No, the colour marking is not to prevent resale. These are what you call run-out markings to indicate the balance of the tyre. The tyres are not uni-formally balance and some offset is expected. This line will tell which the side the balance bias and how straight the tyre will run.

Sometimes the tyre shop fits it wrongly and have both tyres with the same weight bias and the car will not run straight, no matter how you align the tyres. This lines help the tyre shop match the balance bias of both tyres on each sides of the car to make alignment easier.

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Added on March 12, 2010, 9:03 amNo. Those lines are not what cheeann said they are for. Furthermore, if those tyres were not new, you should have been able to see the scrubbing on the treads. Those lines do not appear on all tyres unless they have serious run-out issues. They are not 'new tyre' markings. If the tyre is balance out of the factory, they do not have the run-out lines or have the lines right in the middle.

Since you have already used the tyre, there is no way for you to raise the issue of them not giving you a mint tyre. That issue should have been raised at the shop if you see any scrubbing on the tyres when they were fitting it.

Anyone can see the scrubbing on 'not new' tyres and manufacturers do not need to put indicators for it. Again, the colour lines are there to indicate the balance of the tyre and not the 'new-ness' of the tyre.

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Mar 12 2010, 09:05 AM

Yes, they are called run-outs and comes in 2 or sometimes 3 lines. I'm surprised that as a tyre seller you do not know of this. Furthermore, if you notice, those lines differ from tyre to tyre as they indicate the run-out balance of each tyre. As a tyre seller, you are suppose to match the left and right run-outs as closely as possible so that you do not have balance issues.

So if the right tyre run-out lines are closer to the outside, you have to find the left tyre with the run-outs closer to the outside too, to prevent alignment issues and vice versa.

It's called run-outs. Each tyre when manufactured, as perfect as it maybe, the weight is not 100% balanced. That means when you roll the tyre, it will not track in a straight line.

You will not encounter problems when balancing. The problem comes when trying to make the car track in a straightline. I can see most tyres shop align the tyre straight but the car still does not track straight. They then have to do minor adjustments to make the car track straight. The better they match the run-out lines, the less work they have to do to make the car track straight.

This is not applicable to Michelin only. All the other tyre manufacturers do the same with their tyres.

This is not even arguing. I'm just stating the facts. There is nothing to argue about the facts.

Sorry but facts are facts and point's of view cannot be taken into consideration. This is not a negotiation or a discussion. We are not discussion about what those lines mean. We already know what those lines mean and other point of views will not change that fact.

Only thing is we don't know what he drives. If we were to deduce the car he drives from the history of his post and his nickname and since he hangs around Sunway and Subang area, I guess I'd just have to tiong every Vios out there. I'd either find him one day or find the wrong person like michael9413. I'd like to see if he can keep up with my hopeless tires..

The point that I'm trying to put across is that the handling of the car does not only rely on the tyres. The contact patch of the tyres are only about the size of four A4 size papers. What's more important is the rest of the car that keeps the tyres on the road. No point having the best tyre when the car can't keep them planted on the ground.

I especially like it in corners during the rain, nothing feels better than being able to put full power on all 4 wheels out of the corner. That's what you call putting the tyres to work.

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Added on April 1, 2010, 3:06 pmThe one with a big mycarslowbai sticker..

Hiscarslowbai my foot.. what do you guys call it? The flying tumble dryer?

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Apr 1 2010, 03:06 PM

What kind of bullshit is that? If that's case, then one of the manufacturer is not making the tyre to spec. How can she say that one tyre is bigger than the other when they are both the same size? She is trying to tell you that the Michelin is wider than the Falken by 10mm (which is alot) and have sidewalls taller by 5.5mm, therefore it is better to use the 185/55/R15 instead? I would not buy any tyres from her.

She said that? wow.. I really have nothing to say.. but GTFO from her shop...

A directional thread pattern does not automatically make the tyre noisy. Almost all Michelin's are directional tyres but they have very quiet thread and blocks.

Edit.. let me correct this.. Michelins are mostly asymmetrical, not directional as I mentioned. Therefore if the pattern is directional, then yes, most likely it will be noisy.

One more thing.. Goodyear F1 Asymmetric is an asymmetrical but uni-directional tyre. I believe it does not have a rotation arrow on the sidewall.

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Apr 12 2010, 12:11 PM

But not hard enough. Look what I have done to my rather new PP2 (less than 10k km).

Surprisingly the rim is ok. Drove right into a pothole during a rain storm in KL. Must have cut the sidewall on the edge of the pothole instead of falling straight into it as it happened at the apex of the corner as I was turning.

This post has been edited by sleepwalker: Dec 27 2010, 06:05 PM

N2 is nothing but dry air. They use N2 because it's the cheapest form of dry air without buying expensive scrubbers. It is the removal of water vapour in the air that stabilises the air pressure and has nothing to do with N2. Racing teams don't use N2, they use expensive scrubbers that remove the water vapour and all other contaminants since N2 does nothing to change the properties of the tyre.