Just bought 4 car wheels with tyres; 2 are on backwards

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Just bought 4 car wheels with tyres; 2 are on backwards - problem?

33 posts & 24 voices | Started 2 years ago by mudshark | Latest reply from spooky_b329

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mudshark - Member

I dented a wheel in a pothole on my puma and saw 4 of the older propellor style wheels on Ebay with decent, little used tyres. Good price so I bought them but now I see the tyres are 2 pairs of different tyres - Firestone TZ200s and SZ90s. No problem but the same pairs are put on the wheels so that they rotate the right way if on the same side of the car so one goes the wrong way if the same pair are on the front and the other pair on the back. So does this really matter? They're not marked to say that they must rotate in the correct way it's just that the markings on the tyres look like they should rotate a certain way and one on one side looks like it is rotating the opposite way to the way it's meant to.

Will I die?

Posted 2 years ago #
AndyP - Member

Will I die?
yes. It may not have anything to do with your car though.

Posted 2 years ago #
defaultslipper - Member

yes. no expert, but aren't tyres designed to shed water to the outside of the tyres. having them the wrong way will cause you to die in a big flaming ball of fire.

imo

Posted 2 years ago #
crispy bacon - Member

the two on the wrong way will be OK in reverse

HTH

Posted 2 years ago #
scaredypants - Member

surely directing the water inwards will extinguish any fireball but cause drowning and ruin mudshark's hair ?

Posted 2 years ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

If it was critical tohave the tyres in a certain direction then they would have a direction arrow.

Can you not swap them side to side? if you swap the left to the right you reverse the direction it runs in does it not?

Posted 2 years ago #
sor - Member

Forgive me if I'm being a bit thick here, but can't you just put them on upside down? Would that not sort it?

Posted 2 years ago #
hp_source - Member

Just given them a quick google, neither appear to be directional (despite the look of the SZ90). You should be fine.

in terms of having the same tread on the front/back etc, it doesn't matter. IIRC the Honda NSX used to have 4 different tyres on it as standard... go figure

Posted 2 years ago #
gixer.john - Member

Hhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm - Puma,hairspray in the glove box, wrong tyres - certainly terminal

Posted 2 years ago #
Zedsdead - Member

See the teo which are 'the wrong way round'

Put the LHS one on the RHS and the RHS one on the LHS.

Now they are all 'the right way round'

Posted 2 years ago #
spooky_b329 - Member

I was trying to work out if TJ was being sarcastic but then Zedsdead wrote the same thing...

As far as I can tell, if the front left was on 'backwards' and you swap it with the front right, the 'new' front left will still be on backwards?! The tyres will only rotate the correct way if you have both of one type on the offside, and both the other types on the nearside.

Edit: Whilst trying to picture what I was describing in my head, I remembered the directional wheels I noticed the other day on a VW Scirocco. One the offside, the profile of the wheel spokes sweeps back from the hub towards the rim, making it look fast. I wondered if the wheels were 'opposites' on each side, but no, from the nearside, profile sweeps forwards. Car looks slower

Fast Side:

Slow Side:

P.S - I've been naughty and direct linked, so for some reason they've put someone else's URL across the pics?!

Posted 2 years ago #
MidlandTrailquestsGraham - Member

An AEC Militant yesterday...

Good mixture of tread directions there.

Posted 2 years ago #
Zedsdead - Member

"As far as I can tell, if the front left was on 'backwards' and you swap it with the front right, the 'new' front left will still be on backwards?!"

Do you have lego?

If so go get a lego wheel. Paint an arrow on it. Now swap it to the other side.

Posted 2 years ago #
carlos - Member

QUOTE - TandemJeremy - Member
If it was critical to have the tyres in a certain direction then they would have a direction arrow.

TJ speaks the truth, just had two tyres fitted to the Mrs car and they look directional but as there are NO ARROWS to show direction it doesn't matter. Now I'm no mechanic but then again I'm not daft but I even asked the bloke at the garage to confirm for peace of mind.

Posted 2 years ago #
mr_whacky - Member

or head off to tyre place and ask them to swap them round... cant be more than a ten minute job!

Posted 2 years ago #
zaskar - Inactive

If thye tyre is directional then yes it would help to have it the right way.

Check model of tyre and compare/swap RL for RR?

Posted 2 years ago #
TheChunk - Member

Do you have lego?

If so go get a lego wheel. Paint an arrow on it. Now swap it to the other side.

Yay, my tyre that was pointing in the wrong direction is now right!

Now I'll just put the one that was fine in the first place on the other side and.........oh.

Posted 2 years ago #
Zedsdead - Member

where are you mudshark - I'll sort you out

Posted 2 years ago #
hungry monkey - Member

i'm not sure if people are getting what mudshark is on about (or i've missed the mark completely...

from what i gather,

if you imagine the car only has 2 wheels on it (the others haven't been fitted...), with the same tyres fitted.

if the car has both wheels on the LHS, the tyres are both pointing the same direction (eg chevrons pointing forward at the top of the tyre)

however, if mudshark moved (for eg) the LHS rear to the RHS front (leaving both rear axles without a wheel) then the LHS front will point forward, while the RHS will point backward.

the way i see it is that mudshark has 2 current options.

tyres pointing the same direction on the LHS (of one type) and tyres on the RHS also pointing forward (but a different type to the LHS)

or

front tyres being the same, but pointing different directions and rear tyres the same, pointing different directions

moving a tyre to the other side of the car will reverse the direction it points.

does any of this make sense?

as for what he should do, i've no idea.

Posted 2 years ago #
chopperT - Member

I'm just not going to get involved.

Posted 2 years ago #
spooky_b329 - Member

Do you have lego?
If so go get a lego wheel. Paint an arrow on it. Now swap it to the other side.

Do you have Lego? Get TWO lego wheels, orientate them as left and right. Paint one arrow forwards, one backwards. Now swap them round. You've swapped the tyres but the backwards arrow will still be in the same place

Think of all that wasted effort, assuming you are using the spare to swap tyres round, you'd have to jack up the car six times to swap the tyres on each axle, and still end up where you started

(I know its largely irrelevant as the tyres don't have directional arrows, but we all know most mtb tyres have a 'correct' way round, usually opposites for front braking and rear traction)

Also, I bet the tyres still perform better the 'correct' way round, but by making them directional it will put off some buyers who want the freedom to shuffle tyres around to even out wear.

Posted 2 years ago #
owenfackrell - Member

Check the tyres to see if they have markings on them saying inside and outside. Aslong as these are correct then the tyres will work on either side of the car. It is normally very expensive to get car tyres that can only go on one side of the car so they tend to make the profile work from inside out which will work in either direction.

Posted 2 years ago #
-m- - Member

Check the tyres to see if they have markings on them saying inside and outside. As long as these are correct then the tyres will work on either side of the car

...and note that if they are on 'inside out' it's an MOT fail (if they check properly)

Posted 2 years ago #
mudshark - Member

Thanks for all the input - seems some are better at visualising this than others! I probably wouldn't have noticed if both were wrong but the fact they are different to each other makes me wonder if they'd behave differently under heavy braking, bad conditions or cornering. As I have my old wheels with tyres correctly on maybe I should put these ones on the back just as less likely to be a problem there? Aesthetically this ain't great though as mixing wheel styles:

Posted 2 years ago #
Marge - Member

TZ200 is a non-directional assymetrical pattern

SZ90 is directional & does have arrrows.

You of course should have 1 pair of same pattern on front axle & other pair on rear axle.
I hope that you have the SZ90 tyres mounted in different directions then it is no problem. (if they are both mounted in same direction one will need swapping)

Posted 2 years ago #
Marge - Member

IIRC the Honda NSX used to have 4 different tyres on it as standard... go figure

Correct - assymetrical directional & different size front to rear axle! 4 unique tyres on 1 car. Doh!

Posted 2 years ago #
mudshark - Member

OK these are the tyres:

SZ90:

TZ200:

Posted 2 years ago #
Marge - Member

oh god oh god.
I am embarassed to stay I was wrong. I bothered to look it up instead of using my evidently hopeless memory. I was thinking SZ80....
SZ90 is assymetrical pattern hence it can be mounted anywhere on the vehicle!
The tyres should though remain in pairs on the axles though.

Sounds like your problem is no more.

By the way - I also had a Puma. The wheels are soft as hell. I wrecked 2 on potholes. I drive a lot of kms and have never had this happen on any other wheel.

Posted 2 years ago #
Mostly Balanced - Member

It might make a difference -- if you drive like a boy racer every time you're out in torrential rain.

Posted 2 years ago #
mudshark - Member

OK thanks happy now! BTW, it's OK to mix the wheel styles so different ones on the front to the back?

My boy racer days are over...next stop mid-life crisis so some sort of car upgrade no doubt.

Posted 2 years ago #
glenh - Member

Asymmetric tyres are on different ways around depending on which side of the car they are on. That's the way they are designed. As long as the side that says 'outside' is on the outside, then your fine.

Interestingly though I think it does affect handling slightly. My car used to fell slightly odd under braking, with the front wheels trying to steer the car slightly without my permission (but not just to one side as it would if the brakes were imbalanced).
Swapped to symmetric tyres and voilà, it fine!

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

It might make a difference -- if you drive like a boy racer every time you're out in torrential rain.

Do you use el-cheapo budget tyres too under the same guidance?! I hope not for your sake!

Posted 2 years ago #
spooky_b329 - Member

Just to rock the boat, I prefer the 'old' wheels Same style as the ones on my Mondeo Zetec, 9 spokes. Wonder if they are the same?

Posted 2 years ago #

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