Torque Specs

zero610

It's on MA-33. Am I reading that right?

wstar

The SM does indeed indicate directional tires on that page. That's where I read it first as well. However, if you look at the sidewall of the tires themselves and look up the same tires online, it appears they are only asymmetric, and could be rotated left/right.

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semtex

Guys, I'm going go out on a limb here and say that it's a misprint in the SM. Because check out this picture of the Bridgestone S-02: SuperView of the Bridgestone Potenza S-02

It's a little tough to see, but if you look at the back of the tire in the shot (at 3 o'clock), you can see a little arrow with the word "Rotation". That's how you know it's unidirectional. And our RE050A's don't have this indicator.

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316.8whp & 248 ft/lbs (Dyno Dynamics) | 319whp & 256 ft/lbs (DynoJet) (04/23/10)
Stillen G3 CAI, CBE, Pulley / F.I. LTH / GTSpec Ladder Brace / Setrab Oil Cooler / UpRev-tuned by Forged Perf.

tvfreakazoid

So what does that mean?

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ChrisSlicks

Correct, the RE50A's are asymmetric. This means they have an inside and an outside, but can rotate either way.

semtex

Hmm...yeah, you're reading it right. I'm surprised though. Looking at the sidewall, I can see that the word "Outside" is stamped on the tire, which is what indicates that it's an asymmetric tread pattern (i.e., different tread on the inside of the tire vs. the outside). When tires are unidirectional, however, the sidewall is usually stamped with an arrow and the word "Forward" to indicate the direction the tire must rotate in. And I do not see that on the sidewall. I wonder if maybe that's a misprint in the service manual.

Actually, maybe a better way of putting it would be to say that they've worded that sentence really poorly. Here's how they worded it: "Tire cannot be rotated in vehicle, as front tire are different size from rear tire and the direction of wheel rotation is fixed in each tire." Okay, let's think about this. What would happen if the fronts and rears were all the same size, and the tires were unidirectional? Would that prevent us from rotating them? No. We wouldn't be able to swap the left rear with the right front, but we'd still be able to swap the left front with the left rear, and the right front with the right rear. Right? So really, what they should have said is that we can't rotate the fronts and rears because the wheels are different sizes. Period. The direction of wheel rotation isn't even pertinent.

I also looked up the tire at tirerack.com, and they mention it being asymmetric, but don't say anything about it being unidirectional. (Bridgestone Potenza RE050A)

But hey, I could be wrong. So I guess the safe thing to do is never flip them from one side to the other.

__________________
"There are no small accidents on this circuit." -- Ayrton Senna
316.8whp & 248 ft/lbs (Dyno Dynamics) | 319whp & 256 ft/lbs (DynoJet) (04/23/10)
Stillen G3 CAI, CBE, Pulley / F.I. LTH / GTSpec Ladder Brace / Setrab Oil Cooler / UpRev-tuned by Forged Perf.