Hi, I just wanted to chime in. I actually worked at a tire shop when I was in high school and through college (10years ago).
Your concern about no wheel weights is a valid one. Tire balancers these days, like everything else, are computer driven. You mount the tire on the drive arm of the balancer, remove the previous weights, set the proper dimensions and offset for the rim, lower the protective shield, and let 'er spin. The balancer analyzes the wobble, hop, etc in the tire and tells the technician exactly how much and where on the rim the weight should go. Then the tire should be spun again to validate the weights applied. It was considered improper in the shop I worked at to put more than one wheel weight on a single side of a rim. This usually occurs, though, when on the second spin the weight was not placed correctly or the computer was not given the correct dimensions of the rim and therefore tells the technician to apply more weights at new positions. Especially large and heavy tires are problematic in balancing but this really isn't an issue with an Oddysey. I personally would ask to have my tires rebalanced if I saw more than one weight per side of a rim on a tire I paid to have balanced.
Sometimes a tire would need no weight added on a single side and rarely no weight to both the inner and outer rim. This occured rarely and only on Michelins. I still only buy Michelins.
In other minutiae, sometimes using a crappy air source to inflate your tires can introduce a large volume of water into your tire. This is especially a problem in humid areas where a compressor may be running nonstop and small amounts of water are constantly being added to the compressor tank. Before long, if the tank is not purged of the water, you are adding significant amounts of water into your tire. You can imagine how this may affect the dynamic balance of a tire. I have personally removed tires from rims that had over a quart of water in the tire. I think to avoid this the best air sources for inflation are the instant-on, quarter fed(rarely free)variety. I think these would be the least likely to have this problem unless you use your own compressor and monitor it carefully. Just my 2 cents...
Originally posted by benezrj:
Thanks everyone - sure enough, I felt around the inner side of the rim and there is a balance weight there. I don't remember any weights on the outside rims before my 7500 mile maintenance.
[This message has been edited by Ockham's disposable (edited 11-28-2001).]