V35 Tires...do They Have The Dot Markings For Compliance

[gabroooz]

I was wondering if you have to change the tires on the V35 coupes to meet compliance....

i suppose they have the dot markings on them for compliance...

if not has anyone bought tires from the us.....tires (like everything else) is damn expenisve here in oz....

[kakimoto33]

All SEVS compliance cars should have new tyres fitted regardless of the DOT markings if you follow the laws exactly to the letter. It's unlikely for any car coming from Japan to have DOT marked tyres so your best to assume that they are not DOT approved and just allow for new tyres in your budget anyway.

Tyres are cheaper in the US but the freight cost would absolutely kill you. Depending on the size wheels your V35 has fitted you should be able to get cheap tyres locally for anything from around $100 to $200 each. Compare that to importing tyres from the US including shipping and you will find that the local tyres are much cheaper.

[Mr Eps]

^^^^ wat he said

but i'd also like to add that if you ARE to import tyres into australia. they must be mounted onto wheels. so don't think "man i'm gonna get a steal on some 80 dollar nangkangs! uh-hyuk"

cos it won't happen

just pay for tyres and include tem in your budget n be miserable and poor like the rest of us. =)

[RS4StagMan]

I would be budgetting for new tyres as Craig (J-Spec) said above.

The tyres on the car are yours to keep if you choose to sell them or fit them to another vehicle later on (speak to your compliancer on this one).

$400-$500 balanced and fitted is a small price to pay for peace of mind and we do have some good tyres at a reasonable price in this country.

[Beer Baron]

firstly there is no such thing as 'v35 tyres' mate. even when new there would be a variety of tyre models fitted to different year and spec V35s based on options and wheel choice etc. and given how old V35s are now it's very unlikely any have their original set of tyres still on them and if they did I would strongly suggest replacing them anyway as they would be bloody old and hard and just plain un-safe.

like jspec said you should be replacing them. buy something decent mate. there is nothing worse than a nice car with shit cheap tyres. tyres are about the most important consumable on your car for both safety and performance (enjoyment). open the wallet!

not sure what mr eps is on about though about importing tyres? you can import tyres without wheels. lol, how do you think tyre shops do it? they don't mount every set of tyres onto wheels to send them from japan or wherever. buying some good tyres from tirerack in the US is a viable option but it's only worth it for high end tyres. the savings on cheap tyres will be bugger all. may as well just get those ones here.

[Mr Eps]

bahahaha - good point, i'm just going on by what i heard - maybe that's applicable to second hand tyres i'm thinking of?

[Beer Baron]

not 100% sure on second hand tyres as I've never imported the tyres seperate to rims but I can't see why? they may sometimes require them to be sprayed with poison to kill bugs eggs at the time of importation but I can't think of any rule stating they must be fitted to wheels? in fact I'm sure there isn't. I know of people who've imported stacks of tyres sans wheels. definitely no problem importing tyres on their own new or used.

[kakimoto33]

The general rules are that new tyres are ok, especially if they are wrapped up in original packaging and certainly must have not been sitting around outside in dirt - so basically new and clean tyres are no issue.

Used tyres have a much higher quarantine risk that is more obvious with tyres that are not on rims because bugs love to sleep inside unmounted tyres, so for a 'smooth' import process its best to only import used tyres that are on rims, otherwise you should allow for the very likely chance that they will be pulled aside for special inspection, cleaning, fumigation, etc.