Dangerous to run tires backwards?

[blue2000s]

Originally Posted by Lil bastard

Directional tires are designed to throw water to the outside rather than under the car.

Reverse them, and you're throwing the water under the car to the opposite wheel encouraging hydroplaning.

Not an issue if you don't drive on less than sunny days.

Cheers!

That might be true with some non-directional tires, but with these and all other directional tires the grooves are basically v's from the centerline out. Water is pumped out to both sides of the tire. If they're reversed, water is pumped into the center of the tire, making a nice thick puddle to slide on. There's no specific in side or out side on a directional tire, so they have to evacuate water equally to both sides. Otherwise you'd have to buy "right" side and "left" side directional tires.

[thstone]

The vehicle response to running one new and one old tire in the rear is somewhat unpredictable. After several thousand miles, this may have caused the fronts to wear differently causing the pull. Flipping the fronts may have brought back balance - for the time being.

At this point, running the front tires backwards only introduces more unknowns which can't be easily sorted out.

You need to get back to a stable tire configuration if you want to be able to diagnose and ultimately solve the problem. Any decent mechanic will tell you to first replace all four tires, second get the tires balanced, and third, get a good alignment.

Odds are that your problem will be solved with this regimen. If not, then a bent wheel or suspension component is the next logical place to investigate.