Unidriectional tyres

Hodders · 9 Jan 2012 at 15:41

I recently had 4 new tyres fitted and one of them has been fitted so that it rotates the wrong way.

It's on a back wheel and I need the car for a 200 mile round trip before the garage can refit the trye.

How dangerous is it - I assume that it wont clear the water as well but is there anything else that could happen ?

m3ben · 9 Jan 2012 at 16:43

Is the car front or rear wheel drive? If its not one of the 'driven' wheels you should be ok, but definately get it swapped over asap

ChrisD. · 9 Jan 2012 at 17:35

m3ben said:
Is the car front or rear wheel drive? If its not one of the 'driven' wheels you should be ok, but definately get it swapped over asap

You're half right. The bit about swapping it.

Just because it's not a driven wheel, does not make it safer to drive on, especially if it's FWD, as you need most of the grip at the rear of the car, hence you should put the best tyres on the rear.

Trifid · 9 Jan 2012 at 17:37

I thought it only made a difference in the wet?

mattyfez · 9 Jan 2012 at 18:01

I would take it straight back and demand they re fit it immediately.. it takes 5 mins.
What the garage has done is careless and dangerous. End of storey.

Dogbreath · 9 Jan 2012 at 19:36

You are unlikely to be able to tell the difference unless you go steaming through deep standing water. It's no worse than having random mixes of tyres which rather a lot of cars do.

I'd certainly get the garage to sort it out when it's convenient, but the car is perfectly drivable in the mean time.

pepsilol · 9 Jan 2012 at 19:58

What tyres?

Vredestein?

Hodders · 10 Jan 2012 at 16:52

The garage has apologised and offered to do the MOT (booked in for 10 days time) for free and will swap the tyre round then.

I've been using them for ages and they have always been great so they are allowed one little mistake.

Thanks for the responses though.

bledd · 10 Jan 2012 at 17:16

"Sir you have failed your MOT, a unidirectional tyre had been fitted incorrectly. It's £45 for a retest and £15 to get the tyre switched over"

Sindri · 10 Jan 2012 at 22:30

MilanoChris said:
especially if it's FWD, as you need most of the grip at the rear of the car, hence you should put the best tyres on the rear.

Is this really true? Bearing in mind that all the power and most of the braking will be through the front?

I thought the whole point of using snow chains on the driven wheels was because they required the most grip?

Dr Who · 10 Jan 2012 at 22:33

Sindri said:
Is this really true? Bearing in mind that all the power and most of the braking will be through the front?

I thought the whole point of using snow chains on the driven wheels was because they required the most grip?

Yes because if the front changes ends because of low grip at the rear, it is safer to have the front wash out and you go straight ahead.