Tyre mounting and the little coloured dots
 

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,

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4209/3...08eca5fa_c.jpg

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,

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4210/3...2e5b69e0_c.jpg

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),

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4267/3...63072fb9_c.jpg,

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,

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4284/3...f2b2832c_c.jpg

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 :LOL:

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.

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 :LOL:

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

More seriously, this is a great post, Ray :thumbup:

Wheeler Dealers
 

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

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

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

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.

I shuda used the search function,,:LOL:

No, it's a welcome reminder.

I've virtually given up (Event used to be good, but again, their fitters no longer GAF) and if it's on the correct wheel, it's a bonus.

I had my front tyres rotated and rebalanced earlier today and as Ray discovered the results are predictable...
Front left before
Attachment 73450
Front left after
Attachment 73451
Front right before
Attachment 73452
Front right after
Attachment 73453

So in total I saved 90grams of weight on both wheels. my understanding is that unsprung weight is equivalent to 4 x that amount. So that works out at 360grams which is nearly 1lb :LOL:
Worth all the effort ? no of course not, but worth it to get rid of a shit load of weights and the knowledgethat you have achieved something (albeit minor) ? of course it is :)

Haha yeah it is a lot effort but at least like you say it gets rid of all that lead and next time we have tyres i'll make sure they fit them correctly more so when i get a set of OZ HLT's after all who wants a lightweight wheel full of lead,,nice clean wheels by the way i'll have to get mine sorted now i've seen yours :(

The new cars that go through the dealers i work in all come with sticky paper dots on the tyre and wheels, these are usually perfectly aligned but occasionally are a little out of sync, these Ihave noticed have a little more weight on the wheels to balance them, constantly telling apprentices how to mount tyres for best balance but it goes in one ear and out the other.
I always like to fit the locking wheel nut opposite the valve or at the valve depending on the wheel mount, doesn't do much I think but creates symmetry, pick git me.

The Honda locking lug nut is claimed to match the weight of the rest of them but I've no way to confirm. Symmetry also demands the H center cap align with the valve stem!

-- Chuck

I was out test driving new potential daily drivers on Friday - four main dealers had cars in their showroom with the yellow dot randomly positioned around the wheel.

You never know some time and motion man may have "discovered" it's cheaper to add weights than fir the wheel properly...

S.

Nice, always wondered what those little dots were for :thumbup:

Recently had a new set of rears (AD08Rs) and I asked for yellow dots to be lined up having seen a vid by Speed Academy:
The fitter was aware but doesn't usually go to the effort of fully lining them up - the manual rotating of the tyre is hard work =)

Have yet to see another car with them lined up properly. Bear in mind that one side of the car won't show the dots once fitted when looking out for them ;)

edit: having just had a quick look at the comments on that vid , the dude does get slated for some things but at least I learnt about the dots :D

Well, if it's that hard to place tyre on top of rim with yellow dot roughly aligned to the valve hole, bang the bead over the rim to start, engage tyre lever machine and press 'rotate', I suppose it's all too much effort, really.

The tyre shouldn't rotate that much (if at all) whilst being fitted.

Every day is a school day, great info!

With plenty of tyre soap on both rim and the tyre bead it's easy enough to slide the tyre around to the correct place.