Generally speaking, wheel balancing in Dubuque is something that should probably be done about once a year especially with the hilly terrain and rough winters with often snow-covered roadways. When was the last time you got your wheels balanced?  Do you even remember?  

The Dubuque area is a great place to live, work, and raise a family.  Unfortunately, daily driving around Dubuque and the surrounding Tri-State area take its toll on vehicles. That’s why it’s important to keep your vehicle well-maintained if you live in this area. Regular vehicle maintenance is critical and any mechanical problems you encounter should always be addressed right away before they develop into something more problematic and expensive.

To determine if your tires need to be balanced, you’re going to need to do a quick road test.  As you’re driving along at freeway or interstate speeds and your speedometer begins to approach 65 to 70 miles per hour, you may feel your car start to shake or vibrate a little.  This shaking of the vehicle or the steering wheel is the first indication there’s something wrong.

The way to tell if it’s a tire out of balance or something else, an out-of-balance tire will give you a vibration at a certain speed only and as you accelerate or slow down, the vibration will disappear. 

So if you feel that in your car, the vibration disappears as you increase or decrease your speed, that’s how you’d know whether it’s a tire balance problem.  And at that point is where Runde Chevrolet comes into the picture.  Runde’s has been servicing cars and trucks in the Dubuque area since 1927 and wheel balancing is something our technicians have had tons of experience with throughout the years.  Runde’s is located one mile east of downtown Dubuque just across the Mississippi River.  Our service department is open 6 days a week and customers can either make an appointment by phone or through our online service scheduling tool.

Proper wheel balance plays an important role in keeping drivers safe and comfortable while driving.   And wheel balancing is something that should be done periodically (or at least checked once a year) because as perfectly round as tires and wheels appear, their weight is not equally distributed throughout their entire diameter.  When there is a spot on a tire or wheel with a comparatively greater amount of weight, it will undoubtedly have an adverse effect on how the wheel travels down the road and consequently the ride quality of the vehicle it’s mounted to will diminish greatly.  Unquestionably everyone has experienced a shimmy or a shake from time to time when one of their tires has gone out of balance.

Tire tread wear can also have an effect here because as a tire begins to wear more in one spot versus the rest of the exterior tread, the tire will gradually come out of balance.  Rotating your tires regularly will also help with this because generally speaking the more frequently you move your tires to different locations on your vehicle, the more evenly the tread will wear.

Balancing is performed in many ways.  One of the most common ways to balance a wheel is to place weights at appropriate spots to rebalance everything.  A tire balancing machine determines the exact spot that is causing the imbalance and this, in turn, lets the technician know where to place wheel weights to proportionately redistribute the weight of the wheel and tire evenly.

Like we previously mentioned, it’s probably a good idea to check the wheel balance status of your vehicle about once a year.  If you’re proactive with this, then there’s a good chance that you won’t every experience a severe wheel imbalance if you’re just doing normal in-town driving.   

Runde Chevrolet’s hours are M-F from 7am to 6pm and Saturdays from 8am to noon.  For convenience our service department will provide service loaner vehicles for customers (when available) and our service manager, Pat Timmerman, and his staff frequently go far beyond what they need to do to assure the best possible service for customers in the Dubuque and East Dubuque area.