel is now ready to be install on the vehicle.

Community Q&A

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Question

Can a car front end be balanced properly with a new tire and old one?

Derek Murrain

Community Answer

No. Due to difference in tread height, wear and shape, the car will not be able to balanced or aligned properly.

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Can you take your tires to get balanced without the car?

CageyCat

Top Answerer

Yes, you can. Tires are removed from the car and put on a machine to do the balancing. So they could be brought in car-less.

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do the tires have to be taken off the car to check tire balance

Community Answer

No, they have to stay on. If they're not on the car, they can't possibly be balanced.

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Tips

Be patient.

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Read the procedures from the machine.

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Do exactly as what the machine ask you to do.

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Warnings

Always make sure to tighten the wheel down.

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Always wear safety equipment such as safety glasses, steel toes, long pants and gloves.

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Do not stand in front of the wheel, just in case it might be wet or has little rocks that might be flying out when it is being spun.

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No jewelry, such as rings, loose bracelets, loose watches, and if you’re wearing a necklace tuck it under your shirt, but preferably not to be worn.

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Always read the safety operating machine procedure.

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