Question about tyres.

sudzs

Hope I can explain what I mean properly but can anyone tell me if a tyre does not have symetrical grooving, as in there is a wider bit of rubber in contact with the road on the outside of the tyre and some grooves are at certain angles etc, then am I right in thinking that there would be left and right tyres? As in the tyres on the left would look like a mirror image of the other. Did I make any sence there?!

Mr.David

sudzs wrote: »

Hope I can explain what I mean properly but can anyone tell me if a tyre does not have symetrical grooving, as in there is a wider bit of rubber in contact with the road on the outside of the tyre and some grooves are at certain angles etc, then am I right in thinking that there would be left and right tyres? As in the tyres on the left would look like a mirror image of the other. Did I make any sence there?!

I presume you mean assymetrical tyres, yes they do exist and are relatively common, esp on high performance cars.:)

sudzs

Thanks for the quick reply!

Here's photos of the rear left and right tyre... do they look right to you?

Plug

Yes there ok, most tyres you can put on anyway, them tires it would say inside/outside on them and high performace tyres would be direction rotation.

sudzs

Yes, it says "Outside" on the outside of them both.



But doesn't one look like it's on the opposite way, like the grooves are uside down??

Plug

sudzs wrote: »

Yes, it says "Outside" on the outside of them both.



But doesn't one look like it's on the opposite way, like the grooves are uside down??

Naa they're OK. Once it says outside on the outside of the tire its ok;)

Type 17

sudzs wrote: »

But doesn't one look like it's on the opposite way, like the grooves are uside down??

Despite what it looks like, once these type of tyres say "outside" on the outside sidewall, then all is well.

The tyres that you are thinking of are a more advanced/sports-orientated design, which are directional (says "rotation" or "direction" with an arrow on the sidewall), and their tread pattern must 'point' in the direction that the wheel will rotate, or else the car may aquaplane in wet weather.

Esel

Tyres that are uni-directional have an arrow showing the direction of rotation.

sudzs

Thanks everyone!

It's just that when they put the tyres on first, they let me drive away with three of one type and a 4th that was completely different. So was wondering if maybe I'd been given dodgy fake tyres or something from a dodgy tyre place. And any sets of 4 similar tyres on ebay all look like they are 2 sets of mirror image grooves....if you know what i mean?!

And the car is badly pulling to the left but I need to check the tyre pressure first really, but tyres only went on only last week so that should really be correct. :rolleyes:

Type 17

sudzs wrote: »

And the car is badly pulling to the left but I need to check the tyre pressure first really, but tyres only went on only last week so that should really be correct. :rolleyes:

You're assuming that the tyre place set them to the correct pressure in the first place

Also, you should check new tyres more often for a while, to see if they are leaking air at the bead (tyre-rim interface). Once you have confirmed that they are ok, you can go back to your usual checking interval (you do have a checking interval, don't you? )

Biro

sudzs wrote: »

Thanks everyone!

It's just that when they put the tyres on first, they let me drive away with three of one type and a 4th that was completely different. So was wondering if maybe I'd been given dodgy fake tyres or something from a dodgy tyre place. And any sets of 4 similar tyres on ebay all look like they are 2 sets of mirror image grooves....if you know what i mean?!

And the car is badly pulling to the left but I need to check the tyre pressure first really, but tyres only went on only last week so that should really be correct. :rolleyes:

It does look like from your pic that the right one is on back to front alright.

Mr.David

It could be that the tyre currently on the rhs rear should be on the lhs (say the front). then the same face would be outwards. but it wont matter.

Have done tests with proper high performance assymetric tyres and there is a minimal difference with them mounted back to front or on the wrong sides

Turbulent Bill

Mr.David wrote: »

Have done tests with proper high performance assymetric tyres and there is a minimal difference with them mounted back to front or on the wrong sides

Maybe in the dry, but the rotation direction could make a huge difference in the wet. Tyres are designed to pump water away from the contact area in wet conditions, so reversing the thread direction for unidirectional tyres could be a very bad idea.

Mr.David

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Maybe in the dry, but the rotation direction could make a huge difference in the wet. Tyres are designed to pump water away from the contact area in wet conditions, so reversing the thread direction for unidirectional tyres could be a very bad idea.

Yes I meant to add that its in the dry of course! The other interesting thing that we found was that the difference in performance between assymmetrical and symmetrical tyres of the same brand, size and compound was negligible (1-2%) and so are a waste of money unless on performance cars driven at/near the limit.:)

L1011

Mr.David wrote: »

It could be that the tyre currently on the rhs rear should be on the lhs (say the front). then the same face would be outwards. but it wont matter.

Have done tests with proper high performance assymetric tyres and there is a minimal difference with them mounted back to front or on the wrong sides

Having Eagle F1's force all water the wrong direction is going to have unforseen circumstances... those being consumer-level high performance completely assymetric tyres.