Tire rotation

[bilbos]

When you take you car in for a service and they rotate the tires for you, is it standard practice to balance the wheels afterwards?

The reason I ask is that I took my PT Cruiser in for a service last Saturday and they found a nail in one of my rears. They fixed it with a tire plug. Then they rotated the tires. Now the driving experience has changed. The steering feels very "wobbly" at anything over 50mph and the road noise has increased markedly.

I have experienced this on a previous car and the way I got rid of it then was to buy a new tire. Do you think this is the case now or am I missing something simpler?

TIA

 

[Dan GSR]

if they are crappy tires
it may just be that the tires up front have more tread = more squirm
and will also contribuite to noise

 

[bilbos]

They are Goodyears with quite a bit of tread left on them. That is why I am loathe to replace them.

 

[Dan GSR]

does the wobble go away if u go faster?
if so, it needs a tire balance

 

[bilbos]

Not really, but I shall get a balance just to make sure, before I splash out on some new tires.

 

[AJChenMPH]

In addition to what Sco said, also loosen and re-tighten the lug nuts/bolts by hand. Sometimes when they use the air guns, they either tighten them too much or too little. If it's still wobbly, just get the one tire re-balanced (should run about $10-$20).

 

[bigdyno]

People should ask to have their tires reballanced, IMO about every year or 20,000km give or take. If you drive like I do or as much as I do, it can take a fair ammount off your tires and cause out of balance. Also, if you tire wears to the point of being out of balance, it can expedite wear or possibly cause damage to other parts, depending on the severity. I am rotating my tires every 10,000km, they need it and I will balance them next time I rotate.

As stated by AJChenMPH, a great number of places do just blast the nuts on with an impact, good shops will torque the lugnuts to spec.