Mild shake at speed
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: May 2021
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From: US
2008 E350, 2012 ML350, 2014 E350, 2015 ML350
As a professional, I suscribe to Demming's quality philosophy/principles. In particular, "stop depending on inspections". That assumes that assembling parts up to certain standards will guarantee a consistent quality product w/o having to inspect every single one of them.
road-force balancing is a very useful diagnostic tool, to isolate an individual faulty component. Relying on it to "adjust final assembly to the faulty part" is not on my book/process. An custom balancing implies that tire rotation will require rebalancing if traditional balancing was not enough. Does it temporarily address the issue? Definitely. Does it fix the issue? Not by any means of the imagination.
if every car out of the assembly line had to be road-force balance will increase cost, just because an issue upstream, i.e . Poor quality parts/provider.
My 2c
road-force balancing is a very useful diagnostic tool, to isolate an individual faulty component. Relying on it to "adjust final assembly to the faulty part" is not on my book/process. An custom balancing implies that tire rotation will require rebalancing if traditional balancing was not enough. Does it temporarily address the issue? Definitely. Does it fix the issue? Not by any means of the imagination.
if every car out of the assembly line had to be road-force balance will increase cost, just because an issue upstream, i.e . Poor quality parts/provider.
My 2c
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jan 2013
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From: The Great White North
W204 C63 Coupe, W166 ML350 BlueTEC, 928GT, Taycan GTS Sport Turismo, C5 Z06 & IS300 race cars
It's good that you subscribe to Demming's 14 principles - the problem is that an increasing number of tire manufacturers (and vast majority of other companies) themselves no longer do in order to provide a cheaper, cost-competitive product and maximize profit.
Every car that rolls off any Mercedes assembly line in the world has wheels / tires that have been road-force balanced. Every premium car maker does it. Every dealership does it when you buy new tires. Every half-decent third party tire shop does it when you buy new tires. They are not doing it just because they can - they are doing it because practice has shown that it is required on a significant number of tires in order to ensure a smooth ride at speed. I would argue that unless you're driving a pickup truck, a Jeep or a dilapidated jalopy that probably needs a number of other things and shouldn't be on the road in the first place, it is indeed needed if you're driving in NA or any Western European country. And, last but certainly not least, most decent shops won't even mount tires on wheels if you didn't buy the tires from them, just like they won't install parts if you didn't buy the parts from them. They can't possibly warranty the work if they install a defective, malfunctioning or substandard part on a customer's car (whether it's a tire, an alternator or a transmission), so if they'll let you bring your own you part(s) and are willing to install them for you in the first place, you and you alone assume the risk when it doesn't work, when it prematurely fails or when it simply doesn't meet your expectations.
Every car that rolls off any Mercedes assembly line in the world has wheels / tires that have been road-force balanced. Every premium car maker does it. Every dealership does it when you buy new tires. Every half-decent third party tire shop does it when you buy new tires. They are not doing it just because they can - they are doing it because practice has shown that it is required on a significant number of tires in order to ensure a smooth ride at speed. I would argue that unless you're driving a pickup truck, a Jeep or a dilapidated jalopy that probably needs a number of other things and shouldn't be on the road in the first place, it is indeed needed if you're driving in NA or any Western European country. And, last but certainly not least, most decent shops won't even mount tires on wheels if you didn't buy the tires from them, just like they won't install parts if you didn't buy the parts from them. They can't possibly warranty the work if they install a defective, malfunctioning or substandard part on a customer's car (whether it's a tire, an alternator or a transmission), so if they'll let you bring your own you part(s) and are willing to install them for you in the first place, you and you alone assume the risk when it doesn't work, when it prematurely fails or when it simply doesn't meet your expectations.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: May 2021
Posts: 2,524
Likes: 2,041
From: US
2008 E350, 2012 ML350, 2014 E350, 2015 ML350
Hopefully, they do not end up as Firestone did with the Explorer debacle. It seems manufacturers do not learn from competitors' experiences.Every car that rolls off any Mercedes assembly line in the world has wheels / tires that have been road-force balanced. Every premium car maker does it. Every dealership does it when you buy new tires. Every half-decent third party tire shop does it when you buy new tires. They are not doing it just because they can - they are doing it because practice has shown that it is required on a significant number of tires in order to ensure a smooth ride at speed. I would argue that unless you're driving a pickup truck, a Jeep or a dilapidated jalopy that probably needs a number of other things and shouldn't be on the road in the first place, it is indeed needed if you're driving in NA or any Western European country. And, last but certainly not least, most decent shops won't even mount tires on wheels if you didn't buy the tires from them, just like they won't install parts if you didn't buy the parts from them. They can't possibly warranty the work if they install a defective, malfunctioning or substandard part on a customer's car (whether it's a tire, an alternator or a transmission), so if they'll let you bring your own you part(s) and are willing to install them for you in the first place, you and you alone assume the risk when it doesn't work, when it prematurely fails or when it simply doesn't meet your expectations.
Once manufactured and used, I can see why some third party will do it: a good customer experience; however, the root cause of the issue is still there not fixed. Like taking Tylenol w/o understanding the source of the headache.
Do not get me wrong, I got a car road-force balanced back in the 90's as a workaround because I could not figure it out. But the root cause showed up later anyways, and then no longer I used it. I do not like vibrations when driving (especially if speeding), nor even as a passenger so I do stubbornly try to solve the root cause. Honestly, it is not only with vibrations but with anything I do. It can be random computer failures (rebooting to fix is not in my book), programming bugs, house fixtures/appliances, engine noises, etc. I need to understand the root cause, even if I cannot fix it.
