Tyres fitted, balancing, alignment

JaMarcusHustle

Hey, was hoping someone could advise me on this.

I drive a BMW E90 and I'm changing from run flats to regular Bridgestone Potenza RE002's.

I noticed that the wear on my current tyres is greater towards the outside of the car rather than the inside, so I think I'll need an alignment too (or would balancing cover this?). What is the difference between balancing vs alignment, and which would appear to the problem in my case?

Anyway, been quoted €25 per wheel (have the tyres myself so just fitting required) and €60 for the alignment. Does that sound reasonable?

Thanks!

biko

Sounds like the issue is camber if the wear is bigger on the outside of the tyre.

rex-x

No, toe in will cause that wear far faster than camber will, an alignment will most likely sort it

biko

Hmm, yeah that's true.
Let us know what the garage said OP.

El Guapo!

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

I noticed that the wear on my current tyres is greater towards the outside of the car rather than the inside, so I think I'll need an alignment too (or would balancing cover this?). What is the difference between balancing vs alignment, and which would appear to the problem in my case?

Having your tyres balanced will eliminate any vibrations, felt usually through the steering wheel, at higher speeds.
Alignment will stop irregular wear on the tyres. Your problem is the alignment.
But the wheels will also be balanced when the new tyres are fitted.

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

Anyway, been quoted €25 per wheel (have the tyres myself so just fitting required) and €60 for the alignment. Does that sound reasonable?

That's steep. €15 a corner would be the average in my experience. €60 for the alignment isn't too bad but it could be gotten cheaper elsewhere.

Fatswaldo

Cost seems to depend on where you live. In my area, fitting with a good independent is usually €10/15 a corner and 4 wheel tracking/alignment €40/50

challengemaster

El Guapo! wrote: »

That's steep. €15 a corner would be the average in my experience. €60 for the alignment isn't too bad but it could be gotten cheaper elsewhere.

I've a feeling it's costly because it's dealing with runflats.

bazz26

And probably the fact that the tyres were bought elsewhere. It has to be worth their while too.

CiniO

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

I noticed that the wear on my current tyres is greater towards the outside of the car rather than the inside, so I think I'll need an alignment too (or would balancing cover this?). What is the difference between balancing vs alignment, and which would appear to the problem in my case?

Uneven tyre wear is most likely caused by misalignment.
Wheel alignment (sometimes also called tracking) is completely different thing to wheel balancing.
Wheel alignment is an adjustment made on car suspension to make sure wheels be positioned in right direction. Once you do wheel alignment on your car and change the wheels to different ones, your car will still be aligned.
Wheel balancing is made on wheels and it consists of putting weights to the side of the rim, to make wheel weight distributed exactly all around the wheel. By doing that, you are avoiding wheels to vibrate at higher speeds.
If you have wheels balanced, you can take them off your car, put them into other car, and they will still be balanced.

Anyway, been quoted €25 per wheel (have the tyres myself so just fitting required) and €60 for the alignment. Does that sound reasonable?

IMO it doesn't sound reasonable at all.
Fitting and balancing a set of 4 wheels by trained person usually takes no more than 30 minutes. Garage charging €100 for 30 minutes labour is not reasonable at all.

€60 per wheel alignment is also too expensive IMO. €40 would be rather usual price.

JaMarcusHustle

Thanks for the advice guys. I guess the next logical question would be if anyone has any recommendations on where to go for a more reasonable price? I'm in Sandyford but willing to travel. Cheers!

El Guapo!

challengemaster wrote: »

I've a feeling it's costly because it's dealing with runflats.

That's probably the garages reasoning behind it but in my opinion it's still too expensive. They shouldn't charge more for fitting runflats. If a garage tried to charge me extra because I had runflats I'd just go to a different garage.