I'm somewhat new here. I have an 04, 6spd with the stock rims. There's little square weight lookin things attached to the inside of my rims, directly across from the valve stem for the tire. Cleaning the wheels today, I noticed my rear passesenger side didn't have any of them, but had little black glue spots where I could tell they used to be. I'm not sure what these things even are. But I haven't noticed anything different in the driving. I'm wondering if this has happened to anybody else, and/or if I should really be concerned about it. I'm assuming it has something to do with balancing or somethin, I don't know. I tried searching a little bit, but didn't really come up with much info. Plus I'd like to know if this is a common problem. Thanks for any help you guys can offer.

 

those weights are used to balance the wheel. Just swing by a tire shop and ask them to balance that wheel for you. I don't imagine they'd charge much for one wheel

 

My guess is the previous owner had a flat and when it was replaced they used the clamp on weights instead of the stick on ones. Check the back of the wheel for lead weights that are clamped to the edge of the rim.

It it doesn't have any wheel weights then you would feel a big vibration while driving the car since there is nothing there to balance out the TPMS module in the wheel.

 

Like the other's have said, those things are there to balance out the weight of the wheels.

Cuz when they make a wheel, there will ALWAYS some spot that has more "material" than the other spot. So the wheel, although it's a perfect circle, contains areas thats heavier than the other, so when you spin it fast, the heavier side will be "throwing" all over and you're ride is going to be super bumpy. To counter this, they put little weight thing on the "lighter parts" of the wheel to balance it out.

 

It takes a LOT of weights to balance the weight of the TPMS sensor -- this is why they are invariably on the opposite side of the valve stem on our cars. Believe me, you'd KNOW if all those weights were missing; you'd be bouncing around like an ox cart.

Either they were replaced by clamp-on weights as someone said, or the valve stem was replaced and someone tossed the sensor. But there would almost certainly be a balancing weight somewhere in either case.

 

ok i am a manager if a tire shop and yes those blocks are stick on wheel weight but missing them isnt goin to make your car bounce like an ox cart, it wil have a vibration that will show up at certain speed. on that note the tires may have been balanced from the previous owner, some wheels will need no weight at all due to the tire as it wears, or the heavy spot o the tire matches to the light spot on the wheel. so take it for a drive before you spend mony n balancing you wheels, it is costly, our shop charges 22 dollars per wheel for aluminum under 18" and 30 for 18" and up

 

as said, some wheels won't require weights if they are already perfectly balanced.

 

On our RX-8s, the stick on weights are to counterbalance the added weight of the Tire Pressure Sensing Module (on the valve stem). They are required even if there is no tire on the wheel (hard to drive that way). Too many tire store dumbkoffs take them off when they put on new tires. I find it best to tell the tire store guys to leave them alone when they install & balance the new tire. They NEVER do as neat a job with stick-ons as the factory originals. And, I dont like the massive clamp-on weights required to correct their mistake of removing the original stick-ons in the first place.