Match Mounting

[cp3]

I picked up a set of used Mopar wheels to mount my winter tires on. I noticed while cleaning them up that there is a bright yellow sticker in the drop well of each rim.

Anyone know if this is for match mounting? I have read that Chrysler match mounts their wheels and tires at the factory so this makes sense but I have yet to find any info relating to the wheels. The Yokohama tires that I am ordering should have the marks so I would like to have my son match mount them if that is indeed what these stickers indicate. The yellow mark on the Yokohama's is for weight but it seems the valve stem hole typically indicates weight and a mark or sticker would indicate radial run out, which is red on the tire.

 

[Ramblejam]

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.eea34f8/21943

"After machining they're inspected and any wheels with visible porosity are melted again. I was speaking from experience in our tire/wheel room at the plant. Wheels come to us with yellow stickers on the rim indicating the light spot, and virtually all of them are at the hole. We've spun wheels (only) on a balancer and they're usually close to perfect. Incidentally, tires have the same sticker but it's located at the heavy spot. After mounting a tire on a wheel, it goes to a "match marker" which holds the tire stationary and turns the wheel until a camera sees the 2 stickers adjacent. That allows the least amount of weights to be used."

 

[IndyIan]

You might have to call Chrysler directly to find out what the sticker is showing on the rims. Maybe your local dealer service manager may know? I suspect some would give an answer without really knowing.

 

[Traction]

It would be of great help if the manufactures indicated on the tire and wheel exactly how light/heavy. The yellow dot can't tell you whether it is .25 oz or 3 oz. Big difference.

 

[Cardenio327]

I'll try to summarize what I remember from Bridgestone/Firestone's factory training for tire franchise employees:

In medium/heavy truck tires and rims the paint dot on the tire and the valve stem drilling are standardized on all brands of tires and rims.

In the automobile/light truck segment the location and color of the markings are stipulated by the vehicle manufacturer. The meaning of each color varies between brands of vehicles. A red dot might mean the lowest point with GM, it could mean the highest point on Ford, or maybe the heaviest point on Chrysler.

When you see retail tires marked with paint dots it nearly always means that they were the excess production of a lot destined to be installed on new cars. Vehicle manufacturer's have a much higher tire uniformity standard than tire retailers. This is related to test drives and initial vehicle purchaser satisfaction. An automobile must function perfectly during the pre-purchase test drive. To control costs a tire manufacturer might make a lot of 10,000 tires for FoMoCo. 7,000 of those tires might test within FoMoCo's standards and be sent to a factory to be installed on new automobiles. Of those 7,000, perhaps 1,000 would be nearly perfect and have no paint dot at all. The remaining 3,000 would be considered good enough for retail sale and would be sent to dealerships and retailers to be sold to the public.

The engineers told us to disregard the paint dots unless we specifically had knowledge that the tire we were installing had been specifically produced for the company that built the car that we were installing it on.

On automobile/light truck rims the valve stem hole is seldom if ever drilled according to balance/uniformity. Checking four rims on any car will almost certainly reveal that all four have been drilled in exactly the same clock position. Checking the balance of the wheels will probably show the hole as the light spot, but that is not intentional, it is due to the metal that is missing where the hole was drilled.

Personally, I would avoid a model of tires if some of them had paint dots. It is often a telltale sign of OEM tires; tires that may wear out prematurely, may have soft compound in the shoulders, may have reduced braking traction, may have a lesser grade of reinforcements, &c. Buying tires that do have paint dots, especially multiple dots is a sure way of picking out and purchasing the ones that have known uniformity issues.

 

[Traction]

Although the Bridgestone Blizzaks I mounted today had yellow dots, and where never OEM tires. But I still line it up, especially with a heavy TPMS sensor. Some wheels are have material removed on the wheel or weight added to the wheel for the sensor, but not all.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: cp3
I picked up a set of used Mopar wheels to mount my winter tires on. I noticed while cleaning them up that there is a bright yellow sticker in the drop well of each rim.

Anyone know if this is for match mounting? I have read that Chrysler match mounts their wheels and tires at the factory so this makes sense but I have yet to find any info relating to the wheels. The Yokohama tires that I am ordering should have the marks so I would like to have my son match mount them if that is indeed what these stickers indicate. The yellow mark on the Yokohama's is for weight but it seems the valve stem hole typically indicates weight and a mark or sticker would indicate radial run out, which is red on the tire.


RHHP stickers would be on the outside rim flange, and not in the drop well. I think the sticker is for something else.

Also, I have confirmed that there is no standardization what-so-ever about wheels and tires regarding marking the location of the high point in tires and the low point of the wheel.

I just came back from a consulting job where neither the tire nor the wheel were marked according to these "standardized rules" that people sometimes quote.

Heavy trucks? I don't have direct knowledge, but I'll bet you can't count on that either.

 

[cp3]

Well that is a bit disappointing as the tires should be marked according to Yokohama and posted in this thread.

Originally Posted By: Ken2
Quote:
They even come marked with the points of minimum weight and minimum radius to mount by rim runout or by weight by lining up with the valve stem.
Common with many tire brands. Let us know if the tire shop lines these up without you asking...I've never seen it happen.

To facilitate proper balancing, Yokohama places red and yellow marks on the sidewalls of its tires to enable the best possible match-mounting of the tire/wheel assembly. There are two methods of match-mounting Yokohama tires to wheel assemblies using these red or yellow marks:

Uniformity (red mark)
Weight (yellow mark)

When performing uniformity match-mounting, the red mark on the tire, indicating the point of maximum radial force variation, should be aligned with the wheel assembly's point of minimum radial run-out, which is generally indicated by a colored dot or a notch somewhere on the wheel assembly (consult manufacturer for details). Radial force variation is the fluctuation in the force that appears in the rotating axis of a tire when a specific load is applied and the tire rotated at a specific speed. It is necessary to minimize radial force variation to ensure trouble-free installation and operation. Not all wheel assemblies indicate the point of minimum radial run-out, rendering uniformity match-mounting sometimes impossible. If the point of minimum radial run-out is not indicated on a wheel assembly, the weight method of match-mounting should be used instead.


When performing weight match-mounting, the yellow mark on the tire, indicating the point of lightest weight, should be aligned with the valve stem on the wheel assembly, which represents the heaviest weight point of the wheel assembly. After match-mounting by either of the above methods, the tire/wheel assembly can be balanced.
http://www.yokohamatire.com/tires_101/tire_care_and_safety/match_mounting/


I will see if I can get any specific information on the rims from Chrysler/Mopar or the manufacturer (Fumagalli of Brazil). If not then it will just be a regular old mount.

 

[cp3]

Well, I wasn't able to find any specific other than pictures of the same wheel with the same stickers in the drop well. So I am convinced that they are there for a reason. I am going to assume that since they are an aftermarket wheel, through Mopar, that they were marked in the well as opposed to or as well as on the front or back.

I guess I'll see how it goes as he is going to mount them with the red dot lined up on the sticker.

 

[SubLGT]

You can avoid the guessing and save time by having them Road Force match-mounted with a GSP9700.

 

[cp3]

I could but those machines seem to be kind of rare here. When I looked into it before it was $25-$30 a tire. Seems like a waste if things are marked.

My son checked a new Caravan and they do use a yellow sticker on the inside bead area to match mount at the factory. We are guessing these were marked inside as they were likely an aftermarket sale. He lined them up as I asked and all seems well. She rolls pretty good.

 

[IndyIan]

So you had the yellow sticker on the rim matched to the red dot on the tire? The "dip" in the rim to the "bump on the tire.

I ask because I'm selling my old Neon rims and they still have the yellow sticker on them. They were also made in Brazil.
I doubt many buyers will have a clue about match mounting, but you never know.

 

[CapriRacer]

A word of caution:

I think cp3 has rims where the yellow sticker would be covered up by the tire - that is, not visible unless the tire was demounted.

That might mean that the comments about yellow stickers on Dodges might not be applicable.

 

[IndyIan]

On the Neon rims, the sticker is near the inside bead and visible with the tire on which I think is what cp3 saw too.

 

[cp3]

You are both correct.

The Mopar rims that I bought have the sticker in the drop well and it is not visible with the tire mounted. It is possible that this wheel was purchased at the parts counter, it is the 5 spoke steel wheel that is on the Charger Pursuit (police package).

My son is apprenticing at a Dodge dealer and sent me a pic of a brand new Caravan he had on the hoist. On the new wheel you can see the sticker at the bead seat on the inboard side of rim with the tire mounted. Unfortunately I didn't keep the pic.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: cp3
You are both correct.

The Mopar rims that I bought have the sticker in the drop well and it is not visible with the tire mounted. It is possible that this wheel was purchased at the parts counter, it is the 5 spoke steel wheel that is on the Charger Pursuit (police package).

My son is apprenticing at a Dodge dealer and sent me a pic of a brand new Caravan he had on the hoist. On the new wheel you can see the sticker at the bead seat on the inboard side of rim with the tire mounted. Unfortunately I didn't keep the pic.


So as I said before, I don't think that sticker is a match mounting sticker. Typically match mounting stickers are visible after the tire is mounted.

 

[cp3]

Wouldn't it make sense though that they would put a sticker in the drop well for wheels sold at the parts counter? If measuring it is part of their manufacturing process?

Maybe just wishful thinking on my part.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: cp3
Wouldn't it make sense though that they would put a sticker in the drop well for wheels sold at the parts counter? If measuring it is part of their manufacturing process?

Maybe just wishful thinking on my part.


Yes, wishful thinking. The sticker would be on the rim flange. That way it will be visible when it comes time to match the tire to the rim, which takes place AFTER the tire is mounted. The wheels in the assembly plants are marked that way. Why wouldn't the replacement wheels be marked in exactly the same way? (OK, there is one possibility that the wheel is marked using an automated process and wheels going to an OEM get an additional sticker on the rim flange per the OEM's requirements - which differ with each vehicle manufacturer. But I consider this very remote as I have never seen anyone do that.)