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I was really excited to get my Firestone Indy 500's mounted. No matter how hard we tried, one of the 275 rears wouldn't totally pop onto the bead. I holds air but it's not touching the bead for about 2-3 inches on the wheels circumference even at 50psi. This causes a distortion were the sidewall meets the tread. My buddy who's been mounting tires for 20 years has never seen this. Anybody else ever have this issue? The 245's popped right into place. The other 275 was a little difficult, but the one in question just isn't happening! I've probably had 5-6 different tires mounted on this wheel and never had any issue. It's at 53 psi right now. Gonna let it sit in the sun tomorrow an hope it snaps into place.
I left it inflated to 53lb, and set where I knew it'd get sun all day (low 90's today). It was seated when I got home. It was lubed with some type of tire grease that was painted on with a brush. I did call Firestone, and they said there's no issue with these tires. They did say a 9" wheel was minimum for their 275. I believe the v wheel is a 8.5". Never has been an issue on the other 4-5 275's I've mounted to this wheel.
Every now and then I see this issue. Just had a guy roll in the other day with a 5th gen Camaro on factory 21” rims and his new Toyo tire wasn’t fully seated and he complained of vibration issues. Surprised the shop that installed them didn’t notice the damn assembly wobbling all over the balancer. Usually it’s due to improper fitment (ie wide tire on too narrow of a rim), other times inadequate lube. Some brand of tires just don’t seat as easy as others. I always have to lube the **** out of Falken tires (that have any kind of stiff sidewall) or they won’t seat without some ungodly air pressure.
Just break the bead and re-lube. If you just drove off with it unseated and waited for it to seat itself go have it rebalanced because it sure as hell isn’t balanced now.
Not all tires measured at "275" are the same brand vs brand. Indys run fat, well known universally fact. Read the article and learn how to properly match tire size to wheel width.
IMO it looks better. It does hook a little better on acceleration. It was cheaper, $153 for the 275 and $165 for the 245 at the time I bought them. I put a set of rears on every 10,000 miles or pretty much every year. I never noticed looseness mid corner, but it does seem to be more prone to push at the limit. I always heard Nitto's ran small. Never heard that Indy 500's ran wide. I run the car pretty hard and have had rubs on the lip of both the front and rear on the right side, so I hope it's not worse now. My dual mass finally failed at 120,000 miles, so I haven't driven the car with the Indy's yet.
07-08-2018, 10:59 PM
275/40/18 Indy 500 won't bead all the way 
