Hi,

First some background: I purchased a certified used 2006 Fit around February of this year. It had 47k miles on it. The dealer has not completed the certification correctly, such as replacing carpet, glovebox rattle, windshield wiper blades, and air filter. I had talked to the service manager though, and he took care of all the items I brought to his attention. That was in so-cal and I've since moved to nor-cal.

Yesterday I hit 5k miles since buying the car, and so had the oil changed and tires rotated at another dealer. During the tire rotation, the dealer found that one of the directional tires was installed backwards by the original dealer. Specifically it is the rear left wheel. They suggested I contact the original dealer to cover the cost of switching the tire on the wheel (~$60).

After driving away from the new dealers lot (with the rear left tire still backwards), I noticed on the highway that the car pulls to the right. It isn't too dramatic, but it will definitely start to veer into another lane after about 3 seconds if I take my hands off the steering wheel. I talked with my new dealer and they suggested it might due to uneven wear, possible made worse by the directional tire being installed incorrectly.

So I have a few options:

1. Correct directional tire, and hope that clears up problem. Maybe make it worse?

2. Rotate tires back to original position (Without the pull). The new dealer offered to do this. Then, never rotate the tires.... just replace once there is too much tread wear. Considering I drive about 6k to 8k a year, might be a while until I have to replace them. Additionally, I might go to school in the northeast in a couple years... and so would get all-season tires for that. I'm leaning towards this option. Possibly leave the one tire in the wrong direction.

3. Try wheel alignment, but not guaranteed to fix the problem.

I still need to contact the old dealer and see what they will cover.

Any thoughts?

 

I would go back to your original dealer. Directional tires mounted the wrong way would be killed within miles, meaning if mounted onto a different hub in the right direction it would not work correctly.

 

Wow - I didn't realize it was that bad. The original dealer is about 600 miles from here, so driving it in won't be possible, unless I wait for Thanksgiving (and then they might not be open). What should I reasonably expect from them? These are not stock I don't think - some cheap 'Westlake' brand tires.

 

I just googled this a bit more and haven't found any sources saying the directional tires will be damaged. Note: these aren't high performance racing tires, but cheapish generic (i assume) tires.

One source said no permanent damage will result in backwards mounting. Another said the performance difference of correct vs incorrect direction is less than difference between different tread patterns and brands of tires. And that incorrect direction will generally be about as safe. Do you have any references stating that permanent damage will occur? Thanks!

 

You made me research this subject more

My first statement was based on what I heard years ago about the process of laying the belts down during the construction process, but some research yields that manufacturers such as Kumho no longer have this problem. So I would assume it's okay but is not optimum especially over longer distances and wet weather. The tread on the tire mounted backwards would channel water not in the way it was designed, and some tires have different tread design on the inside compared to the outside. Road noise may be increased also.