Took my 01 Pathfinder in for its first tire balance/rotation. Tire tech told me the tires wouldn’t balance so he broke one down and found “Balancing Powder”. All the other tires had it too. He said he had never seen that on a modern non-commercial vehicle and never from the factory? He cleaned each one out and balanced them normally.
There is such a thing, although I haven't seen it sold in a long long time. In theory, I think it might work good -- the powder will make its way to the farthest crevice from the hub by centrifugal force...creating sort of a dynamic balancing device. My guess is the machine at the tire shop doesn't spin the tire fast enough or long enough, or both, to get the powder or beads to settle, meaning everytime he stops the tire to put on a weight, the powder is now in a different location.
Good move to get that stuff out of there. Today's tires are so well made and balancing machines are precise enough to give any vehicle a glass-smooth ride.
A friend of mine tried powder in a set of 35x12.50s and he was very unhappy with the performance of the powder. He never knew how the tries were going to run after starting out from a complete stop. Sometimes the powder would sit in the ‘sweet spot’ and the tires would run very smoothly. The next time he stopped the powder may not find the sweet spot and the tires would bounce around wildly.
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