The smell of new Nittos

[trompetoloco]

This may seem like a silly post. But, I got a new set of Nitto 555's recently. When they get hot from normal driving, they smell like burning rubber. The smell is even noticable inside the car. I have never had tires that did this before. Has anyone else noticed this? Is it normal?

 

[Sam98]

It doesn't sound normal to me. Are they rubbing somewhere?

 

[70stangcoupe]

You've got a problem dude.

 

[stangman]

This may seem like a silly post. But, I got a new set of Nitto 555's recently. When they get hot from normal driving, they smell like burning rubber. The smell is even noticable inside the car. I have never had tires that did this before. Has anyone else noticed this? Is it normal?

i noticed that you have a 3.5" cat-back, so i bet the tires are rubbing the cat-back. a wheel spacer should fix that. i've heard of a few guys rubbing against the c/b, cause their tires were too wide. just a thought, that you might want to check out

 

[trompetoloco]

I will check for rubbing. But, these are the same size as the ones I took off. So, I wouldn't expect them to rub.

 

[stangman]

I will check for rubbing. But, these are the same size as the ones I took off. So, I wouldn't expect them to rub.

hmmm..... what size tires are you running???? that's prolly not it if that's the case, cause nitto's are typically more narrow than most other tires. have you done anything else, other than the nitto's, since you started noticing the smell

 

[trompetoloco]

I haven't made any other changes. They are 255 45ZR 17.

 

[Firemanz]

You sure you weren't peeling out when you were driving "normal"?

 

[trompetoloco]

"peeling out"? what is that? i can't afford to peel out. tires are too expensive to waste that way.

 

[DC-GT]

What do you define as "normal driving"? I put mine on and they have tons of grip so I hit a few corners a tad faster than normal (in a secluded area away from other cars and people) to check it out and they smelled like burnt rubber then. Now that I have some miles on them, they don't smell anymore. I just figured they need to heat up once or twice to get the "newness" out of them. Initially they picked everything up off the road and threw it against the wheel wells, not any more though...

Bo

 

[trompetoloco]

That may be all it is. I have just never had tires do this before. If they are not rubbing, I'll just give them a few more weeks. Of course, it really doesn't matter anyway. I am not going to throw away $180 tires becuase of the smell. Unless they smelled like dog poop, of course.