Yellow and red paint spots on tire sidewalls
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Question

Yellow and red paint spots on tire sidewalls

NormPeterson (Structural)

(OP)

5 Feb 04 20:29

Recently I purchased a set of tires via mail order and I am about to mount and balance them. On each tire there is a yellow dot and a red dot approximately 1/3 of the way around the tire from the yellow dot in the clockwise direction, and these markings are only found on one sidewall. There is no consistency among the four tires regarding the placement of these dots relative to the molded-in tire markings, which leads me to suspect that they mean something in terms of balance and/or suggested orientation on the rim. The tires in question are Falken Ziex ZE512's in 225/50R17 94V size, unidirectional and symmetrical with a largish circumferential groove in the center of the tread.

I should add that my wheels (Nissan Maxima alloys) each have one small white paint dot near the outer diameter, and these are not located in any consistent fashion with respect to the valve stem hole.

Exactly what do these paint dots represent and how would I best use that information?

Thanks in advance.

Norm

luncle (Automotive) · Answer 1 · 2004-02-05 21:45:37

Check with the supplier?
I can only really comment as to what our supplier (not Falken) require. The red dots on the tyre should be aligned with the wheel indicator as they represent the low point of the rim bead radial runout and the high point of the tyre imbalance respectively. This will achieve best level of comfort/performance.
Our supplier uses a yellow dot as a QA pass indicator.
I am aware that other systems, mostly light truck, require the tyre dot to match the valve hole in the wheel.

CheeRS

NormPeterson (Structural) · Answer 2 · 2004-02-07 16:14:20

Thanks for the prompt response.

I'll try Falken, hoping that I can find the right place to ask and that they will be willing to share that kind of information with an individual end-user.

Norm

NormPeterson (Structural) · Answer 3 · 2004-02-11 06:47:19

Just as follow-up, matching the red tire dots with the white wheel dots resulted in the wheels balancing in one iteration each. The amounts of weight approximately in the wheel mounting surface plane (necessitated by the design of the wheel, which does not support the use of weights of any kind on the outboard flange) were slightly less than in the OE wheel/tire balance, though the weights near the inboard flanges were slightly greater.

Thanks again; worth a star.

Norm

mrmopartech (Automotive) · Answer 4 · 2004-02-12 20:04:20

The red dot that you find on the tire is a alignment mark for the tire valve,the yellow dot is the heavy spot of the tire,to indicate to the tech if he has a out of balance wheel assembly to counter balance the wheel and tire assembly,scott @ goodyear.

NormPeterson (Structural) · Answer 5 · 2004-02-17 18:14:46

Apparently Falken's convention is a little different.

The yellow dot is the lightest spot and it is suggested to mount this above the valve stem.

The red dot is the high point, recommended to be mounted at the low point of the rim if so marked or, preferably, per actual measurement.

Per a product engineer at Falken Tire, these marks are just "starting" points for the tire installer to effectively mount your tires. With some of the new balancing equipment out there, the machine can do a more accurate job matching and balancing then simply relying on these dots alone.

Norm

GregLocock (Automotive) · Answer 6 · 2004-02-28 00:45:27

We use two spots. One is the point of maximum imbalance, which is matched to the point of mainimum imbalance on the rim. The other is the point of maximum tire force variation, and is matched to the dimensional low point of the rim.

No, I don't know how we work out a compromise, I'd /guess/ that tyre force variation matching is the most important characteristic.

Incidentally, since every tyre has tyre force variation, a wise man might conclude that we machine our wheels eccentrically, deliberately.

Incidentally, at least in Australia, if you do get tyres with two dots on them then they are of OEM standard, not the usual aftermarket stuff (this may have changed).

Cheers

Greg Locock

ProEpro (Mechanical) · Answer 7 · 2004-03-22 22:26:01

so Would you say Oem tires are higher grde than aftermasrket or is it just a matter of what you pay?

ProEpro
www.whitelightdesign.com

Pro/E FAQ www.whitelightdesign.com/servicestips.htm

GregLocock (Automotive) · Answer 8 · 2004-03-22 23:18:21

I have heard that the best 60% of production of a given tyre go to OEM, the rest to P&A and aftermarket sales.

But, there may be better tyres for a particular application than the OEM fitment. OEM tyres are selected partly on price, and it is quite possible that you will be able to find a better tyre, given that you will have different priorities. Quite how you find out is another matter altogether - some motoring magazines run tests, which may help if they have tested the sort of thing you are interested in.

As an example, in the USA at least, fuel economy drives a lot of OEM decisions, whereas in the aftermarket fuel economy is of peripheral concern at best.

Cheers

Greg Locock

ramnathv (Automotive) · Answer 9 · 2004-04-14 21:27:55

the red and yellow points display the high and low inbalance on the tire. matching them with the wheel would help in reducing the amount of balancing weights used.

hope this was useful.

GregLocock (Automotive) · Answer 10 · 2004-04-16 06:57:01

Probably not. The high and low spots of balance would be 180 degrees apart. The red and yellow spots usually aren't.

My information is incomplete, but correct. Yours is wrong.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Miatamight (Automotive) · Answer 11 · 2004-05-04 21:03:30

Try this site for the straight answer on the dots for Falken Tires.

http://www.falkentire.com/tech_warranties_docs/Uniformity.cfm

Hope that helps!

SusTestEng (Automotive) · Answer 12 · 2004-05-10 17:02:55

Miatamight has the correct information for most tires in the link above.

Yellow=Light
Red=High

Aligning the red mark with the low spot on the wheel(usually marked on wheel with white dot) is the best method for mounting tires. This makes the assembly more uniform and helps limit the RFV (Radial Force Variation). If you have expieriance with a newer high line tire balancing machine, it will "OEM Match" tires for you, which basically means matching the uniformity of the wheel to the uniformity of the tire. this is very important to to when mount very stiff or high performance tires, as it will limit tire vibrations causing shimmy and shake.

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