I started mounting my own tires and a friend said there is a spot on a tire that's marked to be lined up with the valve stem for proper balancing. Is this true?
EDIT: I don't mean a sticker or a paint mark, I mean a symbol or something molded into the rubber.
It's a white dot it indicates The light point on the tire. It lines up with the valve stem. Not necessary if you balance your tires but it's a good practice and it's not really any additional work
What Are The Yellow Dots For?
Just as it's very hard to make a tire or wheel that's perfectly round, it is also very difficult to make tires and wheels that are perfectly in balance.
You can help minimize the amount of weight needed to balance a tire and wheel assembly by mounting the tire so that its light balance point is matched up with the wheel's heavy balance point.
All new Bridgestone truck and bus radials are factory- marked with a yellow dot at the light balance point. Generally, the heavy balance point of a wheel is at the location of the valve stem. This is true regardless of whether the wheel is steel or aluminum.
For best initial balance, match yellow dots to valve stems.
Which Dot Takes Precedence?
If a Bridgestone tire you're mounting has both red and yellow dots, the red dot has priority. Match it to the wheel low point dimple or valve stem. Ignore the yellow dot. Remember, "red rules."
[...]
What About Marks And Dots Of Other Colors? On Bridgestone radials, only red or yellow dots are used in match-mounting. Ignore any other colors.
Does Every Tire Manufacturer Use The Same Marks? Unfortunately, no. Some manufacturers do not mark their tires at all, and some use different colors. If you're not using Bridgestone radials, you'll need to consult your tire supplier for more information.
It is not molded in the tire since the manufacturer does not know where the light spot will be until after the tire is out of the mold. If you are doing the mounting yourself you should find the heavy spot of the wheel sans tire. Then line up the dot with the heavy spot on the wheel since it is not always the valve stem.
or spend 3-8 bux to have a shop balance it... hell most of the time i do it gratis at my shop unless someone comes in full retard demanding i do it on the spot the day before a holiday weekend...then i charge ten dollars cash to the Randy Fund
I've mounted 3 or 4 car tire's and 3 motorcycle tires, took off the weights on my car wheels, left them in the same spot on my motorcycle wheels. Both vehicles have seen 110 or so and i never got any weird vibe's
Even if you dyno balance the wheels & tires, you should line up the dot.
Otherwise, you may have to use more weights than necessary to balance the tire.
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