jmcar1

I've got 6,000 miles on 07 E350 Sport and I was wondering is now a good time to balance the tires? I'm not feeling any type of vibration or anything but I like to stay on top of it so that I won't down the road. I have Michelins on the car. Should I balance them now or wait a while longer? My concern is that the dealer might screw up my existing factory balance.

cyclerider

If you don't have any vibration, just rotate them.

jmcar1

Since the fronts are of a different size than the rears I don't think that I can rotate them.

cyclerider

Switch them from side to side only, not front to rear. It's the best we can do when running a staggered setup.

Barry45RPM

DON"T needlessly open a can of worms !!!

Forumid

Maybe this is a belief left over from the olden days, but I learned that reversing the direction of rotation of a tire after it's been run a while screws with the wear pattern on the tread lugs and ain't so good for the cord. Rotating only front to back is still recommended by a number of auto info sites (incl. Edmunds), and I abide by it, but do people here still believe it's necessary to avoid side to side? Re: balancing. I wouldn't mess with it unless something's wiggling. Otherwise you're just asking for trouble--scratched rims, marred lug nuts, and possible a vibe where there was none before....

cyclerider

I have been told by more than one tire dealer that the old rule of "once you run them one way, never reverse them" is no longer necessary for modern radial tires. Running the tires backwards is supposed to help even out feathering and cupping. Someone should ask Luke from the Tire Rack for his opinion regarding rotating a non-directional staggered setup.

cyclerider

To add to the above post, here is a link to the Tire Rack with their advice on tire rotation. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...&currentpage=2
Adding to the confusion, my M-B owners manual says NOT to reverse the rotational direction of the tires. I am going to follow the Tire Rack's advice to rotate side to side.

matt55

I've switched tires side to side several times on MB's before and never had any problems. I agree with cyclerider that it helps smooth out any cupping that occurs. If, however, your tires have a tread pattern that is not assymetrical [i.e. directional] then you have no choice but to live with loud tires or buy new ones long before the tread is gone

csumt76

Haha, funny how something so simple can go so wrong sometimes.

FYI, I used to rotate/balance the tires on my 06 350 about every 3k miles. I would usually notice a slight shimmy/vibration at highway speeds. When I balanced them, I might have one or two wheels come up 10-15 grams off. The car was lowered, and I attribute most of that to not having proper camber in the front end.

The car had 18k miles on it when I got rid of it, and had around 4-4.5mm tread depth all the way around on the factory MXM4 Michelins.