Each motorist at least once noticed colored dots and stripes on their car tires. But not everyone understands to the end why these designations are needed at all.
For this reason, many myths and conjectures appear around mysterious symbols, which have very little in common with reality. It’s time to sort this matter out once and for all.
Colored stripes and dots on tires
The grade of rubber from which tires are made? A defective batch, for some reason, went on sale? Are they guaranteed substandard? What absurdities have not been invented by the people around colored dots and stripes on wheels? The most attentive ones might have noticed that the strip always goes around the tire’s circumference, and its paint never gets into the grooves. So, what are all these symbols for?
Colored stripes
Colored stripes are applied to the raw tread rubber in the production hall so that all technological procedures are correctly carried out during further work on the car tires, including assembly and vulcanization. Strips are applied before the tire enters the mold. The paint never enters the tread channels because the press creates its drawing after using it. As a result, the machine cuts the markup.
The function of color bars does not end there. After production, all tires are sent to warehouses, where they are composed in huge rows. There, colored bars help warehouse workers determine the type of tire before shipping. Finding the product you need from a specific color bar is much easier and faster than peering into a tread pattern every time.
For the third time, colored tire stripes can already help the buyer since they can quickly identify products from the same series. This is very useful because they often try to sell tires of different ages and even production places as one set in the markets. Comparing the stripes on all four, it will immediately become clear – is this so?
Colored dots
A separate point is the colored dots on the tires. White or yellow always indicates the lightest tire segment. They are always placed on the outside of the product. This is necessary so that the tire installation is carried out correctly. Namely, the yellow dot should be located next to the valve, naturally making the wheel heavier. If mounted by the rules, then when balancing, you will need to use less weight.
Also, on the wheel, you can see red dots. With its help, the place with the largest radius is indicated. The tires are far from perfect, and almost all products will have some part of the tread slightly higher. Experienced tire technicians know this and will try to combine the indicated point with the smallest radius on the disk. This is necessary to reduce the run-out of the wheel.
