FAQ: Which tires work best?

It will probably mess up the balance if you do them yourself. They probably don't mount them inside the rim because of all of the gunk buildup that they would have to clean to get the adhesive on the weights to stick.

You absolutely cannot balance the tire yourself. There's a significant weight difference between the bang-on and stick-on weights as far as centrifugal force is concerned. You're moving the location of the weight closer to the center of the wheel in all directions. Doing so requires more weight to keep the same balance.

Firestone guys didn't do it wrong by putting bang-on weights on the wheels. The car came factory with them, so that's what they used. We do the same thing unless otherwise requested by the customer. So, the wheel weights are only supposed to go where they were originally. On most applications where the wheel has a lip, there's a weight that fits it. I don't usually go around defending tire shops (most of us know they suck ass), but in this situation, unless asked to use sticky weights, they did nothing wrong.

O.K., learn something new every day. I can't say I'm happy seeing the wheel weights on the outside, but maybe I can tune them out. I've spent enough time waiting for tires.

Has anyone tried a 235/50R16 on the stock wheels?

Is there any reason why I can't retorque my lug nuts on the ground (I'm assuming they were torqued too high with an air wrench)? I'm thinking the rim may end up off center some tiny fraction of a millimeter, but I could be worried about nothing.

You can retroque them. Just take the tire off and torque it till' your little heart desires.

You can't torque to 100 ft-lbs and expect it to be 100 ft-lbs if the shop tightened them higher with the impact gun. It doesn't magically "torque down" if that makes sense.

Jack the R wrote:

Is there any reason why I can't retorque my lug nuts on the ground (I'm assuming they were torqued too high with an air wrench)?  I'm thinking the rim may end up off center some tiny fraction of a millimeter, but I could be worried about nothing.

Assuming they used a Torque Stick for the 19mm lug nut, which torques them down to 100 ft/lbs, I wouldn't worry about it. However if you feel the need to do so, just leave the car on the ground, and do 1 lug nut at a time. No need to lift the car up. Just loosen a lug, then torque it down, repeat.

I have no idea what they did. The lugs could be torqued perfectly, but if they're overtorqued and the rotors warp it'll be my fault for not making sure.

Anyone have experience in buying autocross oriented tires? Looking for something cheap.....

matt270avian wrote:

Anyone have experience in buying autocross oriented tires? Looking for something cheap.....

Look for "Summer performance tires" in your size. Get MPSS if you can afford them, because they are totally awesome. But otherwise, see what's in your budget. Read tirerack reviews, look specifically for agressive drivers or track related commentary in the reviews.

Are these for the Riv?

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Hankook&tireModel=Ventus+Z214&sidewall=Blackwall&partnum=24ZR8Z214C71OLD&tab=Sizes

You'd better jump on this now, dude. They have fewer than 7 available. 245/40/ZR18 track tires

Daaaaaaang.....

yeah, for real. DANG!