What's the difference in Wheel Balancing and Wheel Alignment? I was looking on a autocentre website...?

Question

to get it done, and i thought that was the same thing but they're listed seperately on there

Answer 1

They don't have anything to do with each other.  

Balancing is used to get the weight around the tire to be evenly distributed, so that the tire won't shake.  This is done by installing weights on the wheel.

Alignment is adjusting the suspension so that the tire points down the road the way it's supposed to.

There's no connection.

Answer 2

ive only done 1 year in college when i was at school but we did both and im sure that wheel alignment is making sure the wheels are straight and not pointing in or out and wheel balancing is when you spin the wheel on a machine to see if the wheel is balanced out, and if its not you put weights on at cetain places to balance it out.

not 100% sure so could u let me know if u find out.

Answer 3

Wheel alignment has to do with adjusting the angles of the steering and suspension components.  The wheels and tires serve mainly as a place to hang the measuring equipment.

Balancing is making sure the tire rotates smoothly.  That has everything to do with the tire and wheel assembly and nothing to do with the steering and suspension.

Answer 4

wheel balancing=they remove the wheel,put it on a spinning jig that measures how true it spins.if it oscillates the stick lead weights on it till it spins with out oscillating.

wheel alignment is done buy measuring the angle of the front wheels,they must point in very slightly at the front...adjustment is made by adjusting the stearing track rod ends....hope this helps

Answer 5

wheel balancing is done to assure the wheel doesn't vibrate and shake while it moving ,alignment is done to insure the wheels ar running strait to get the most tire life out of them and to assure the car drives good,and is safe,and the tires will last a lot longer if the car is in align and the tires are balanced right,the two work together in this way,tires will wear badly if they are out of balance,they will get whats known as flat spots in them,good luck.

Answer 6

Wheel alignment is the adjusting of your vehicles steering and suspension. This is typically done to correct tire wear issues or a pull or drift of the vehicle.

Tire balancing is done to eliminate or reduce vibration issues in the tire and wheel assembly.

Alignment issues or chassis problems do not usually cause a vibration issue. If you have a pull (drift) or tire wear you should have the vehicle aligned. If you are having a vibration issue you should have the tires balanced.

Answer 7

Every tire has slight balance differences, if you imagine that you take a wheel and put a shaft through the middle. Spin the wheel and it will stop every time at the same place, this is because the tire is heaver in one place.

Wheel balancing allows little weight's to be added to the wheel so that if you did the same test again it would stop at a different place every time. On the road an un-ballanced wheel will tend to cause a rumble from the wheel as the wheel will be slightly bouncing up and down.

Wheel alignment is a different thing all together, to get a car to drive in a straight line you need all four wheels to line up perfectly. The wheel alignment machine checks that the front wheels are in line with the rear wheels. It also checks that both front wheels are both at the same angle to each other.

Car that have poor wheel alignment tend to pull to one side or another when you are driving.

Ja.