blue bmw wrote:
On Mon, 15 Jul 2013 05:48:50 -0400, Steve W. wrote:

"We have found that the only way to accurately match mount replacement
tires on used original or new aftermarket wheels is to use Hunter tire
balancers which have the ability to measure wheel runout and tire force
variations under load before the tire and wheel are installed on the
vehicle.

If this is true (and it very well may be), then why do my replacement
tires come with both the red and yellow dots, and why do the Yokohama
and Bridgestone articles and TSBs I provided say to mount the rim with
respect to those dots for replacement tires?

Do you see why this is confusing?
That's why I'm trying to find the answer.


The reason is that any company that sells to an auto manufacturer has to
mark the tires sold to them as OEM fitment.
Say Bridgestone makes 100,000 pieces of a certain tire. The auto maker
says "Hey we want 64,000 of those delivered by Friday" By marking ALL
the tires they can just grab that amount and ship them. The rest go to
wholesale/retail outlets. Those have the marks simply because of
economics. It is like any other commodity item, if you sell to a
customer that requires a certain coating or material it is easier to
make the entire run the same way and sell the "leftovers" elsewhere.

Also be aware that unless the tire you are fitting is the EXACT same
tire (make, model, molding, rubber compound, size), the new tire is
going to perform differently. You can take 5 different tires of the same
size from 5 different brands or even model tire from the same brand and
they will measure differently.

Did you know that in reality there is no such thing as a 15/16/17 INCH
tire? That in reality they are all produced using metric measurements
but still use the inch designation for easier identification?


--
Steve W.