So this past April, I got an incredible deal on a low mileage 2013 IPL Vert, Infiniti Certified pre-owned. Total cost with tax, title, licenses was only 27k, cheap enough to pay full in cash.

Driving happily since I bought it. Yesterday, while airing the tires, I noticed on the Front Passenger wheel was a 245-40-19 tire, and the Passenger rear was a 225-45-19 tire. Driver side rear and fronts were correct. They basically mounted the passenger front and rear reversed. On top of that, both front tires were directionally mounted backwards too.

So I corrected everything myself. Funny thing is, I don't really feel that much difference driving. Before the correction, I would occasionally notice very slight pull to one direction with hard acceleration, but I attributed to road uneveness because it was not consistently noticed. Otherwise, no major difference in driving/steering before or after correction.

Can I assume having wrong width tires on the same axle does minimal stress to the differential? I'm assuming mismatched diameters is more stressful to the differential? This is not my daily driver, so I don't drive it hard all the time.

Dumbass dealer. So much for the Infinti Certified pre-owned comprehensive multipoint inspection. This is why I always wrench on my own cars.

 

There should be a little bolt on either the front or the rear (don't know which since I don't own a sport) that keeps the front & rear wheels from being switched. It's possible this bolt was removed though. Since you have a RWD the slight difference in diameter isn't a problem and you wouldn't really notice it while driving. The tires mounted in the wrong direction, luckily you didn't have a problem, but that could be dangerous as the tread isn't working as it was engineered. Glad you got it sorted out, and a bitch-slap to the dealer

 

I didn't notice any bolts while I was swapping wheels. Can anyone with an IPL confirm the presence of bolts?

 

Definitely bolts preventing that mix up on my IPL.

 

Well, I'm glad someone decided to remove the bolt that prevents F R wheel mess up, and then proceed to mess it up. On an Infiniti certified car no less. Guess certified doesnt really mean anything.

 

Reversed tread isn't an issue except in rain.

 

Correct. Other than extending the powertrain warranty, it's pretty meaningless.

 

Usually people will remove those bolts when putting on aftermarket wheels. Generally the bolts never go back on. :/
As I have multiple sets of wheels for both cars, I never let dealers touch them. No 'free' rotation, air top-up, make sure the lug nuts are tight - nothing! I don't even show them where the keys are for the wheel locks so they don't try anything silly.

 

AFAIK, those wheels only have a 1/2" stagger, so it's not hard to mix them up front-2-back just by looking at them. Unlike the Sedan sport wheels, which have a 1" stagger. (But then, I'm not totally well-versed on IPL details.) However, that doesn't excuse the shop from making such a mistake, particularly an Infiniti Dealership. And there's no excuse whatsoever for mounting directional tires backwards, at any shop. That's just incompetent service.

If you're going to continue using OEM wheels, might as well put that bolt back in, and avoid this mix-up from happening again in the future.

And yes, CPO is mostly a marketing tool. It means virtually nothing.

$27K cash, huh? Good for you, OP. Last time I bought a car with cash was 37 years ago, and that was only $2000 which was a fortune.

 

Glad you got it sorted but I agree with Rochester. If you’re going to run the stocks and take it to a dealer for service get the bolts put back on just for your own piece of mind.

 

So out of curiosity, i decided to take my wheels off and inspect everything again. It turns out i do have those bolts on each of the front wheel hubs, i just did not notice it the first time. However, it turns out that the rear recess pattern for both the front 8.5 and rear 9 inch width IPL wheels are exactly the same so it doesnt matter if the bolt is there or not.

 

Interesting, well the dealer isn't completely ignorant, although the one doing the tire mounting may have some issues, lol.

Good info to know.

 

^^^
That's pretty amazing. So Nissan went and designed new staggered wheels for the IPL without this consideration in mind? Go figure.

Hey, let's see some pics of this IPL Vert, just to put a face on the discussion, so to speak.