Flat spots: How can I see them?

[JeDa]

Hi,

I'm having some problems with my tires and tirewear. I was wondering if they have flat spots. How can I check my tires for flat spots? Any screenshot available with flat spots?

Thanks, JeDa

[SabersKunk]

press F9 and look for a hot part of the tyre when it is rotating. It will be easy to spot as the area will show as a much higher temperature when the tyre rotates.

[frokki]

How many sections is the tyre split to?
I remember there was more sections you could see pressing F9.
I just can't be sure. Maybe someone'll explain it for us :)

[tailing]

From memory there's something like 42 sections on each tyre, so 14 sections for each of the inner, middle and outer sections of each tyre.
Like others have said hit F9 and if you see flashing colour on the tyre tread it's likely you have a flat spot (depending on the severity it could just be a hot spot).

[dUmAsS]

"48 sampling spots per tyre allowing flat spots"

[ysu]

Exactly. 16 sections around 3 across makes the 48 :-)

[Fragmatic]

Here's a quick .gif I made to demonstrate what a flatspot looks like. As stated though - it could be a hotspot - look for puffs of smoke from the tyres too to confirm a flatspot.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3522/omgflatspot7tk.gif (http://imageshack.us)

It's not exactly the best of examples as it was taken from different parts of a drive, not in one go.

[ysu]

the flatspot is usually a thinner part of the tyre. obviously at the time of occurence it'll be much hotter than the rest unless of course the whole tyre was on fire already.
so your image is perfect:
it's a hot and thin part :-)

over time the temperature evens out if you let it, but under racing conditions it's a small chance, as it's very easy to lock up on the same spot over and over again.
Then it pops. :-)

[JeDa]

Thanks for your help! This is really a great community!!

Another question: what do the grey "bars" above the tire temps mean?

[Huru-aito]

They show the load on the tyres inner, middle and outer parts. When you're driving down a straight with a reasonable set (negative camber) you can see that the inside carries the most load, and when in corner the middle and outer part get some load too because of body roll and the negative camber. Having all 3 bars at the same height during cornering means that the tyre is facing the road directly = best grip.

[JeDa]

Wow... that was fast!!! Thanks for your answer!