Mobile Wheel Balancing Near Me in London

What's included

• Each wheel spun on the computerised balancer carried in the van, parked beside your car
• Imbalance read on both the inner and outer edge of the rim, not just a single plane
• Old weights removed and new clip-on or stick-on weights placed where the machine shows
• Stick-on weights on the inside of alloy rims, so nothing shows on the face of the wheel
• A check spin on every wheel to confirm it now reads true before it goes back on
• Rim and tyre looked over while the wheel is off: buckles, bulges, kerb damage and odd wear
• Pressures set to the figure on your door shut or handbook before we leave
• Balancing as standard on every tyre we fit, and as a standalone visit for a new vibration

Why choose Fast Tyre for wheel balancing

A vibration that comes in at a certain speed is very often balance, and balance is quick to confirm once the wheel is on a machine. The problem is getting to the machine: a garage means booking a slot, driving there on the shaking wheels and waiting. We bring the balancer to the car instead, at home, at work or in a car park, at any hour. And because we do not do alignment, we have no reason to sell you the wrong job: if what you describe sounds like tracking, we tell you on the phone before anyone sets off.

How mobile wheel balancing works at your car

The balancer lives in the back of the van, so each wheel travels a few metres from the hub to the machine and back:

• Describe the vibration on the call. Where you feel it (steering wheel, seat or floor), at what speed it starts and whether it fades again. That tells us whether it sounds like balance at all, and whether to suspect the front or the rear.
• Wheel off and onto the balancer. The car is jacked, the wheel comes off and is clamped on the machine with the rim size entered. A spin shows how much weight is needed and exactly where, on each side of the rim.
• Weights fitted and re-spun. Old weights come off, new ones go on at the marked positions, and the wheel is spun again. It goes back on the car only when it reads true.
• Refitted, pressures set, card or contactless. All wheels go back on with pressures set. If the vibration is still there on your next drive, call us: it points to something other than balance, and we will tell you what.

Signs your wheels need balancing

The classic sign is a vibration that arrives in a speed band, often somewhere around 50 to 70mph, and eases off again above or below it. Where you feel it is a clue to which end of the car it is coming from: a shimmy through the steering wheel usually means a front wheel; a buzz through the seat or floor usually means a rear one.

Other giveaways: the vibration started straight after new tyres went on somewhere, after a hard pothole or kerb strike, or you can see a clean rectangle on the inside of an alloy where a stick-on weight has dropped off. Left alone, an out-of-balance wheel wears the tread into a patchy, scalloped pattern and puts extra work through the wheel bearing and suspension, so the tyre you have just bought dies early. For a fuller list with what each symptom means, read our guide to the signs your wheels need balancing, and if your tyres are already wearing oddly, reading tyre wear patterns helps narrow down the cause.

Wheel balancing vs wheel alignment: we balance, a garage aligns

These two get mixed up constantly, and they fix different problems. Balancing evens out the weight around a wheel and tyre so it spins smoothly. Alignment (tracking) sets the angles the wheels point at relative to each other and the road.

We do balancing. We do not do wheel alignment or tracking; that is a job for a garage or alignment centre with the equipment to measure and adjust the angles. You need a garage or alignment centre, not us, if:

• the car pulls to one side on a flat, straight road with the pressures correct
• the steering wheel sits off-centre when you are driving straight
• one edge of a tyre (inner or outer shoulder) is wearing much faster than the rest
• you have hit a kerb hard enough that the steering now feels different
• steering or suspension parts have just been replaced

A vibration that comes and goes with speed is balance. A pull, a crooked wheel or edge wear is alignment. If you have both, we can balance at your car and you take it for an alignment check afterwards. Our article on wheel alignment vs balancing goes into the difference in more depth.

What the balancer on the van actually does

No wheel and tyre is perfectly even. The tyre has a heavier patch, the valve adds a little weight on one side, and the rim itself is never quite uniform. At low speed you cannot feel it; at motorway speed that small heavy spot is being flung round hundreds of times a minute, and it shakes the car.

Our balancer is a dynamic (two-plane) machine. It spins the wheel and measures the imbalance on the inner and outer edges of the rim separately, which matters because a wheel can be heavy on one side of its width and not the other. That kind of wobble makes the steering wheel shimmy side to side, and a simple single-plane balance would miss it. The machine tells us the weight needed and the exact position for each side; we fit it, spin again and only finish when it reads true.

A quick word on on-car wheel balancing: strictly, that name belongs to a method where the wheel stays on the hub and is spun in place. What we do is balancing at your car rather than on it. The wheel comes off and goes on the machine, which is how you get a precise two-plane reading, and it never leaves your street.

When it is not the balance

Balancing fixes imbalance and nothing else, and some shakes have other causes. While the wheel is on the machine we can see several of them, and we will tell you rather than add weight and hope:

• A buckled or bent rim, often after a pothole. It wobbles visibly as it spins and no weight will cure it. More on that in our piece on kerb damage to tyres and wheels.
• A bulge or internal damage in the tyre. The tyre is not safe to keep using and needs replacing; we fit tyres the same day, so the new one can be balanced and on the car without a trip to a garage.
• Vibration only when you brake. That usually points to the brake discs, which is a garage job.
• A vibration at every speed, or a hum or rumble that grows with speed. Possibly a wheel bearing or suspension wear, again one for a garage.

A shake that appears suddenly and hard, rather than creeping in over weeks, is a different matter: it can mean a tyre is failing or a wheel is loose. Stop somewhere safe and use our 24 hour emergency call-out rather than driving on.

Balancing with new tyres, swaps and online orders

Every tyre we fit is balanced on the van as part of the job, whether it is a tyre fitted at your home or work, a replacement after a puncture we could not repair, or a seasonal winter and summer changeover. Vans get the same treatment, on the same machine, as part of our van tyre fitting. If you have bought tyres online, we can fit and balance tyres you ordered yourself too. Weighing up a fitter at your door against a garage bay? Our comparison of mobile tyre fitting and a garage covers what you gain and what still needs a workshop.

Wheel balancing near you, across London and the home counties

The balancer goes wherever the van goes: every London borough from our North London base, and out into the surrounding counties. That can be a standalone balancing visit for a vibration that has crept in, or part of any tyre replacement at your door. Driveways, residents' bays, office and supermarket car parks all work, as long as the car is somewhere safe and off the road; we never work on a live carriageway or motorway hard shoulder.

Wheel Balancing, frequently asked questions