Be aware if you have Mich. 4X4 Alphine, it is directional

[PChiu]

Wife went for regular main. and the recall for SRS and tensioner yesterday, 21 Oct, 2003.

Tell the Honda selling dealer to switch the Goodyear summer tires with the Mich. 4x4 Alphine snow tire with steel rims I bought last yr.
The same Honda dealer switched out the snow tires and marked the location of tires.

Last night I checked, they installed with the "Rotation" with arrow clearly moded on the wall of the tire, like the model name 4X4 Alphine, in the wrong direction.

At first I could not believe, tell wife to call our friendly mechanic that I bought the snow tires from, he confirmed that is the indication arrow of the directional tires.

So has to switch it (and pay) again by our friendly mechanic .

Called back the dealer, he said very sorry, and get to them at any time

No, that selling dealer is too far away and we planned to go to a nearer dealer even before this instance.

[xGS]

Originally posted by PChiu
[snip]...

Last night I checked, they installed with the "Rotation" with arrow clearly moded on the wall of the tire, like the model name 4X4 Alphine, in the wrong direction.

Al first I could not believe, tell wife to call our friendly mechanic that I bought the snow tires from, he confirmed that is the indication arrow of the directional tires.

...[snip]

Funny. This is the precise reason that I stopped using the "free" mounting offered by local tire shops. That, plus none of them has a Hunter GSP9700 balancer.

However, even though I bring my tires to the car dealer for mounting and balancing, I still try to make the process as "idiot-proof" as possible.

What I've found to work best, for directional tires, is to buy a white paint marking pen (such as this: http://www.testors.com/catalog_item.asp?itemNbr=1441) and use it to highlight the 'direction of rotation' markings on only one sidewall (the "outside") of each tire.

When dropping off the car at the dealer, I make a point of showing this to the service advisor and requesting that they check it when the installation is completed.

The highlighted markings make it easy to determine, at a glance, whether the tires are mounted with the correct orientation. You can lightly sand the paint off, afterwards.

Since I began following this procedure, I have not encountered any problems with incorrect mounting.