Firestone Firehawk TZ200

[Daz0371]

Can anyone confirm wether or not Firestone Firehawk TZ200 are directional/asymetrical type tyre or neither.

The guy at the garage said that they were neither but the tread surface had coloured lines close to one edge which I thought suggested otherwise. I think one of them is fitted the wrong way round because the coloured lines are fitted to the inner rim on one wheel and the outer rim on the other.

Also since they were fitted the road noise is now v.loud, it sounds like a knackered wheel bearing but there is no play whatsoever in either wheel. (I've read reviews about this tyre and it's supposed to be a quiet touring tyre)

They have no obvious direction arrows but the tyre wall has pattern on it which could be, it looks like chevrons on signs.

Please help


Daz

 

[clio_rob]

i fit these daily as i work for kwik-rip

i can conferm that they are not rotational or asymetrical

from what i am aware they are a noisey tyre had them on my rt for a week but sold them on due to the road noise

hth

 

[Daz0371]

So what are the coloured lines for?

 

[nockmeister]

Look here
http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html

go down to this section
What about the coloured stripes in the tread

quite interesting info...
As well as the colour, the actual position of the lines is something to take note of too. They're a measure of something called runout. Depending on how the belts are laid on the tyre during manufacturing, they can cause the tire to "run out" - to not track perfectly straight, but pull to the left or right. The closer to the centre of the tyre that these lines are, the less runout the tyre has and the straighter it will track when mounted on your car. So for example, if you were looking at your car from the front and you saw the coloured striped running around the right side of both your front tyres, the car would likely have a tendency to pull to that side. The best thing is to have the coloured stripes on opposite sides of the tyres for opposite sides of the car, so that the runout on each side will counteract the other and help maintain a good straight running.

And this line is a classic...
This is something that not many tyre fitting places know about or take any notice of. The obvious solution to having the stripes both on one side is to flip one of the tyres around, but that will only work if they're not unidirectional tyres. If they are unidirectional (and thus must be mounted to rotate a specific way) then you should try to find another tyre from the same batch with the stripe on the opposite side.

 

[Daz0371]

Excellent!

I think you've just solved my problem :clap:

So for example, if you were looking at your car from the front and you saw the coloured striped running around the right side of both your front tyres, the car would likely have a tendency to pull to that side

This is what happens, if I veer slightly to the left the noise gets quieter but if I go right it gets louder, this is a symptom of a tyre not running true yes? scrubbing the tread etc.

I'm going to get the one I think is on backwards swapped round to see if it improves things.

Many thanks guys

Darren

 

[martynh]

Should this be in here?

 

[Daz0371]

why not?

 

[martynh]

Hardly tuning is it? There's a wheels/tyre section just below this.

Just being anal.

 

[Daz0371]

No mention of tyres in the link


Exterior / Bodykits / Wheels
Bodykits, resprays, wheels, tinting etc...


that's why I posted where I did

 

[martynh]

Wheels and tyres don't go together?

Like I said just being anal.

 

[Daz0371]

Yeah, Yeah, just having a laugh

I'm new to this, look I've only got 6 posts, I didn't read it properly.