What Is the Function of Wheel Weights?

Wheel weights, also often called tire weights, are a key component installed on car wheels. Its main purpose is to ensure that the wheels maintain a dynamic balance state when driving at high speeds, which is crucial to ensuring the smooth driving of the car.

When the wheel may have uneven mass distribution due to uneven material distribution during the manufacturing process, this unevenness will produce dynamic imbalance when the wheel rotates at high speed, causing wheel jitter, steering wheel vibration and other undesirable phenomena. In order to solve or prevent these problems, we need to add wheel weights of appropriate quality at specific positions of the wheel to compensate for the imbalance of the wheel. This process is dynamic balancing adjustment.

The core of dynamic balance adjustment is to solve the asymmetric force distribution problem caused by uneven mass distribution during tire rotation. This problem usually becomes particularly significant when driving at high speeds. In a professional tire factory or repair shop, staff will use a balancing machine to test the wheel. This machine can accelerate the wheel to a certain speed (such as 300 rpm or higher) and measure the unbalanced force distribution through sensors. .

The function of the wheel weight is to add weights of corresponding mass to the appropriate positions of the wheel based on these measurement data to balance the mass differences of various parts of the wheel and bring it to a relatively balanced state. This will not only ensure the smooth operation of the tires and extend their service life, but also improve the driving performance and safety of the vehicle, reducing driving fatigue and unnecessary wear and tear on the suspension system caused by wheel imbalance.