Tyre Fitting and Wheel Balancing in Ellenbrook

Prime Euro Services fits and balances tyres at 3/37 The Broadway, Ellenbrook. All makes and models. Licensed WA motor vehicle repair business, MRB 8069.

Tyres are the only part of your car that touches the road. Four patches, each about the size of your hand, doing all the steering, all the braking and all the grip.

Balancing, and why your steering wheel shakes

A wheel and tyre are never perfectly even in weight. The difference is small, a matter of grams, and at walking pace you would never know.

At 100km/h that wheel is spinning roughly 15 times a second. A few grams out of balance turns into a force that shakes the whole corner of the car. That is the shimmy you feel through the steering wheel on the freeway and nowhere else.

Balancing fixes it by spinning the wheel on a machine, finding the heavy spot, and clipping small counterweights to the rim.

Where you feel it tells you roughly where the problem is. Shake through the steering wheel usually means a front wheel. Shake through the seat or the floor usually means a rear one.

When tyres need balancing

• Every time a tyre is fitted to a rim
• If you develop a vibration that comes in at a certain speed and fades again
• After a wheel weight is knocked off, which a kerb will do
• After a puncture repair, because the plug and the removal both move the balance

Reading your own tyres

You can learn a lot in thirty seconds in the driveway.

• Both edges worn, middle fine. Under-inflated, probably for a long time.
• Middle worn, edges fine. Over-inflated.
• One edge only. That is an alignment problem, not a tyre problem. See wheel alignment.
• Scalloped or cupped patches. Often worn shocks or suspension bushes letting the wheel bounce.

The last two are worth acting on. Fitting new tyres without fixing the cause means buying the same problem twice.

Tread depth and the law in WA

The legal minimum tread depth in Australia is 1.5mm across the tread. A tyre at the legal limit is legal, not good. Wet weather stopping distance falls away well before you reach it.

Tyres also age. The four digit code on the sidewall is the week and year it was made. Rubber hardens over time whether you drive on it or not, which is why a near-new spare that has sat for ten years is not the tyre you want on a wet freeway.

Low profile tyres on European cars

A lot of European cars run low profile tyres on big rims. Less sidewall means less cushion, so two things follow. You feel an imbalance that a taller tyre would have absorbed, and a pothole that would have bruised a normal tyre can crack a rim.

If you have hit something hard and the vibration started straight after, the rim is worth checking before anyone blames the tyre.

What we do when you come in

We fit and balance, and we check the things around the tyre while the wheel is off. Brake pad and rotor condition is right there to look at, so we look. If we find something we tell you, and we quote before any extra work starts.

Our own parts and labour carry a 12 month warranty.

Book tyre work in Ellenbrook

Prime Euro Services
3/37 The Broadway, Ellenbrook WA 6069
Phone (08) 6296 3894
Licence MRB 8069

Open Monday to Friday 7:00am to 5:00pm, and Saturday 7:00am to 12:00pm. Closed Sundays. We take Visa, Mastercard and bank transfer.

Questions we get asked

My car shakes at 100 but is fine at 60. Why?

That is the signature of a balance problem. An imbalance grows with speed, so it appears in a band and often smooths out again above it.

Should I replace all four, or just the worn ones?

Tyres should at least match across an axle. On all wheel drive cars, mixing tread depths front to rear can load the centre differential, so those often need four. Tell us what you drive and we will tell you straight.

Do I need an alignment with new tyres?

It is the best time for it. See wheel alignment in Ellenbrook.