A remark by Dan the Man made me go look at my wheels: there are no wheel balance weights visible anywhere on them. What about this? Are balance weights needed only with replacement tires? If there are factory weights, are they mounted on the inner rim facing the car? (Presumably they are not inside the tire, unless the factory has some very sophisticated balancing technique...)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(richard schumacher @ Oct 11 2006, 10:35 PM) [snapback]331520[/snapback]</div> From the factory, there are weights on the inside of the rim, i.e, not the back rim, but the inside facing the wheel hub attached with some sort of adhesive, on my Prius. You should be able to see them through the spokes of your wheel if you remove the trim ring.
When wheels are properly balanced after a tire change, they should be balanced both circumferencely and laterally. This may cause weights to be added to the inside and outside rim right next to the tire. The balance weights attached with adhesive sound like wheel balances put on to the metal wheel before the tire is fitted.
