Enamel for alloy wheel?

[Avocet]

If you know so much about balancing and have access to the best balancing machines out there, why are you the one having vibration problems and not me? I stick to the speed limit of 50 or 70mph, and I get no vibrations whatsoever. I go slightly out of town for shopping in order to get free parking and less crowding. The distance is also used to exercise the car for tip top condition.

I have a further theory: you have loose suspension components, and you are mistaking those for wheel vibration. Your propensity to fit wrong part to car doesn't help.

Er... I'm not? I get new tyres when I need them (which is rather more often than you, because I actually drive my car quite often), I get the wheels balanced, and then there are no vibrations. It's so easy! I did once have a new pair of tyres fitted and they didn't do a very good job of balancing the wheels, so I noticed a slight vibration on the motorway. I took it back and they said they were sorry and balanced them again properly, and the problem went away. It didn't cost me anything either - it was just so easy! Like magic!

Your car isn't in tip-top condition. Your wheel photos and decade-old tyres alone, are testament to that!

You're welcome to your theory. It's wrong, but that does appear to be the way you like them! I'm responsible for the maintenance of 4 cars in our house and I have a 5th as a company car that I don't maintain. After the best part of 40 years as an engineer working in the car industry, I'm pretty comfortable with being able to tell the difference between a wheel out of balance and various other sources of vibration that I doubt you'd even notice, let alone be able to diagnose!

 

[Burnerman]

Turning the clock back ages.....
Remember the 'on car wheel balancer?'
The operator sat astride it and it spun the wheel when on the car - which includes the hub and disc of course.
I don't know how good or bad these things were, but it did the trick for us.
We had to do this on a friends Mk 1 Escort Mexico (K reg I think) - would be worth a fortune now!
John

 

[Stivino]

Remember the 'on car wheel balancer?'

We had one of those, it was a fixture on one of the ramps. There was a magnetic pick-up that was put on the suspension, and I seem to remember that it had a strobe light and an electric motor that you pushed onto the tyre to spin the wheel up.

 

[Mottie]

We had one of those, it was a fixture on one of the ramps. There was a magnetic pick-up that was put on the suspension, and I seem to remember that it had a strobe light and an electric motor that you pushed onto the tyre to spin the wheel up.

Yeah, we had one at the Vauxhall main dealership I did my apprenticeship at. An angled wheel, a spring loaded plunger you fitted under the wishbone and a strobe. You spun it up, pushed it onto the tyre, the light flashed and you noted where the valve was. Stopped the wheel, set it into the position it was flashing at by positioning the valve, and added weights to the top (or maybe bottom). Try again adding more or less weights until it didn’t strobe any more. Something like this although the pick-up wasn’t as technical as this one.

 

[Avocet]

I can remember seeing one, once, as a kid. My parents had a Citroen DS and my dad would swear by on-the-car balancing. The car might have had a slightly bent driveshaft or something, because balancing the wheel off the car was never quite as good. Obviously, it then means you need to mark the wheel relative to the hub so that it always goes back on the same way.

 

[Mottie]

On the subject of old workshop equipment, who remembers the old wheel alignment tool with the eyepiece that you would put black grease on before getting the apprentice to look through it?

 

[Avocet]

On the subject of old workshop equipment, who remembers the old wheel alignment tool with the eyepiece that you would put black grease on before getting the apprentice to look through it?

Ah, the old Dunlop gauges! For us, it was soot from the inside of any particularly dirty tailpipe, but the effect was the same...

The poor unfortunate was then usually sent off on various errands round the company to ensure that the maximum number of people got to see it!

 

[DiyNutJob]

OK, in a 2 week time test, all the wheels have lost some pressure. The best performer is the play wheel. The worst performer is the regular wheel number 2 that had confirmed bead leaks. A reinspection was made on the regular wheel number 1, and no obvious leak was seen on the beads before I ran out of patience. There is no alarming pressure loss on the regular wheels now, but a monthly top up will be mandatory.

The conclusion: in terms of leak performance, DIY tyre mounting trumps shops. The shop used was part of a long standing and well known online tyre supplier that used select local garages for fitting. The tyres were fresh 2-3 month old Italy made according to the markings. Thank you for your attention in this matter. Pun intended.

 

[Mottie]

Post deleted as the OP is just stringing this thread out and not willing to listen to anybody. Beats me why he starts threads - I wonder if he goes around asking himself questions and arguing with himself too? I’m done with this thread, obviously he isn’t. I should have stopped at post #3.

 

[DiyNutJob]

The play wheel acts as a control for measurements. It was the earliest to be done and it held the highest pressure at the end. The shop jobs are leakers.

 

[DiyNutJob]

I don't string out things, but I am extremely thorough when dealing with issues that affect my convenience and economic wellbeing. So, here's the data I based my assessment on, to save people making wild guesses.

I expect reg2 to race to the top of the leader board of air losers.

2026-07-21 11:18
play 2.4
reg1 2.3
reg2 2.35

2026-07-12 16:27
play 2.48
reg1 2.45
reg2 2.575


2026-07-10 18:24
play 2.5
reg1 2.5
reg2 2.6

2026-07-08 20:05
play 2.5 bar
reg1 2.5 bar
reg2 2.625 bar

 

[Burnerman]

I'm not really sure what's going on here, but ambient temperature plays a big part in tyre pressure readings, as does the two quid gauges (digital or analogue) that we have to buy.
Garage air lines seem to be particularly inaccurate - but there again they aren't treated well by the user.
John

 

[DiyNutJob]

I have 2 china gauges that agree and a 20 year old michelin gauge that's 0.15 bar higher. My money is on the china gauges being correct. Temperature might have an effect, but the effect would apply to all wheels at each reading interval. Reg2 was inflated using the mich under burning sun and ended up higher pressure than normal. The actual pressure doesn't matter as much as the relative decline over time. Reg2 was known to be a loser from the start. The other wheels were inflated by the same mich to 2.4 bar. The measurements were done using the same non-inflator china gauge. The inflation was made on different days as I finished working on each wheel. The play wheel was inflated earliest and retained more air over time.