My new F-car delivered next week

Beautiful 348, Mike. Much nicer than my own.

But I have to say it (Oh, no. Here he goes AGAIN). The rear wheels are mounted on the wrong side of the car. You need to have them swap the wheels to the correct sides, and make sure that if the tires have directional tread, they are rotating in the correct direction. I personally find it shocking that a dealer would let a 348 go out the door with this mistake. And I have seen it over and over.

Best of luck with the new toy. Be safe!

 

car looks very clean....congrats

 

I don't think he's joking. Look at your photo and compare the front and rear wheels. The "fins" seems to be facing different directions.

 

Congrats on your new 348!

Never feel like an idiot...The learning never stops with our cars.

By the way, I just went out to the garage to check the wheels on my '94 348 spider...I had no idea there was a right or wrong direction for the wheels, mine are correct though.

Look forward to meeting you this spring.

Dave L.

 

Congrats and welcome to the club!

By the way, the directional wheels on the 348 are designed to pull heat away from the brakes as they rotate. For this to work right, the "fins" should trail the primary star pattern. When I got my car, ALL FOUR were on backwards (they matched, but were not on the way they were supposed to be). You can look at stock factory photos of the 348 to see the proper installation, or see my car in my profile picture!

Nice choice of color, by the way!

 

Hello, Mike;

On a 348 with the stock wheels, each wheel fits on a particular corner. You don't swap them around. The RF wheel stays on the RF, the RR stays on the RR, etc. If the person who installs the tires onto the rims is not aware of this, you can get a case where a tire with directional tread is installed onto a wheel where the directions do not match - either the tire or the wheel is always going to be backwards.

Not ALL tires used on the 348 have directional tread patterns. Just look at the sidewall markings, and there will be an arrow with the word "rotation" next to it if the tire DOES have directional tread.

Chances are that someone (a detailer, perhaps?) put the rear wheels onto the wrong sides of the car, and that everything will be fine once they are switched back onto the correct sides. The rotating direction of the tires is more important than the direction of the wheels, but there is no excuse for a dealer (who should know better) letting a car get into the hands of the customer with this mistake.

It's VERY common. In fact, in the "Forza" 348 Buyer's Guide issue, one of the featured 348's (the red ts) has its rear wheels on backwards. I can't help it, it's something I always look for in pictures of 348's.

There's no reason for you to feel like an idiot! Tell the dealer that someone noticed a problem with the wheels on your beautiful new car and that you want that problem corrected. Simple.

 

Dave,

You're right about the function of the wheel design (just verified it on the FNA website under past models). We all learn something new about these cars everyday!

I agree. It's nice to have another black car in the mix.

 

Geez. It's amazing you guys caught this from a low res picture... I must remember to detail the heck out of my car, or Photoshop it, before posting any pictures from now on. ;-}

 

Beeautiful car, Mike. maybe you could get me to paint whales and dolphins all over it like the one that I saw in a gallery in Honolulu. .......OOOOh that's a bad idea !!!
Bob Parks