What's this?!

[StormCattitude]

Just noticed this tonight on my alloy. What the heck is it?!

You can see from the existing muck on my alloy this is newly added.

I did have 2 new tyres put on a couple of weeks back. Could it be the mechanic damaged my alloy so put this on to cover it? I'm stumped what it is too. It looks like it says '10 Fe' and '5 Fe' on the bigger / smaller pieces.

It's weights to balance your wheel.

@isthismylifenow

It's weights to balance your wheel.

Ah that'd make sense, had my wheels aligned too when the new tyres were put on but they never mentioned about this being added.

Mystery solved.

Alignment and balancing is a standard part of buying new tyres, it will always say on the small print of any quote, or on posters/price lists online or at the tyre place. Helps prevent uneven wear on the tyres.

10 Fe and 5 Fe will stand for 10 or 5 grammes of iron (or likely stainless steel) I would think.

@BarbaraofSeville

Alignment and balancing is a standard part of buying new tyres, it will always say on the small print of any quote, or on posters/price lists online or at the tyre place. Helps prevent uneven wear on the tyres.

10 Fe and 5 Fe will stand for 10 or 5 grammes of iron (or likely stainless steel) I would think.

Balancing maybe but not alignment. Cost me £55 to have mine done.

Not all wheels are the the same weight all the way around.. they use the weights to make sure they are equally balanced. That is why there are different sizes you see 5g/10g, they cut the strip (or add) to weight as necessary. You may have seen clipped on weights before, they are used for different rims.

Every time your wheel is taken off, it must be balanced. So when you rotate those new tyres (which you should do after 10000-15000kms), they will be balanced again.

Wheel alignment is different. They are checking if the wheel is straight. If necessary they will use a shim there.