Tire installation question

[racorcey]

I'm getting new tires on all positions tomorrow morning....

I was just loading the tires into the car, and noticed the following:

(a) There appears to be a blue "dot" or paint "daub" on each of the new front and rear tires. Is this a weight "high spot" that's been identified by the factory?

(b) I noticed that the tires don't have any specfic directional pattern arrows molded into the sidewalls. But what I did notice is that there is a very slightly different tread pattern on each outside edge of the tire....and that the common pattern of one edge is oriented towards the outside of each tire when I inspected the original tires still installed on my car. This seems to indicate that the tires can be run in either direction. Obviously, I would think that one would follow the same (observed) pattern when installing the new tires, but it looks like you really have to point it out to the installer.

The tires were purchased from Tire Rack. They are the stock type tires.

Any thoughts from the more experienced of you? Thanks!

[crouse]

Not sure about the blue dot. I've noticed that on mine but never paid much attention to it. I believe the valve stem is supposed to be located close to the dot.

There should be some writing on the side wall that reads "mount this side in".

[racorcey]

Not sure about the blue dot. I've noticed that on mine but never paid much attention to it. I believe the valve stem is supposed to be located close to the dot.

There should be some writing on the side wall that reads "mount this side in".

Interesting about the dot.

More interesting is the writing on the sidewall. I will have to check that out thoroughly in the morning!

Thanks.

- Randy

[jdando]

Make sure you dispose of the old tires properly :)

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/3/1/0/2/burnout3.jpg

jeremy

[CRUZTAKER]

The dot indicates where the valve stem should be when the tire is mounted.

:baaa:


Screw that.

Go to a shop with a ROAD FORCE BALANCER and then see how far the dot is from the stem.
:P

[CRUZTAKER]

Make sure you dispose of the old tires properly :)

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/3/1/0/2/burnout3.jpg

jeremy


Oh...so it's about that...:D

http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/6/2/6/MILAN2005.jpg

[racorcey]

Jeesh - you guys are already giving me guilt pangs over what to do with the old tires. I get the idea. Apparently they are re-useable as drag radials. :burnout:

BTW, just checked the tires for any "this side in" or "this side out" embossed on the sides. There is nothing - at least on the replacements.

- Randy

[Bradley G]

The blue dot is the orientation mark, that should end up across from the valve stem.
I got new tires last summer, I got a little nutty doing some burnouts after the new tires were installed.
They do get noisy, if you treat them in this manner.
I did give the old rears a proper send off.

[Bluerauder]

BTW, just checked the tires for any "this side in" or "this side out" embossed on the sides. There is nothing - at least on the replacements.

- Randy
If you are replacing with the OEM KDWS, its there. Its kinda small; but it is there. The letters are only about 1/4 inch saying "MOUNT THIS SIDE IN".

I have only seen the "Red Dot" version. :P

[jonroe]

I just got new OEM rears from Tire Rack. Mine have a GREEN dot. What's up with the different colors?

The OEMs are mounted only one way, with the "squiggly" tread toward the INSIDE and they are not directional in tread pattern.

Jon

[racorcey]

BTW, just checked the tires for any "this side in" or "this side out" embossed on the sides. There is nothing - at least on the replacements.

Yeah, you guys are right! Techie found the "this side in" embossings. That's what I get for trying to look too late at night and with too little light. As it turns out, the "this side out" embossing happened to be exactly under the acetate tape used to hold the tires together for shipping.

They are aligning the car as I write this. Techie seems to be "with it." Of course, I guess it helps that the service manager is a long-time friend of mine.:D If there are any problems, I won't get much argument.

I certainly look forward to better handling - especially when stuck in the truck gooves that seem to be a part of our interstates these days.

BTW, I also did not realize how badly the inner fronts were worn - I could see the threads when the wheels were off. It didn't seem that bad when I looked at them just short time ago, but then I wasn't looking at the far inside edge.

As far as the center wear on the rears....at least I could see if the traction control was functional when accelerating from a stop during wet weather.

Thanks again for all your input on this topic!

- Randy

[arejayesss]

I just got new OEM rears from Tire Rack. Mine have a GREEN dot. What's up with the different colors? Jon

This is actually a tribute to the Marauder. They are using the same practice that the assembly plant did during production. 'Whatever we got lying around will work' 'Check that bin' 'Oh, we're out of that one, just use this one instead'

[Egon Spengler]

The reason why I need new tires even though they were brand new at the beginning of the summer....
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[magindat]

This is actually a tribute to the Marauder. They are using the same practice that the assembly plant did during production. 'Whatever we got lying around will work' 'Check that bin' 'Oh, we're out of that one, just use this one instead'

:laugh:

:nono:

:corner:

[racorcey]

Yeah, you guys are right! Techie found the "this side in" embossings. That's what I get for trying to look too late at night and with too little light. As it turns out, the "this side out" embossing happened to be exactly under the acetate tape used to hold the tires together for shipping. - Randy

BTW, I meant to say, "This side In," not "this side out."

Boy, it was hard to believe this was the same car I bought almost two years ago - and improved, for that matter.

As far as the alignment went, I handed the MM.net info to the techie, who seemed to have no problem in understanding what I wanted him to follow. When it was done, he handed me the test results, which I have included here as an attachment.

The toe was so far out - no wonder I was having inside wear problems! Even after knocking off the camber flags, he got down as far as he thought he could. I didn't have time to question him in detail on this item, so I'm not quite sure why he might have had a problem with getting into Carfixer's numbers for camber. Caster adjusted fine.

The only thing I can think of that might have affected the tweaking in of the camber adjustment is that I had several very hard "bumps" occur recently during local construction work, where the milled-off road surface had a two or more inch drop from the regular road surface. It was actually enough to shift the belt in at least one front tire, resulting in some "shimmy" around 30-35 mph. Who knows - maybe the aluminum front-end on our cars isn't as robust as a steel version? As a side note - the late-model Chevy police cars went back to using a steel front end, instead of the aluminum version used on the stock versions of the car.

Anyway, it's a major improvement, and hopefully the tire wear problem will be a thing of the past. And again, thanks for all the input!

- Randy