Wrong way tires?

I was stuck in rush hour traffic a few days ago, so I started
looking around. I was looking around, and saw a familiar
tire - a Yokohama AVS ES100 on the rear of a Civic. I
had that particular tire on my Integra before it was stolen.
The car was recovered, but the wheels weren't. In fact, the
thieves were **ahem** "nice enough" to replace them with bald
tires on steel wheels.

The strange thing I noticed since were were stopped at times
was that the rear tire I saw was oriented backwards. These
are directional tires, and the "chevron" should be pointed
forward at the top. I thought about telling the guy, but we
weren't stopped long enough. I'm not sure if they were mounted
that way (intentionally?) or perhaps rotated that way.

So what's the worst that could happen. My guess is that it
might not wear as well. Could there be possible safety problems?

 

He must've stolen ur tires and mounted them backwards.

Did you get his license #?




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This usually results in increased rolling noise as well as poorer wet
traction - may cause one side of the car to aquaplane faster than the
other.

Cheers,

Pete

 

Well, that's probably the best. I'm no expert, but I think
directional tires help channel water out from under the tire. If you
reverse the tire and thus the channeling, it will probably do the
opposite and force water under the tire.. Could cause aquaplaning..

They probably had the tires rotated by someone that didn't know how to
rotate directional tires.. (you keep them on the same side)..

That's just my guess..

Randall Fox

 

they usually growl like hell!
Chip

 

I thought about it (seriously). However - they were mounted
on aftermarket alloy rims.

I've seen quite a few GS-R rims mounted on Civics. I even
saw one with blank caps where it normally says "ACURA". Who
knows - maybe I've seen my old rims somewhere.

 

At worst, it won't perform as well in the wet as it should.

 

I looked into getting directional tires and this is what I was told from the
tire shop. The tires are designed to roll one way only, which as mentioned,
aid in water movement correctly. Similar to a lint brush, rub your hand on
it one way and its smooth, rub back the other way and rough. You roll
directional tires the wrong way and you'll tear up the tires in a hurry;
i.e. going against the grain. They'll get nowhere near the true expected
life.

Keith