What's this WhatZit?

I'm pretty sure it's a weight for balancing car wheels. Some wheels don't have a rim flange to pound the traditional wheel weights on to, so they make those in 1/4 oz increments that are designed to be applied to the inside of the wheel with a double sided adhesive tape.

Thanks Stiffwrists for
the quick response. Yeah that makes sense being found in a parking lot. And there IS residue of adhesive on the back.My MDing buggy still has the old type weights.

I wish they'd use the old type. These stick-ons tend to fall off. Oh, I see they're for use on wheel without the rim flange. I have them on my wheels which do have a flange and I found one laying in the driveway.

DougF said:

I wish they'd use the old type. These stick-ons tend to fall off. Oh, I see they're for use on wheel without the rim flange. I have them on my wheels which do have a flange and I found one laying in the driveway.

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They are for use on alloy wheels that dont have the flange, but more and more shops are using them for all wheels. It's easier to buy a box of these and use what you need on each wheel. The older, (and better) pound on weights require them to hold a larger stock of each individual weight size. If I see them using them on my wheels, i ask them to clean the spot they are going to stick them to with brakecleen solvent. Otherwise, theres a good chance they will fall off. Or, even worse, smack into your brake calipers as you leave the shop.

Another thing that drives me crazy is when you get new tires and they dont remove the old weights before they balance them I had one kid pound a 1 oz weight directly across the rim from another 1 oz weight that he had left on. I pointed this out to him and he said it didnt matter as long as it balanced. I told him to take off both the weights and it would still balance without any. He didnt believe me, but humored me.... of course it balanced.

Its funny to think I am quickly becoming my father..

Stiffwrists said:

I'm pretty sure it's a weight for balancing car wheels.

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---OR--- an unbalancing weight for the people who buy them bulk on amazon and secretly stick a bunch on their coworkers wheels...

I agree with what Stiffwrist's said about some lazy tire shops that don't remove old balancing weights before balancing tires. Quite frankly I got fed up with tire shops in general and bought my own static wheel/tire balancer and guess what....no more stretched, cross-threaded lugs and not over-torqued from impacts :>) I don't mind doing the work myself cause I take the time and do it correctly.

And Franz don't be giving people ideas about those stick-on weights. Ha!