Hey guys,
I know there are not many of us here so I don't expect many responses, do you guys know a good place in Ottawa to balance my winters? A place with a Hunter's Road Force balancing machine that can guarantee the job would be nice. I saw a thread that list many places that uses that method I just wanted to get your opinions.
I had re-balanced my tires 4 times in the last 2 weeks, 2 different places, and still getting vibrations. It all started with a small vibration in one of the rear tires and I decided to re-balance, now I get vibrations from more than one tire once I get to 120km/h.
Anyways, I just wanted to get your opinions on the places you've been for tire balancing.

Thanks!
JR

 

JR - Parker Auto Care Ltd Ottawa, ON (613) 722-0896 They are in the west end and have Hunter equipment and offer Road Force balancing... 819 Bellevue, Ottawa. Just called them for you... damn I'm nice.... They said for the actual balancing it's $12 per corner plus the cost of the weights... but it gets more expensive if they find a problem and have to "match-mount" (break the bead)... takes a couple of hours and they really don't know what they'll find until your car is there in the shop... Since we have uni-directional tires it's not a simple swap - you may end up having to replace something... The guy I spoke too seemed to know his stuff (Dave)... give 'em a buzz...

 

Man thank you!!!!!
I saw their website yesterday when I was doing some online research, I'll call them to see when I can take my car in. I think the price is pretty good to start, the cheapest I've seen is $10/corner on a regular wheel balancer.
Unbalanced tires makes your nice car drive like a piece of c**p!
My tires were running really smooth last winter, it's just this winter that it started to shake a little and then I wanted to fix it just to find out they got worse!

Thanks! Again!!!

 

No problem. Let me know if/when you do get it done - what the outcome was...

 

I took my car yesterday to Parker Autocare, man what a difference! It feels like I have a new car again! They did a pretty good job and my car car is smooth again. I took the highway stretch to Kanata where the road is new and drove to max possible speed and it's really smooth.
They said all my tires were off and the previous balancer installed weights too big and the caliper knock them off. Anyways I'm happy with the results and I'd recommend Parker to anyone.
I still have to do one more check, before yesterday when I first drive in the morning and the car is still cold I could feel like a bump in one of the rear tires and it almost disapeared after driving a couple of miles, I have to check if that's gone too, but that could be the cold weather though.
Thanks for suggesting Parker they did really well. Nice people there.

 

Glad to hear it worked out JR. Dave sounded really nice, really knowledgable over the phone. Hey and it's nice to support a local family owned biz!

With this great weather - it's almost time to swap to summers... I still have to fix one of my rim rashes here in Kanata -> Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists Ottawa before I swap...
Ok so slightly unrelated question - know any really good detailers in Ottawa? I'm looking for a really good polish and to fix some light scratches... I'm torn between getting it done or going out and buying a Porter Cable and doing it myself...

 

Yeah the guys at Parker are nice and they seem very knowledgable, I've been to other places where they give you all kind of excuses when they don't do a good job.
Weather is NICE, but I'll still wait more I'm sure we'll get more snow and icy days, but I too want to switch back to summers asap.

It doesn't come to mind right now a detailer here, I've never been to one since I always do my car, but I've never done a complete polish just claying and waxing.
I did a quick search on autopia and found this thread: A Canadian Directory - Autopia.org
Do a search for "Ottawa" in that thread and it shows 3 people active there, I think I contacted Paul once about getting the collinite. His website is Park Avenue Detailing | Ottawa, ON |

Be careful with the PC if you are going to do it yourself the polish could ruin your clearcoat if you stay too much time or apply much pressure on one spot. But definetely check autopia for the procedure on how to do it.

 

I'll check it out thanks!

 

Wow, have not been on this forum in a long time. The Ottawa crew seems to consist of the same 2 people as I can see . Unfortunately I can't be the 3rd member. I got myself another car last year as I did not like the way I was treated at both local Infiniti dealerships.

 

JR - was that you on the 417 driving west yesterday morn. around 8:30 - with summer tires on?

 

Not guilty! Wasn't me, I still have the winters and I'm starting to feel a really slight vibration again! Maybe I'm paranoid but I hate that. I'll wait more see what happens.

 

Sorry to hear that... are you going to take it back to Parker Auto before you swap back to summers? Is the Road Force balancing "guaranteed" or anything or time sensitive?

My rim is getting it's rash removed then I'm switching over to summers... it's seems odd driving in my winters in this weather and we haven't snow in 2 months...

 

I'll wait a few more days and see if it stays the same or it deteriorates, right now it's not bad just a slight vibration that I'm feeling when driving on the highway @ about 110km/h but it's almost not noticeable. I have no idea as of why it was good right after re-balancing and it changed over time, unless the weights were loose and they were falling, I have to check that but it's unlikely. If it continues to deteriote I'll take it back to Parker, the person was nice they sure did a good job.
The Road Force is a better method of balancing since it applies at the time of balancing a force similar of what you get on the road, but like anything, it could go wrong too but you get better results with this method than the conventional, that's what I've read.

I'll still wait probably until the end of march to switch back to summers, the problem I see with those is that they get too rigid under cold temps and the car rides too rough, once it gets a little warmer I'll switch back. It's a shame we are wasting the winters on these dry roads but on the other hand I'm happy we don't have snow!

 

Hopefull it goes away JR. And I agree - we almost didn't need snow tires this winter (other than for the cold temp's here and there)...

We should probably have an Ottawa "G" get together sometime this spring/summer - I know of one other "Ottawan" on here that would be interested... I've never done the "get-together and look at our cars" type thing but who knows - some positive learning may come of it... what do people do - grab a coffee and chit chat type thing.... or hold hands and sing Kum-ba-yah....haha

 

I went back to Parker since the vibration were getting more noticeable, it turned out that I might have lost a weight or something (I might have to stop driving on Carling!) they re-balanced all four tires but I'm still feeling some vibration on the rear, they are going to look at that again. I'm very pleased with them, the couple of times that I've called they are nice and willing to solve the problem.

Yeah man we can get together sometime and have a coffee or something, I'm pretty much free on the weekends, no singing for me though! haha :-) Just reply or PM me.