I recentally had rims put on my Z and i just realized that they mixed the two front tires up (the arrow on both the front tires is pointing in the wrong direction) The morons that put my tires on put them on in the wrong direction so the tread is backwards. I have been driving like this for 6,000 miles. How bad is this for the tires and should i make them buy me new ones?

 

make them buy you new ones.. if they won't, i would take them to court

it's not just the treadwear... it's a safety issue... i can't believe they'd let you roll on incorrectly mounted tires... it's a miracle you haven't been hurt because of their incompetance.. directional tires are directional for a reason

 

You just made me feel better about yelling at the guy cause he tried telling me that it didnt affect the tire...

 

just have them reverse the tire and be on your merry way. your tire isn't damaged any. it does have an effect on the way your car handles but the tire isn't ruined.

 

the directional tread only makes a difference in wet weather conditions... the tread is designed to evacuate water from under the tire and to work properly it has to be running the correct direction... that's what the arrows indicate

running them backwards, as you have done, has no affect at all on the tire tread... all you need to do is take the wheels off one side of the car and mount them on the other side... this will get the arrows pointing the right direction

 

There used to be a school of thought that said you should not reverse the direction on any tire once it's been driven for any length of time in one direction. This had to do with belts separating and etc. That seems to have gone out of fashion. However, being the old hard head that I am, I still adhere to this rule.

Lou