how important are these?
i was cleaning my wheels the other day and noticed these weights for the first time. then i noticed that some of them seem to be missing. the marks were there where they used to be but that was it. is this normal/ok?

 

Thats how they balance your tire. It all depends where it needs weight. They can be different on each tire/wheel. If your car is not riding smooth then yea you have slung off weights and you need to get them balanced. Its very hard to sling them off, spinning the tires or driving at fast speeds/corners is pretty much the only way. Unless you drive a truck........if it gets real bad then balance them but its not that big of a deal.

 

Have you ever bought new tires? The mechanic may have removed weight to balance properly. That might explain whey you see where a weight once was.
--
Jeff

 

Weights are added and removed when the wheel is balanced. It is impossible to tell if weights are missing.

BTW caution about using solvent to clean the inside of wheel: Solvent dissolves the cement which holds the weight to the wheel.

 

ive only had the car about 12k miles. i dont know if or when the tires were replaced. im assuming the fronts have been bc they look really new, especially compared to the rears.
ive never had nice wheels before and on the ones in the past they were just like the same shape as a fishing weight i guess in comparison so i never realloy paid attention.
thanks for the quick replies guys.