Daytona-Dave

I know some will know what they mean but it seems a fair few including more than enough tyre fitters either don't know or can't be bothered to mount new tyres correctly,

I started in the motor trade when doing an apprenticeship meant learning something in every part of the trade was deemed normal in order to get your papers and although i don't fit tyres for a living it was a subject that was covered during this time,

Now the other day i bought new tyres for my JDM alloys which we all know are lightweight wheels so i took them to a local tyre shop to have them fitted and balanced and asked for them to be fitted in accordance with the mounting marks, for those that don't know these are two coloured dots on the side wall of the tyre one red and one yellow, the red one is for maximum radial run out and should be aligned with a mark on the wheel indicating minimum radial run out this is the preferred method but some wheels don't have one or it's being lost when refurbed, if this can't be used then the yellow dot should be used which marks the lightest part of the tyre and should be aligned with the valve, not all tyres have them but those that do the tyre manufacturer has gone to the trouble of marking them to help us out when balancing a built up unit,

So now some will be wondering what all this means, well below is a pic of my tyre fitted by a fitter who thinks he knows best, note where the coloured dots are,



Now you could be thinking like i was he's mounted the tyre using the red dot, till i turned the wheel around and saw all the lead over 130g of it,



So i asked the fitter why all the lead did you mount it correctly, his answer was it's a load of poppycock i've never done it that way and it's balanced up ok so must be a poorly made tyre,,,WHAT!! now it's a good few years since i did my apprenticeship and just in case things had changed i contacted Yokohama, excellent customer service gave me advice on tyre pressures and temps for sprinting and the crucial info that i was correct about the fitting. after all whats the point of having a lightweight wheel then filling it full of lead and suggested having them re-balanced after they have being through a few heat cycles which sometimes leads to the removal of a bit more lead,

So back to the fitter and get him to remove the tyre and look for a mounting mark on the wheel for the red dot (radial run out) i could not find one so had them mounted with the yellow dot (weight method),

,

surprise surprise this resulted in less than half the amount of lead being used a saving of over 60g you can see below where he removed the lead he had fitted earlier ,,,,i know it's all boring stuff for those that already knew all this but we have to keep them on they're toes,

noodels

Good topic
varies from fitter with pride and respect for the job he is doing
and one who wants to get another wheel and tyre done and out of the way for the next one..
Not the best of jobs to do for a living 44 hrs a week inc Saturdays
I normally get involved and torque my own nuts peel the label off and make sure they jack up correctly

Soggybottomboy

Never knew any of that. Wondered why the dots were on tyres but didn't investigate. You need to do a tip of the month thread for folk like me.

tozerman

Good topic OP. This is something I have actually been aware off but never gave any consideration to, I always thought it was for new car manufacturers who use road force balance method.
I have the same wheels as you do on my 1999 car, when I had them refurbed a couple of years ago they used a shit load of weights on the front (140/150g IIRC). I have never noticed any dots on my tyres. I have just nipped into the garage and had a proper look at my fronts (rears ok) and have spotted the faded yellow dots (tyres are about 3-4 years old) and hey presto they are no where near the valves. So later today I am getting the fronts wheels re balanced by my local Hunter equipped tyre depot and will report back with any results

lovegroova

Your friendly mods were on top of this back in 2008 : https://www.s2ki.com/forums/uk-irela.../#post12910398

More seriously, this is a great post, Ray

H10NDR

Good info. I wasn't aware of this until I caught an episode of wheeler dealers recently where Edd China covered exactly this.

Chuck S

Great post and a good reminder for us all!

Are both red and yellow dots uniformly on the tires? I recall seeing red dots on a new car recently but either didn't notice or remember seeing a yellow. These markings have been on tires for (I'm guessing) 15 years so I'm surprised at the lack of knowledge by a tire wrangler.

Mine on the S2000 are long gone as the tires were mounted a few months ago and my "tire guy" probably scrubbed them off after balancing. He spends quite of bit of time mounting tires and likes to use the fewest wheel weights possible so he'll fiddle with the exact spot sometimes several times. He's anal enough to align the H centercaps with the valve stem when done as well.

-- Chuck

Sipha

Well well, you learn something new every day ! Thanks for this

richmc

My local independent tyre guy is well up on this, I think if you work for yourself you appreciate the cost of lead weights! He did say the red dot isn't always relevant if the wheels have been reverbed so if in doubt use the yellow dot.

Daytona-Dave

I shuda used the search function,,