$20 a tire to rotate

[gscuevas]

I live about 40 miles from a Honda dealer, so I have my minor service done locally, rather than going to the dealer. They just charged me $20 a tire to rotate and balance. Said it was that high because of the sensors. This sounds crazy to me! Anybody have any feedback on this?

They said that the monitor needs to relearn what tire is where so it will recognize the proper tire as being low, AND if they did not let it "relearn" the tires, then it would mess up the engine.

Also, this is the same place I carried it to last time, and there was nothing said about this. So I told them my truck was not "relearned" last time.... Why now?

[zroger73]

The sensors have NOTHING to do with tire rotation physically. Otherwise, the TPMS system in the RL automatically detects when a tire moves to a new location.

As far as balancing goes, that shouldn't be any different than any other tire either.

Concerning the cost of $80 to rotate and balance four tires, that sounds on the high end, but about what I would expect from a dealer.

[25 Year Honda Owner]

My dealer sent a Tech to my home to check out the "TPMS" indicator on my 2008 Accord. They had put on a complete new set of wheels and tires to get rid of an out of balance problem. The Tech spent the better part of an hour with all types of fancy electroic equipment and a lap top to get it to read the trie pressure and eliminate the indicator light. From what I observed, it is not rocket science, but close!! BTW, I live about 55 miles from the dealership. The at home service is appreciated!!

[gene r]

There is a local tire franchise near me that rotates and balances all 4 tires for 30 bucks and they do a great job. Your dealer is a lying...

[ChrisM]

Your dealer is full of crap. Each OEM wheel has a counter weight on the back of the rim on the opposite side the wheel from where the valve stem hole is located. If you eliminate your TPMS sensors, this "built in" weight can be removed. This counter weight is on the rim to offset the weight of the TPMS sensor which should make balancing the wheels very easy. As others have mentioned, there shouldn't be any special issues. If I were you, I'd ask for one of 2 things:

1) I'd ask for a refund.
2) I'd ask to see the mechanic's certificate of training.

Maybe you should ask for both.

[Webwader]

Did they rebalance at your request or did they just do it when they rotated the tires? Doing tire rotation should not require a rebalance.

[VoicesInMyHead]

Originally Posted by Webwader

Doing tire rotation should not require a rebalance.

+1 on that!

It's not like they balance the tire while it's on the truck! I would at least talk to the service manager and see if he gives you a line, or takes care of the issue.

[gscuevas]

I asked for the balance, which is, I guess, my error. I thought when tires were rotated, they should always be rebalanced.

It seemed to me that just the rotation was causing the hullabaloo, not the balancing.

So... is it possible this local tire shop's thinking about resetting sensors is what should be done on vehicles with sensors, but Ridgeline is exempt and they just do not know this particular vehicle?

[VoicesInMyHead]

Originally Posted by gscuevas

I asked for the balance, which is, I guess, my error.

Ah... I guess I could have waited till you answered about asking them to balance. However, the tire is balanced on a machine, not on the truck, so it really doesn't matter which position it is placed in after it is balanced.

Likewise, if you were having an issue, and wanted to see if balancing corrected it, well, that is a perfectly logical step.

However, the dealer was still blowin' smoke at ya if they say it has to be done because the tires were rotated.

[shovelhd]

$20 per tire is reasonable for a rotate and high speed balance.