views of competence of GTV V6 mechanic sought...

[Darryl]

Your mechanic does indeed sound like a good bloke, reasonable pricing and trying to keep your car original isn't a bad thing. And the only reason he didn't do the balance was that his machine was broken (in any case, a lot of mechanics don't do wheel balances and leave that side of things up to a tyre specialist). Also, regardless of what you have read, as others have said there is nothing about doing a tyre rotation that requires a balance at the same time. Normally (if you have a balancer that works) convenient to do it at the same time. Of course, regardless of the rotation a balance is needed periodically and whenever you are able to feel a vibration. You will feel vibration on the front that you would never feel on the rear, so the rotation has made you aware that the wheel is out of balance, it hasn't *made* it out of balance.

So, just take it to a tyre place get them to do a balance on all 4 wheels. It shouldn't cost much. If that fixes it you are ok for now, but I'd still be thinking about some decent tyres for the front - see below.

If the vibration is still the you have to strongly suspect the buckled rim is the issue. If you can't replace the rim or get it repaired, you will need to always run that rim on the back where the vibration isn't so noticeable. That will mean reversing the rotation just done, and a bit of a hassle in not being able to do a regular/normal tyre rotation.
It also means you will be ending up with worn front tyres and be stuck with the cheapies on the back for a long time. I'd be trying to preserve the life left in the (presumably not cheapy) tyres that are now on the rear by leaving them on the back, and get the handling and safety of the car back in order by buying a pair of decent tyres to go on the front. BUT, to avoid the vibration, get the tyre place to put the new, decent tyres onto the rims that are currently on the back then fit them to the front. Take the tyres that came off the back wheels and put them on the rims that had the cheapies on them and put those rims (ie the buckled one) on the back.

Then you will be able to enjoy your Alfa, and keep your eye out for a good replacement rim so you don't have this hassle in future...

[colcol]

As i said before, put the wheels on the back, jack up the car and spin the wheels, if you can see the rim running out, have the rim re-rolled, i use Neway in Heidleburg, [Victoria], this will cause out of round vibration from the rim, now tyres, they can be out of balance in 2 ways, 1, the tyres can be heavy on one side and need to be put on a balancing machine with a lead weight put on the opposite side of the heavy side, if it is say heavy by 16ozs on one side, then a 16oz eight is put on the opposite side, now with that out of the way, tyres have carcases and the manufacturing process sometimes means the carcass is thinner on one side, so the thin side grows more than the thick side, therefor the tyre is out of round, as opposed to out of balance, it can be fine up until say 90kph, then it starts to vibrate, as the tyre has gone oval shaped, as opposed to round, there is not much you can really do except not buy that tyre type again, i had a set of Dunlop Le Mans, that i could not go over 80 kph without enormous vibration, solved the problem by buying Bridgestones, after a year or two, the tyres can wear unevenly and the heavy side can get worn away, and is now the light side, so you need a weight re balance, most balance machines balance the wheels off the car, if you cannot get rid of the vibration, try an on the car wheel balancer, that balances the wheel on the car as is, i have always found el cheapo tyres always are and go out of balance, good tyres don't give you any drama's, Colin.