Hi everyone! Does anyone know those piece steel is for?


I bought a set of four wheels, one of them had some steel on it. Don't know what is that for.

 

Those are wheel balance weights.

 

They aren't steel, they are lead. I melt old ones down and pour in molds to make bullets. They are easy to remove. Just work a knife under them. Taking them off gives your wheels a much cleaner look.

Just joking. Leave them alone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_balance

 

If this is for balance, why only one wheel had it not all of them?

 

Because either the other wheels didn't need weights to be in balance or they did and the weights were removed or lost.

 

And its not just the wheels that you balance for. You also balance for the tire. If you look closely at a new tire, there will be a mark on the sidewall that shows the heaviest part of the tire. The tire should always be mounted with that mark on the opposite side of the wheel from the valve stem.

As for the visibility question, if the wheels were balanced off the car instead of while mounted, and if possible, the weights will often be put on the backside of the wheel. See the pic.

 

some shops have machines that do a static balance they will put all the weights on the back side typically for best looks.

Dynamic wheel balancing usually puts weights in both the front and back side of the rim to reduce shimmy for the wheel/tire combination being out of balance in a axial as well as radial direction. (Thats how that sparco wheel was done I'd bet. )

At the track I cover them with heavy duty aluminum tape and don't just depend not eh double sided tape that comes on them.

WD40 will usually help scrub the adhesive off the wheel when you remove the weights to put new tires on.