A wheel – after turbine and engine shaft – is the third fastest rotating element in the car and the only one that comes in contact with the road. At highway speed, tyres spin over 1,000 times per minute. Then there is no place for inaccuracy or poor quality of service – they affect our safety.
Wheel balancing is a daily routine in car workshops – although it seems to be a trivial, simple thing, it involves some risks. Even a small error when choosing and installing a weight can result in the wheel balancing improperly. Workshops with the Certificate of Tyre Services of the Polish Tyre Industry Association know that rush is often the reason for incorrect balancing – the risk of an error when replacing and balancing tyres increases for tyres with large diameters and a lower profile. Additional problems can be related to damage to the tyre pressure monitoring system sensors, especially in less professional, seasonal car workshops.
There is no time to rush – quality and accuracy are important. An indispensable part of wheel balancing – unfortunately often underestimated by workshops of questionable quality - is cleaning the contact surface of the wheel rim with the brake discs before balancing. This is the surface on which the correct mounting of the wheel depends – uncleaned can be the reason for vibration, noise and reduced comfort of driving. Same goes for cleaning the place where a weight was stuck in previous balancing. One cannot say that the balancing procedure was carried out correctly if the mechanic has failed to do so.
– It is hard for customers to find a trusted service, and reliable car workshops find it very difficult to stand out on the market, because they do not save on machinery and equipment service, people training and repair materials – so they are not the cheapest in the area. PTIA together with TÜV SÜD wants to show all drivers where to look for reliable car workshops. We praise those for whom the quality of work and safety are important. Customers of certified tyre services can be sure of their quality and no longer have to wonder if they are leaving their car in good hands – says Piotr Sarnecki, general director of the Polish Tyre Industry Association (PTIA).
Some mechanics, looking for a quick solution for small unbalance that the balancer reads after performing the check run, add a second weight to the rims. Not only does it not look aesthetically pleasing, but it also adds to costs that you – as a client of a non-professional car workshop – have to cover. Some "specialists" believe that the average Joe will hardly notice the 10 g unbalance difference – so what is all this fuss for? Our safety is the most important, thus you should choose a certified car workshop that has undergone an audit and has been thoroughly checked.
There are nearly 12 000 tyre services in Poland. Unfortunately, the level of service and technical culture is very diverse. There is also no uniform training system. Too many car workshops replace tyres in an unacceptable manner, often using too much force. This causes stretching and tearing of the inner layers of tyres, and even bead tear – that is those elements that transfer power from the tyres to the rim. That is why the Polish Tyre Industry Association, together with TÜV SÜD, an independent certification company, introduces a system for assessing and awarding professional services based on an independent audit of equipment and qualifications of technical staff. It's worth choosing certified workshops that have undergone an audit and have been thoroughly checked. The Certification of Tyre Services helps car workshops to improve their quality – which is crucial for safety – increases their competitiveness, and gives customers confidence that the service will be performed by well-prepared professionals.
Certified car workshops will take care of your tyres!
Search for certified tyre services! Only they:
A map of certified services, as well as the criteria and tyre procedures are available on the website certyfikatoponiarski.pl/en/
PTIA and TÜV SÜD’s is the only determinant of high-quality tyre services.
Certification is preceded by a technical audit during which the following are tested:
A map of certified services that have undergone TÜV SÜD’s audit and received PTIA’s Certificate can be found on certyfikatoponiarski.pl.
Due to the great diversity of the quality of service in car workshops in Poland, the Certification of Tyre Services distinguishes 3 levels of service:
Source: Polish Tyre Industry Association