Help requested - understanding Japanese tire markings

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John S. - 04 Sep 2005 01:14 GMT

Yesterday I purchased a used Japanese import - a 2001 Toyota
Prius hybrid car.

It has Yokohama tires, steel belted radials 165/65 R15 81S

OK so far; that gives me the profile and size information, and
the load carrying and speed rating.

I would like to know the safe maximum cold inflation pressure,
but the information is not there in an obvious form.

Other information on the side wall is:-

ES 300 C58701 and FC64

The recommended inflation pressure from the label inside the
driver's door appears to be 230 kPa (I don't understand the
Japanese symbols, but that is alongside the tire size numbers) -
which corresponds to about 35 psi.

However, I have been reading comments from USA owners of the
Toyota Prius suggesting that the Toyota recommendations for
inflation pressure are too low, and much better performance is
obtained with pressure of 40 psi. I guess it is not safe for me
to go along with this though, as the tires fitted on cars sold in
the USA will not have Japanese manufactured tires on them, and
the safe pressure ratings may be different to the tires I have
(I'm in New Zealand).

I have tried searching via Google for the information without
success, and wonder if anyone participating in this group might
be able to offer advice on how to find the answer?

TIA,

Cheers, John S

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Ted Mittelstaedt - 04 Sep 2005 10:34 GMT

> Yesterday I purchased a used Japanese import - a 2001 Toyota
> Prius hybrid car.
>
> It has Yokohama tires, steel belted radials 165/65 R15 81S

What MODEL of Yokohama, the Avid, the Aegis, etc.?

> OK so far; that gives me the profile and size information, and
> the load carrying and speed rating.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> ES 300 C58701 and FC64

http://www.yokohamatire.com/

Once you find the model you can pull the specs for the tire which has
max cold inflation pressure.

For example, if your tire is the AVID Touring, the specs here:

http://www.yokohamatire.com/pdf/avidtour.pdf

show a max inflation pressure of 35psi.

Yokohama also shows that this size tire isn't the right size for your Prius,
you
better check your owners manual for tires sizes.

Ted

Reply to this Message

John S. - 05 Sep 2005 09:09 GMT

>> Yesterday I purchased a used Japanese import - a 2001 Toyota
>> Prius hybrid car.
>>
>> It has Yokohama tires, steel belted radials 165/65 R15 81S
>
>What MODEL of Yokohama, the Avid, the Aegis, etc.?

>http://www.yokohamatire.com/
>
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
>Ted

Hi Ted,

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately couldn't identify the tires
on my car at this site.

The only "model" kind of reference on the sidewall is the word
"Ecos", and this isn't mentioned on the yokohamatire.com site.

I guess I have tires made for the Japanese market and not used in
the USA.

The size fitted is correct, according to the plate fitted to the
driver door frame.

Guess I should assume max 35 psi and play safe, rather than
inflate to 40 psi.

Again thanks for trying to help.

cheers,

John S

PS - thinking about your suggestion I searched via google for
yokohama and ecos, and found a web page for yokohama in Japanese.

Using google's translation utility I was able to get a rough idea
about this tire, but couldn't find anything which looked like the
max inflation pressure.

Apparently the Ecos tire is a special low rolling resistance
variety with abnormally good grip in the wet, and that's about
all I could glean from the limited amount of english text amid
the Japanese symbols.

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