Hey guys.

Well, I went over to spray the car off today since it's starting to get nice. And I'm not sure what really made me look while I was down there spraying the tires off, but I noticed that the front tires on the side said "interior" on the outside of the lip. So I quickly scanned the rears and they said "exterior". I was concerned now. I've been driving around for months with 2 backwards tires. To make the story come together, I purchased 2 new P6's from tire Rack because my fronts wore very quickly. So I had a local shop put them on. They scuffed my lip a little and NOW, they put them on backwards. Since I haven't notiiced, I assume it's not really doing any harm. Is this the case? Maybe just a little louder in terms of road noise? Should I pay to get them put back on the proper way, or just leave it after so long?

Also, I'm starting to readily lose air in my one tire. The seats on the wheel should be fine, so does that only leave patching it? Do the P6's lose air often? I never had an iddue with them losing air, ever, now suddenly they're all losing a little.

AGH! lol.

 

Most tire shops offer warranties. I'd have them re-done. It will fix the leak problem too since you having the beads redone.

 

It was a local Citgo. haha. Will they do the same thing for me if I go in and tell them what happened?

 

If you can post a pic of the fronts, I can tell you if they are supposed to be the other way. They could be backwards only if the tire is an asymmetrical tread patter.

As for the loss of air, I would check your valvestem before you go in. Its just a simple check. Find a bottle of windex or some sort of soapy spray cleaner. Take off your valve cap and spray the valve core inside the stem. It will start bubbling right away if that is leaking. Next, spray the base of the valvestem where it meets with the wheel, then bend the valvestem at about a 45 degree angle in all directions, if that is leaking, it will start bubbling as soon as you bend it. The bubbles will be very obvious because of the soap.

If neither of those bubble, then most likely you have a nail, screw, piece of shrapnel, etc in your tire.

Do you have hammer on weights on the inside and outside lip of the wheel, or are they stickon weights?

If they are stickons, which they prolly are, there is not a bead leak.

But post a pic of the tires and I'll tell you for sure.

Edit: Also, what speed rating are your tires? If they are Z rated- W, Y, or (Y), you can only repair the tire once or it ruins the structural integrity of the tire.

 

I just replaced them with the exact same size P6's as came on the car. There's no outside weights, but there might be a couple on the inside?

 

Okay, I checked the Pirelli website, I guess they are the P6 Fourseasons. That is not an asymmetrical tread, so it can't be backwards, no worries there.

As for the leak. Do you have access to a floor jack, jack stand, and spanner wrench to take off the wheel? Cause I can walk you through the whole process of finding a leak, but if you find a nail I suggest taking it in to a tire shop that uses a patch and a plug to repair the tire, not a home patch kit.

Directions:
Jack up vehicle on level surface, place jackstand under framerail or side skirt, or something heavy guage metal. Remove wheel. If the inside has a weight, take that same windex or soapy spray, and spray the weight right where it disappears between the tire and the rim. Wait at least 30 seconds, because this leak could be very very small. It will appear not as bubbles, but a really thin foam. If you don't see anything after about a minute or two, blow off the excess spray so there is just a tiny amount of the spray still there. Still no foam, then there is no leak. If you want, you can spray all the way around the rim where the tire meets it, just to be sure that it isn't a bead leak. 90% chance it ain't that though.

Now do a quick visual check on the tire to see if there is a nail or screw visible in the tire, it could be in the sidewall as well, so check there too. If you still don't see anything, then go ahead and spray down the entire tread surface of the tire, and look at the tread very closely, it could be any kind of leak, from the extremely fine foam to spraying air.

Finally do the same to the sidewall of the tire. If you still can't find anything, you can either dunk the tire in a large bucket of water to submerge a section of the tire and look for bubbles.

At the very extreme, it could be a crack in the rim. Pray it isn't this.

If you do all of this, and you still can't find any leak, just take it in to a tire shop, so they can take the tire off the rim and check the inside of the tire. Also ask them to replace the valve stem at this time, to rule out that. If you can ask to see if there is any corrosion on the rim and bead mounting surface. If there is, that needs to be ground or scrubbed off, because that would be the bead leak. I suggest a Costco because I can vouch for the quality of work. Discount also does good work.

Feel free to ask any questions.

 

He's not talking backwards like they're directional. (BTW you have asymmetrical confused...tires are either directional or asymmetrical...the P6's are asymmetrical - from TireRack: The P6 Four Seasons radial features an asymmetric tread design).

He means his are on.....hmmm, I guess the literal way would be to say they're "inside out". The shop mounted them so that what should be the sidewall facing in toward the center of the car is facing out away from the car.

 

Don't lecture me on tires, I know what I'm talkin about. I get backwards and flip flopped, or "inside out"

This is Directional.



This is asymmetrical tread.




This is symmetrical.



Do you see the difference. Either way the tire is on the rim, it still looks the same. And I don't care what Tire rack says, they have other information wrong on their site as well.

Edit: Tires are either Directional (points in one direction, both halfs are the same), Symmetrical (as in if you cut the tire down the middle and lay one on the other its the same), or Asymmetrical(the tread points in a direction, but both halfs aren't the same).

A reason why it might say interior or exterior, is that the tire Dept Of Transportation (DOT) number is supposed to be on the outside of the vehicle. Many people don't have it that way, but that is the way it is supposed to be.

 

I didn't really figure they were "directional" either. That's why it confused my when I was "interior" labeled on the outside tread on my tire. lol. The rears both say "exterior".

But yeah, I could go through all that to see about the problem myself (I did auto mechanics for a year in school), but I'll probably just hit up Sams Club or something over the weekend then that way they'll be able to tell me exactly what's up without the hassle...

But thanks so far guys!!