Wrong tires; need advice

[ice745]

I bought a 94 Camry from "Auto World" in NJ. Everything seemed fine, but the tires were actually not the right rating. The size was right, but they were 91S instead of 90H (the rating they should be). At one point I had a bulge in the front right tire's side wall, now the rear left tire has a hole in the side wall. I currently have new 91H's on the front, because the tire place was confused to which tires were right, but they seem to be holding up. The two things I need answered are, is havign 91H ok? And secondly, why do they install the tires so the date code is on the part that faces toward the car i.e. you can't read it without going under? The 91S's were from 2002, they probably just deteriorated like they did from being the wrong rating. The spare I am currently using is from '94, so I don't know how long that will last. I didn't check the date code on the tires I just got in the front, who knows how long strauss has left them laying on the shelf.

[dazey]

the bulge and the hole in the sidewalls are more than likely not the tires fault. your car would still be ok with the s rated tires on it...it just wont handle the same. as far as the 91H goes those are fine. the performance rating mainly determines the tire is going to react to cornering conditions and heat. as long as the performance rating is the same as the oe tire, it should handle the same. the 91 is the load index, and as long as its equal to or greater than the oe tire its fine.
on the DOT codes, most tire techs are trained to mount tires with the dot codes in to keep it uniform. if you mount one tire with the dot code out and one with it in, it can cause a tire pull. most assymetrical tires(tires that can only be mounted one way ex: goodyear eagle RSA) are made where the DOT code are supposed to be inside. ive always assumed that it was because dot codes are not really aesthetically pleasing....

on a side note, if only 2 of the tires are H-rated, they should be on the rear or it could cause handling problems under extreme conditions