63 340HP

What experience do you have with getting a Lifetime Balance Service contract honored on your older car, specifically with older tires?

I learned, over the past few days, that a Lifetime Balance contract is now only honored for ten years. The actual Lifetime service for balancing a tire is limited to ten years. The service contract limit is not based on tire wear or condition, and not on the ability to safely balance a tire, and not by contract terms, but simply because a tire's Lifetime is now considered to be ten years.

Regardless of warranty or service contract, I am having difficulty finding a shop that does not have a prohibition on balancing older tires, even when I offer to pay.

Anyone else run into the problem?

What do you do to get older tires balanced?

wmf62

Walmart hasn't said anything about a limit on my lifetime balance and rotation

Bill

bcwaller

I've never seen this, but I've also never driven on a set of tires that were more than 10 years old. I could see them refusing to service the tires after a certain age due to concerns over safety with an old tire, but unless they specify that, then lifetime is lifetime.

Bluestripe67

I have dealt with the privately owned, Radial Tire, located in Silver Spring Md. for over 30 years. It has provided that service and rotation for ever on any customer's car. No question, no contract no BS. Dennis

63 340HP

I learned that tire balancing is now considered tire service (like a tire patch or plug). I understand the safety issue of patching an older tire, but a prohibition on balancing is new.

I even offered to bring in just the tires and rims for balancing, to absolve any liability of labor mounting a tire, but the prohibition remains (even when I offered to pay for the balancing). Three different tire stores representing three different companies will not entertain the thought, and two local independents (I am calling more tomorrow).

When did component age concerns void labor services that do not involve an implied warranty or any expectation of liability?

How do you keep a restoration set of tires maintained and balanced?

warrenmj

Just the natural outcome of our society that is so quick to sue someone over liability, either real or perceived. Companies know they need to protect themselves, because they know if they balance tires that are considered "old" and one has a blowout, they are liable to be sued because they "should have known better to balance tires that were old and dangerous".

Redbird

I agree with above. It is all about being sued.

59BlueSilver

Yep! You can thank the lawyers!

davekp78

I've never had a set of tires go out of balance.

wmf62

tires don't have lifetime tread wear warrantees anymore, 6 years are all that is covered...

Walmart had a policy whereby they wouldn't repair a tire over 6 years old, now they have relaxed that policy.

by the same token, Walmart will not change the oil in my 62 because they cannot look up the VIN # to get the specs on the torque value for my drain plug.

I talked to the store manager (a car guy...) about it; he said, it's all about lawsuits



Bill

Frankie the Fink

When I bought my '63 the tires were over 10 years old. My Discount Tire shop manager said he wouldn't let his guys work on them other than removing them for replacement.

They say at the bottom of this web page: "No Service" for tires over 10 years old and the page describes their rational:

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTireLife.do

"Restoration tires", meaning original maybe, will survive the 300 yard trips on and off the garage queen trailer for many decades.

As to the recommendation to replace tires every 6 years; well of course the industry recommends that...what punch in the arm for sales...

As to tires never going out of balance; somebody must not drive on them, ever lose a weight, ever hit a curb, etc...

davekp78

Never lost a weight, even with the potholes in New Jersey. Maybe I'm just lucky.

JackTripper

The better question is, why are you driving with 10 year old tires? It's a small price to pay for safety. Replace your tires. Reset the clock.

63 340HP

You nailed it.

I went in looking for new tires.

I thought while I shopped and asked for recommendations they could balance my old tires. I have two sets of old tires, an old restoration set on the stock 63' rims and a low profile V-rated set on Rally rims (that are ~130 months old). I have never had the lifetime balance "service" rejected before, even when I would bolt up the restoration tires for a warm up and balance run before parade or homecoming queen duty. The tires I have on the car this time were the 225/60/VR15's (that are now ~11 years old but look near new). It was a surprise that they would not even entertain balancing.

New performance tire options look to be moving up to 16" rims, to get a V-rated 225 wide tire. New rims and tires. The 17's look good for an option too, but rim costs are considerably higher. 225 is the largest tread width to fit under my stock fenders. 15's are limited for a performance tire option in that size (and I have the restoration set, so no need for equivalent 215/70/SR15 whitewalls).

My tire shop I have purchased the last six tire sets from, for various vehicles, is asking around for a lead on a small garage shop that is will to spin up and balance the restoration tires (with a signed "drive-at-your-own-risk" disclaimer. if necessary). I hope others have better success than I have, and if someone does have options I welcome the advice.

MikeM

No need to go begging. Do it yourself. I did. No problem. If you have rubber band tires and/or tires with structural defects, this isn't what you need. I don't have that.

63 340HP

True.

Do-it-yourself life skills may end up being a marketable asset in the future of a litigation avoidance driven corporate world.

I have the HF copy tire changer & bubble balancer. I also have the motorcycle attachments, where they have received the most use.

What I really want is the on-the-car spin balancing dolly and rim wheel balance system that one of the shops I worked at had when I was young. It would spin the rim, tire, and brake drum/rotor on the axle to balance the assembly. The number of times I found an out of balance drum or rotor with mud on the drum fins or inside the cooling vanes throwing the assembly out of balance, was an eye opener (both to factory allowances and poor owner maintenance). The off-the-car balancer is better than a bubble level, but they miss correction of brake imbalance, and are not as good as the older on-the-car balancer.

It was also fun to sit an owner of an open differential car in the driver's seat and spin up the tire until the speedometer pegged at 120 (or whatever), watching the wide eyed owner reaction, knowing the wheel speed was actually half that of the speedometer indication. The shop owner taught me to do this to give the owner the feel of improvement through balancing. Spin up the balanced side for a test feel, then raise the other wheel and lower the balanced tire to spin up the soon to be balanced side. The balanced to unbalanced seat feel tests were enough to convince almost everyone to the validity of regular wheel balancing of the total assembly (and the shock reaction of some owners seeing their speedometer well beyond their comfort zone made some days... well, better).

I may have to buy the rim weight kit (since motorcycles and mag rims use stick on weights, I only have a few clip style weights).

Does anyone else paint their clip on rim weights to color match the rim paint (or is that an NCRS sin)?

CWilson

Use balancing beads and be done with it. Never need to have your tires balanced again. Use them in my motorcycle, wifes SUV, 1930 Model A, 2006 F150 and our whole fleet of 3/4 ton Chevy vans at work.