Balancing Tires: How Often?

I am buying four new tires for my 1991 Honda Civic. They will be Goodyears, and
Wal-Mart will install them. Wal-Mart is pushing its protection plan, costing
$9.76 per tire. It pays for "repairable punctures," rotation, and re-balancing
*at no charge* every six months. Without purchasing this plan, I still have to
pay $7.50 per tire for mounting and first balancing.

I prefer to rotate my own tires; I don't like risking the mechanics using an air
wrench to torque the lug nuts. I have had one flat tire in my roughly 400,000
miles of driving over the course of my life, and it was due to hitting an
unmarked pothole at night in upstate New York. So it seems like what I'm paying
for is almost entirely the re-balancing.

Is the $8+ extra I'll pay for the protection plan worth it in people's opinion?
I know it's not much money but I do these things on principle and because I'd
rather give any savings to charity.

I think my current set of tires was balanced once in their life, and the wear
and steering have seemed fine all along.

 

I'd do it. I had an Acura which drove rough, then after the tires were
rebalanced, drove like new. Cost $50.

The nail protection alone is worth the cost. In the last five years or so, I've
had several nail punctures, which cost $15 each.






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I do not killfile nor use do-not-call lists.

 

You sold this to me. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

Costco members get flats repaired for free...

 

Costco members get flats repaired for free...
Costco members pay $60 in annual membership and the tires probably have to be
purchased there.




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I do not killfile nor use do-not-call lists.

 

Yes but they usually pay the 60 dollars for other reason (and acutally I pay
less 25$)... and no the tires don't need to be purchased there... Thanks

 

I bought a set of tires for my wife's Accord last month. Yesterday, due to
a screw, a tire deflated and she didn't notice until she got home. So, I
took the tire back to America's tire, whose service man said it was not
repairable due to being run on when flat. However, they were nice enough to
sell me free replacement certificates for the four tires for $36 and replace
the tire. That was about half what a new tire would have cost. So, even
though I'm not a big fan of extra cost warrantees, for $8 I would definitely
get the extra protection, not to mention the free rebalancing you very well
might need. This is also why I buy from local dealers rather than over the
Internet, unless the savings are huge, which in my experience they haven't
been.

BTW, most, if not all, road hazard warrantees exclude "run flats", including
the ones that they sold me yesterday.

Spudston

 

Thanks for backing up further what Dr Dadi said. I'm sold even more on this.

Fortunately from my doing my own tire rotations I'm very comfortable and speedy
with changing a tire, so running on a flat isn't too likely. Thanks for the
info, though.