Ok, so last Friday I took my car to the local VTNZ to get a warrant. It passed but it was pointed out to me that the rear tyres (I have directional tyres on my Altezza) had been put on the wrong way around - the arrows were pointing backwards - and that would normally mean a failed warrant. I felt quite stupid that I hadn’t realised my tyres were on back to front!! I can only think that when the panel beater had replaced the bumper after being rear-ended in August they took the wheels off to do the work and put them back on backwards.

I called the panel beater yesterday and asked if they’d removed the tyres to replace the bumper and the answer was "No". Can any other members give their opinion on whether or not the wheels would need to be removed to replace the bumper? There was also a minor bit of panel beating they had to do under the bumper near the rear right wheel.

I had a wheel balance and alignment done back in June and I phoned them today and talked to them about it, and their answer was that they would definitely check tyres etc. before putting wheels back on. The alignment shop I used in Penrose came highly recommended by the alignment shop that a lot of North Shore club members use.

So my guess is that it was the panel beaters who did this. The problem is that I drove 100’s of K’s in August, including driving on the very SHITE roads north of Whangarei (good thing I had dry weather). I’ve read in the past that this sort of thing does happen and I know that I had actually checked that the tyres were on the right way round after I’d bought the car.

Lesson learned - always check after work is done! Don't take it for granted that others know better, even if you're a mechanical novice like me!

wow you seam to have some luck :D

Correct me if i am wrong (need more coffee day today) , but if you swap the left and right wheels from side to side that should be correct ?

I would have expected that the panel shop would have removed both wheels for better access , having never taken a rear bumper of a 'tezza (yet) i would expect taking of the wheels would make it easier?


now where is that coffee ?

haha I did that once. but you know what it didn't effect grip at all. all it really did was make you feel quite stupid :P

Directional tyres can only be rotated front to back or vice-versa not side to side.

I'll make you a long black if you like caveman, got some yummy Volcano coffee at home B)

the panel shop have definitely stuffed up. they would have removed the wheels(to get to screws inside the guard) and put them back on the wrong sides, effectively changing the direction of your tyres. so no they didn't remove your tyres... they removed your wheels

Also keep in mind that the RWD Gita's have wider rims at the rear!

Not sure if its just the 2JZGE ones or also the 1GFE Gita wagons but they run the same 17x7 wheels in the front and 17x7.5 in the rears.

Coffee . . . where and when!

Yes the wheels had definitely been removed not just the tyres. I asked the panelbeater if he'd removed the tyres before I mentioned that they were on the wrong way, so he must have smelled a rat about me calling and asking such a question haha!

I had them swapped back around the day after I found out. If I'd thought about it sooner I would have posted a pic of them while they were on back to front (greeneyes suggested it actually!) - one of those "what's wrong with this picture" quiz things! Yep I felt pretty stupid alright! It's always coffee time!

if you don't want the hassle of swapping them round tho, simply drive in reverse.... :P

Hah, my mother-in-law works at a high school here. One of the boys got bet that he couldn't reverse all the way around the (quite large) block.

Other guy lost that bet!

Unfortunately for him the principal found out and passed his details on to the police.

Have had my rear bumper off a couple of times. From memory there is a 10mm bolt at the top on each wheel arch. Don't really have to take the wheels off, but I guess it would make it a bit easier -_-

Had that on the car when I bought it off the previous owner.
Only notice it when I got some new wheels and had to change the original wheels

Felt dumb, but yea :)

It would in the wet, have a think about how this would affect water dispersion!

Drives all the water to the middle of the tyre instead of moving them out of the tyre? :rolleyes:

true. I know if it were the federal tyres then there would be a difference. but I was running Bridgestone REGNO GR 8000 lol couldn't really tell the direction haha. I think I had it like that for a long time too maybe 2 months?