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Nitto NT01 Tread Seam Issue

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Does anyone know how to tell which direction these tires are supposed to rotate? There are no markings that I can see on the tires. I had this happen to both of my rears and I'm being told it's safe to use them but make sure they are rotating in the correct direction but I can't figure it out. That's the tread seam and it's not deep.

IMG_5673_zpsyj3sxjk2.jpg
 
Black Boss said:
Unlike the 555's these are not directional. You can switch side to side to even out wear with no issues.
That's what I did, moved the driver side to the passenger side, and you see the results. I was told from a Nitto distributor not to swap them like that and they need to always rotate in the same direction. The cracks are at the tread seam but they are not deep. Could be just a bad set. Has anyone else seen this before?

@blacksheep-1
@ArizonaBOSS
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
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That crack seems like an exposed tread splice area (not good), but I'm surprised I can't see it in the "DOT grooves" as well.

I've run NT01s with the tires "normal" with the bigger tread blocks outside and "flipped" with the smaller tread blocks outside; never had any issue. You should be fine.
 
Yesterday I head over to member YoPauly's house and check out his NT01 305/35/18 tires of a similar vintage and they have the same seam showing. His tires also have two track days and were flipped from left to right. After further inspection I'm going to run them and see what happens. I won't flip this set again. I also contacted Discount Tire and although they won't replace them they will give me a nice discount on another set. Discount Tire was very quick to respond and called me directly. I've always had excellent customer service from them and this is another example.

Has anyone else seen this happen?
 
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I have some NT01's and they are doing the same thing as well as past sets of R888's. I think you will be fine to run them but I do remember the first time I noticed my R888's doing this when I was at the Nurburgring. I didn't want to to end the weekend because of the tires showing this line across the tread. I kept an eye on it and it was never a problem.
 
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It's where the tread band is wrapped around the carcass of the tire, not normally an issue, I see this a lot. I would highly recommend you don't counter rotate the tire once it takes a "set" however, it can cause it to possibly delaminate, (starting at the seam) although I have never personally witnessed that.
 

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