When the steering starts to buzz along Nene Valley Way, a wheel is often out of balance. Northampton cars are balanced from the van on a drive in Duston or Abington, or at a workplace in Brackmills.
Northampton traffic spends a lot of time on dual carriageways. The A45 Nene Valley Way curls round the south of town between Upton and Wellingborough, the A43 Lumbertubs WaM1runs through the north-east, and the M1 is joined at junctions 15, 15A and 16. Those stretches are where a weight lost from an alloy starts a vibration through the wheel or the floor. Speed humps on residential streets, and kerbs in retail park car parks, knock weights loose more often than drivers realise.
Every tyre that has been fitted to a rim, new or repaired, should be balanced before the wheel goes back on. The van carries a balancer, so the fitter can remove the wheel on your East Hunsbury drive, spin it, add weights opposite the heavy side and check the reading again. If the vibration started after a kerb strike near the Grosvenor Centre or a tyre change elsewhere, say so on the call, where the price is confirmed before work begins.
An Abington, Duston or Weston Favell driveway suits the balancer, and retail park bays at Riverside work for a daytime job. Permit streets near the station and General Hospital, and the multi-storey Grosvenor Centre decks, do not.
| Near | Northampton General Hospital, Northampton station, Sixfields Stadium |
|---|---|
| Typical arrival | Around 2 hours, confirmed before we set off |
About wheel balancing nationwide → · Wheel balancing on the Northampton page
People often mix up balancing and alignment, yet each solves a different problem. Balancing removes vibration caused by uneven weight in the wheel and tyre. Alignment corrects wheels that point slightly off line, which makes a car pull on the A508 or scrub one edge of a tyre; Rescue Tyres does not do alignment, so book that with a garage. A wheel buckled by a deep pothole, or a tyre with a bulge, is shown to you rather than weighted and handed back.
Steering shake on Nene Valley Way? Get wheels balanced at your Northampton drive or work.
