View Full Version : Directional TIRES!


typej
06-28-2007, 09:03 AM
My car has been shaking at high speed so I went to the tire shop to get it balanced.
And I was told previous installer put the directional tires in a wrong direction! :banghead:

Both driver side front and back tires are in a wrong direction and tire place refuse to balance it and told me to get 4 new tires. My question is,

How dangerous is it to drive with directional tire that rotates backwards...
Also do I need all 4 tires or just left two.
And, is it just better off getting 4 new tires and not worry about this mess?

Thanks :)

DarkBrew
06-28-2007, 09:16 AM
How long did it run like this? How much tread is left?
Assuming lots of tread and only a while running backward....
Running backwards for a while shouldn't damage the tires; it should affect your grip especially in the rain.
Get the tires re-mounted and balanced to see if the problem goes away. Worst case you waste a few dollars, Best case you save hundreds.

ChuLooz
06-28-2007, 09:23 AM
well, im no tire expert and have no imput on whether or not the directional issue is severly damaging. But if i were in your situation i'd ask shop#2 why they won't do it and to put what they tell/told you about the tires in writing so you can bring it to shop#1 and they deal with the problem, the ideal outcome being shop#1 buys you new tires.

More_Revs
06-28-2007, 09:27 AM
Can you take it to whoever installed in in the first place to have it re-mounted? Show them they did it wrong and they should fix it for free.

Celronx
06-28-2007, 02:42 PM
ummmm, just switch the wheels around. pass. to driver and driver to pass. You don't need to get new tires unless the tires are just worn. You don't need to get them remounded and rebalanced. I've had tires that didn't look directional but had rotational arrows on them installed the wrong way for about 10000 miles before and they were fine.

92tsiawd
06-28-2007, 03:24 PM
You would be suprised, the only real problem with putting directional or inside/outside tires backwards is their performance in the rain and noise. I have put directional tires of backwards and have run consistently the same laptimes backwards and forwards and so have a lot of the solo 1 guys that's in our area. You should just get a shop to flip them around for you if you car is street driven, shouldn't be a big problem

Cromax
06-28-2007, 03:29 PM
My car has been shaking at high speed so I went to the tire shop to get it balanced.
And I was told previous installer put the directional tires in a wrong direction! :banghead:

Both driver side front and back tires are in a wrong direction and tire place refuse to balance it and told me to get 4 new tires. My question is,

How dangerous is it to drive with directional tire that rotates backwards...
Also do I need all 4 tires or just left two.
And, is it just better off getting 4 new tires and not worry about this mess?

Thanks :)

Was the tyre place you went to called "Rip-off Merchants 'R' Us"?

Do what the others said ... but rotate the tyres around the right way yourself (swap L-R) and make sure it's all schmick ... and then take it to a tyre place to do an alignment if it's still noisy!

kersh4w
06-28-2007, 05:49 PM
i had my tires rotated and balanced. they are the stock potenzas. they are going the right directional way.

however, i seem to get an odd shaking noise at high speeds. like a warbling. ever since.