Swapping winter tires

[kss]

Just a quick question for those that have two separate sets of rims for winter and summer. Do you tend to just get the tire/rims swapped each time, or also balanced as well?? Dealer is recommending balancing the tires each time, even though they are already on separate rims.

[IVM3]

I can't think of any valid reason to have to rebalance the tires when they have stayed mounted on the wheels and were working perfectly fine. That would be like saying you need to rebalance the tires every time you do a rotation (if you only had one set of wheels/tires), which doesn't usually make sense.

[kss]

Thanks. I’ve never done it in the past, but just got the sales pitch on how essential it is in these cars to have the tires balanced every time - didn’t make much sense to me either! Glad to know I’m not missing something!

[zorrro]

Originally Posted by kss

Thanks. I’ve never done it in the past, but just got the sales pitch on how essential it is in these cars to have the tires balanced every time - didn’t make much sense to me either! Glad to know I’m not missing something!

That sounds like a scam. That said, always prudent to be on the lookout for uneven tread wear or vibrations. Over time you could lose wheel weights or your alignment is off from potholes etc.

[Kilabyte]

You only want them balanced if the tires were removed from the wheel.