Just a quick question,

Are the factory Bridgestones different for left and right hand sides?


I just noticed that my left (driver side) tires have a tread pattern that feathers towards the front and the right hand side tire pattern feathers towards the rear?

I'm just wondering if they make a left and a right tire and if I got 4 right hand ones?

Any idea's?

Thanks,

They are not specific left or right but are directional. If you look you will see "outside" on the outer sidewall as long as they are not installed inside out they are fine.
Shawn

My sidewalls are facing the correct way, its just that tread patten is reverse from left to right hand side?

I'll have to find another STi in the area and check out the tires.

Thanks,

Brian

I know exactly what you are talking about. I brought this up on another forum. I had to stare at the tires for a while because I thought I was seeing things. I guess it does not matter but it surprised me when I first noticed it.

How can they not be specific left or right AND be directional, if one side of the tire is labeled OUTSIDE? This is confusing.

This is exactly my point!

The left and right side tires are the exactly the same! But they should be different!

When looking at the rear tires side by side the pattern is exactly the same! They should infact be different. (like S03's)

Left side tread should feather back and right side tread should feather back. Not left forward and right back?

Is everybody's the same way or just mine?

The Left side tires will chunck faster than the rights!

Brian

I suppose calling them directional was poor wording. Mine look just like every other one. Direction meaning outside mounted to the outside. Yes as you walk around the car they flip 180.Any tire that has a pattern than isn't uni-directional will look off comparing left to right as they are rotated backwards from each other. I am sure the tires were designed that way but what do I know.

I sounds like everybody's is the same.

Looks like bridgestone did not want to make a left and right hand tire for the STI, unlike S03's.


Thanks,

Brian

symmetric - Left and right are the same tire
asymmetric - Left and right tires are side specific

directional - arrow on the sidewall indicates direction of forward travel
non-directional - tires don't have a preferred rolling direction

"this side out" - mount this side towards the outside of the car.


It looks like the STi's tires are symmetric (even if the tires aren't physically symmetric - like tires of this class usually are), non-directional (since the tread pattern rolls one direction on the left side and another on the right side due to the next characteristic), and mount with a specific side out, probably to put a rigid external sidewall and different tread blocks out at the edges, to reduce sidewall flex on turn-in, while letting the internal sidewall be more flexible to account for camber.

OK,

Tires are Asymmetrical but not Directional.

This means that you can rotate these tires any way you want?

Next question: Why develop an Asymmetrical non Directional tire?

Brian

They are not physically symmetrical, but are used as symmetric tires. You can indeed put any tire in any position on the car, since they are all mounted "this side out".

Maybe subaru balked at the idea of having L and R specific tires to stock, and it probably doesn't impact dry handling too much. Wet handling was probably down on their list of concerns.