Ugh, tire trouble. As the sole connection between the road and everything that makes your car capable of car stuff, a bum tire means you aren’t going anywhere. Assuming you regularly cast your peepers upon those precious rubber donuts to anticipate pending tread trouble, odds are when something does go bad, it’s a surprise – and with the worst possible timing, probably.
Today’s Autopian Asks invites you to share your stories about tires gone bad, and I’m sure most of us have had at least one or two experiences with flats or failures. That certainly includes me, especially if we factor in bicycle tires. But if we keep it to cars, there are two tales that stand out for me.
Before getting my brand-new-at-the-time 2012 Mustang GT, I had exclusively driven meagerly powered “regular cars” and was used to tires lasting at least a couple of years, no matter how hard I drove. Not so with the Mustang GT. Though I never performed any smokey burnouts (never had a desire, TBH), I did drive the car like it was meant to be driven, with lusty rows through the gears at every opportunity and – because I live in North Texas – only occasional chances to really feel the car’s handling, mostly brief moments on highway exit and entrance ramps. And so, after maybe six months with the car, I was surprised to discover what looked like paint on the rear tires. White paint, down the centers of the treads. Had I run over freshly-painted lines? No, wait, that’s not paint – those are the cords of the tire carcass. Yikes. I quickly learned how much more expensive fresh low-profile, high-performance rubber is compared to the cheap treads I was used to putting on Civics, Camrys, and Corollas. And I drove more gingerly after that.
The second tire tale is my most recent. Anytime there’s a hailstorm, the roofing guys descend to repair damaged shingles, and roofing nails soon litter the alleys that are the arteries of Texas suburbia. I inevitably pick up one or two during roofing season, which sucks, but I can generally seal the tires. But not my last puncture – it seemed nothing would work. Not the sticky-rubber strip plug, not the sealant I dumped in there after. What a drag. I Slack’d the whole fiasco.
… anyway, I eventually got it sealed up with the third attempt at a strip-type plug. That sucked.
Your turn:
Tell Us About The Last Time You Had Tire Problems
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
Less than a month into owning my Mazda3, I picked up a nail in the right rear tire. Left work, and about a minute down the road the low tire warning light came on. Tire was completely flat. Debated putting on the donut, but just filled it with my compressor instead and drove the two miles to my first stop on the way home. After a couple hours, it was only down about 10psi, so I topped it up and headed home.
Since I let the dealer talk me into the “tire and wheel protection package” when I bought the car, I called them up in the morning and they said to bring it in. They replaced the tire, no charge.
Fast forward, I get a slow leak in another tire. (Apparently the factory Toyos are notorious puncture magnets.) Another trip to the dealer and it’s patched free of charge.
A few months before the protection package term ran out (and less than a day after I’d had a tire rotation done at the dealer), I notice a bubble in the sidewall of the right front tire. I’d not hit any potholes since the rotation, so I have to wonder how they missed it. I call the dealer and arrange to bring it back in at 7am the next morning. They tell me they’ve got the tire in stock, but they have to call to get approval from the warranty company. So I wait. And wait. Around about 1pm, the service tech comes by to tell me they finally got the approval, but in the meantime, they’d sold the tire (as part of a set of 4) to another customer.
Needless to say, I was furious. I told them up front that, even if the warranty wasn’t approved, I wanted that tire installed and would happily pay for it. They could reimburse me if the approval came through. Now, I’ve wasted half my day and don’t have a tire. They said they couldn’t get another one in, but they had a Bridgestone in the same spec. Again, I went off, reminding them that this is a less than two year old car, and they want me to go around with one oddball tire. I let them know, in no uncertain terms, that if I had to settle for that, I would be sure to point it out and let everyone know that’s how [dealer name redacted] Mazda does business. (I’m not going to name names, since in the end they made it right, but for those around the DC/MD/VA area, if you’re talkin’ cars, you’re talkin’ them.)
Then I went on Tire Rack and found the matching tire, and pointed out that they could deliver it in two days. I had to order it and pay for it, and was promised reimbursement. The day I came back to get my tire installed, the person who writes the checks wasn’t there — so the tech promised they’d mail me a check. A week goes by. Two. I call and ask. Oops, someone dropped the ball. Three days later, I get a check in the mail.
At least it was the right amount.
Now, was that tire package worth it? I dunno, maybe. I got two replacements and a patch out of it. But was it worth the time and aggravation of dealing with the dealership? I’m really not sure it was.
Last fall, as the two original Toyos were approaching their wear bars, I replaced them with a set of Vredestein Quatrac Pros, which I’m very happy with.
my car has a slightly dinged rim that lets air out every now and then. Fortunately the Discount Tire warranty covers removing the tire and resealing it. Eventually I may have to replace the wheel due to corrosion at the sight of the ding. Then I’ll have to decide if I want to pay up for a matching aluminum wheel or if a steelie is good enough.
Previous vehicle had rims that were 1-2” bigger than they should be (necessary to get the heated seats and steering wheel GRRRRR), hence too little sidewall, and my job had me driving thru Long Island City a lot. Too many potholes to dodge all of them. So, lots of sidewall bubbles, hence tire repla$ements, and rims so bent the garage guy would say “I can just barely balance it.”
Oversized wheels and low profile rubber are bullshit unless you ACTUALLY GO TO A TRACK. Self deception is the truest deception, people, and Detroit, Stuttgart etc. are happy to indulge it.
I loathe the popularity of low profile tires.
“off-road” SUVs with low profiles. AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa
I recently saw a Macan all kitted out to look off-roadish and tough. Enormous roof rack, lifted with bulky fenders and bumpers. Super low profile tires. Just … go home.
Not nearly as many since I quit Discount Tire three weeks ago!
Currently having a problem! The TPMS sensors on my Bolt have reached wizened old age and started dying one after the other. A set of TPMS sensors cost me all of $15. Knocking the bead off of a road tire with tools not designed to do so has cost me a lot of scrapes, bruises, and sore muscles, however. I’ve replaced two of them, and now the third one has gone out. I asked at the local tire place if they would replace the sensors with ones I brought myself, but they said no. They will only do a full set of replacements for 10x as much as I paid for this little box of sensors. I’m feeling my full cheap bastard on this one and just using a jack on one side, a 2×4, and the underside of my HiAce to compress the tire enough to get to the sensor. But it’s a bear of a job. So, currently, I get information on 2 tires (the third sensor failed before I could reprogram the 2nd new sensor and, it seems, Chevy won’t let you reprogram if it isn’t getting 4 signals) and a big old TPMS warning every time I turn the car on.
Harbor Freight sells a $70 piece of awkwardly shaped tubing and bearings to do this exact job. I’m trying to justify that taking up a corner of the garage.
There’s also a very slow leak in one tire on the Bolt and one on the HiAce. Like loses 10psi/month in both cases. They both could use replacement tires in the next year, so I’m just keeping an eye on them.
I just had my first one die on my ’17 Volt. When it goes in next month for inspection I’ll replace them all but thankfully my guy lets me bring parts. The ’19 Bolt hasn’t started shedding them yet…
Mine’s a ’17. Close to that 10 year mark, I guess. Pretty trouble free vehicle otherwise.
Discount tire will replace the sensors with ones you provide. I’ve had it done before. I find their prices to be better than other places as well.
Good to know! The more visible local place is called Les Schwab, which decidedly doesn’t include the word ‘discount’ in the name. May have to stray from that tire shop.
Driving to work when the tire light comes on, pull off the freeway annoyed that I have to change the tire only to find out new cars don’t come with spares anymore. I had not bought a new car in nearly 20 years so that new cost savings move by car companies had missed me.
Worst one is the only noteworthy one. We were leaving Roswell NM on a big long road trip. We made it about an hour out of town and blew a tire. It was a Saturday afternoon, and the tire places we could find ahead of us in Albuquerque were not going to be open Sunday, so after some deliberation, we turned around and drove back to Roswell.
Discount tire was packed, so after spending a boring day there, we had to spend another couple hours waiting for the tire shop to get it fixed.
Ended up walking to the McDonalds down the street so the kids could play. The playplace there is honestly pretty awesome, it’s all alien themed and the kids remember that more than anything else we did in the town haha
Okay that does sound kind of fun though
At the time it was super annoying and took way too long, but yeah looking back on it, it was not terrible. It cost me like 4 hours of drive time though which sucked.
I always felt for the customers that had been there for hours and hours. I don’t know how other stores run but we were constantly understaffed. Wait times past three hours are not uncommon on Saturdays, but there was nothing more we could do. We could turn most cars in less than 10 minutes. We just had too many cars and not enough people, honestly not even enough bays even if we had had the people.
Honestly I felt bad for bringing it in, they were supposed to close at like 5 or 6, and we didn’t get out of there until close to 8 because they would keep taking cars right up until closing time which blew my mind. Hopefully y’all get overtime when you have to stay late.
having them now as we speak. my 2015 ATS is going from feathering the outside shoulder to the the inside shoulder now. got the alignment deal from firestone where you can have it done every 6K miles. im hoping its the rough roads around here and not suspension. its only at 80K miles. the only thing i changed was going from the factory ats 17×8’s with a 42mm offset to factory ct4 17×8 take offs with a 32mm offset. it was aligned after that. would that 10mm offset really be the issue?
Recent:
4th lap of my expected 6 at an autocross event. I was hoping to make it one last event before replacing the tires.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jqijc26nxc3kf4nelgbas/IMG_2080.jpeg?rlkey=167ez2f41tu6p2kxkooxc9ahv&st=m912syru&dl=0
2 week old VW Atlas. Ran over a lug for a circuit breaker box. Clunkclunked home at 10 mph thru a couple of neighborhoods. Fortunately it was repairable. Much profanity was uttered.
It’s interesting how little tire trouble I’ve had in the last 10 years. LT tires are tough. The main troubles have been bad wear and cost (yikes). I did pick up a nail from the paleolithic era (at least it looked like it) off-roading in Moab a few years ago. That was mildly annoying. I’ve seriously considered not even having a spare on my car because it hangs down and reduces departure angle. I wont do it, but I’ve thought about it. That certainly says something about how good tires have gotten.
I’ve had the same experience since going to “crossover-spec” all-terrains in my Camaro. Zero tire issues in the years I’ve had them, versus tons of trouble with the stock 20″ runflats in my first year and a half with the car.
I’m having tire problems right now.
My C-Max came Michelin Crossclimate 2 tires.
And the issue with these tires is cupping… which makes them noisy.
The cupping can supposedly be caused by worn shocks (which I replaced) and worn wheel bearings (which I replaced… but will likely have to replace again soon as the replacements are shit)
And because they’re directional, you’re not supposed to put them on the other side which would even out the wear.
The issue is a bit annoying but not so annoying that I will replace them until they are sufficiently worn out.
And I have to say that in every other way such as grip and how long they are lasting, they are good tires.
And when I do replace them, it will NOT be another set of these tires.
Will likely go back to my go-to tire… the General Altimax RT45
It’s involved, but could you unmount the tires and rotate side to side (i.e., tires remain in the same orientation)? I know those crossclimates you’re talking about, super distinctive tread pattern
“but could you unmount the tires and rotate side to side”
But that doesn’t really even out the wear in the sense of having the tire roll in the opposite direction.
Nah – the crossclimate is directional. My suggestion is that you don’t rotate in the traditional sense of moving the wheel assembly mirrored across the axle, you’re actually moving just the tire (or wheel if you want that doesn’t really matter), unmirrored:
LR (↑) → RR (↑)
Not
LR (↑) → RR (↓)
Yeah I know. When I rotate them, I keep the Crossclimates on the same side. So I basically only switch them from front to back… and back to front.
When I eventually get new tires, I’m gonna get a 5th tire/wheel and do the Forward-Cross rotation as outlined here:
https://www.tirerack.com/images/techCenter/tires/tireRotation_3.png
Oh sorry haha I did lose track of the fact you were OP, you know they’re directional 😛
I got a set of Crossclimate 2’s for my Pacifica not long ago. It did not occur to me until now that I can’t rotate them normally. Big upgrade from the stock tires in the snow though.
Zooming around unpaved roads north of Waco at street pressure. I thought, maybe I could straddle this small pit of mud instead of going straight through like everyone else!
Boom, three inch vertical cut/break in the sidewall and a top-layer slash in back I wouldn’t see until a week later. Bought two matching used tires to fit and I still have even wear!
I have a second full-size spare now so the fun can continue just a while longer.
My SO and a different friend both had a blow-out after I suspect the tire was run quite underinflated for a period of time while I was living elsewhere.
Luckily both vehicles have spares and I will be ensuring any future vehicle has a spare available as well but packaging and electrification these days means we’re reverting some to the days of just sticking a spare in the cargo area.
More recently, parent’s had a slow leak so I just took the wheel to a shop for a patch.
I took my Sonata in for an alignment. They called me and said “we can’t align it until you get new tires. You have a big sidewall bulge.”
I did, but the tires were only two years old, so I dug out the receipt and got two replaced on a pro-rated warranty. I came away happy.
That sucks but I’m glad they told you. I just had to tell a friend her rear shocks are dead, having killed her rear tires in the process. She had just had them rotated and texted my immediately that it was making an even louder scary sound.
That weekend I got to look at it and sure enough, they’re oscillation-worn to striped baldness.
Not me, but I had a coworker who knew I was into cars ask me how to get tires replaced. Kind of a strange question, so I asked why. It was the person’s parents old car that hadn’t been driven in years, and it was sitting in the driveway with flat tires.
This was an adult in their 40’s and had no clue that you can inflate tires.
No, no, you need to go to the tire store and buy new tires that have air in them!
Might consider replacing those anyway, I imagine sitting on collapsed sidewalls for years is not great.
I brought that up, but they were just trying to move the car.
Last time I plugged a tire was last weekend. I had a slow leak in my rear tire on my daily ridden motorcycle. I tried one of those screw in and break off plugs. No dice, so I went with the old rope plug and it was back up and running. I had to ride home from a movie with a flat rear though.
The worst time I had to deal with tires was last year at work. We had a group of “workers” curb a tire on our Ram 2500 work truck. They drove it back from the worksite and wanted to change to the spare. The problem was, they just popped the spare and didn’t think that they should have replaced the previous flat they had. So now we have a truck with 2 of 5 tires with cut sidewalls. Eventually they bought 1 new tire. I had all the tires replaced on that work truck over the summer. All 4 were in terrible shape, the truck is in terrible shape, and it is just about to roll over 10k miles. I have to keep it till 140k according to policy. So i should be able to replace it in 49 more years. A group same as this once pulled a trailer with no bearings in one wheel all over town wondering why the tires on that side of the trailer were rubbing together. That was also a fun day explaining that we would need new tires and bearings and a spindle to their boss.
One month old car with 1200 miles. Sliced a tire coming out of the neighborhood. Looked it the tire pressure via the dashboard and ran to Discount Tire. Made it there with 8 pounds still left in the tire. Yea me! BTW, couldn’t match the OEM tire so I replaced all 4, at 1200 miles…
Negotiating with the seller of my ’91 F350 longbed dually crewcab, and we agreed for the seller to meet me at my work (I was simultaneously selling my ’87 F250 to a coworker. It was a long drive over step twisty roads (Georgetown CA to Roseville CA) and we met, transacted and parted. I made it less than a half hour before one of the tires gave out. Called AAA and the tech spent a halh hour just getting the spare lowered from the underbed location. Turns out that all seven tires were cracked and checked from age and needed to be replaced. Since I was planning on going home, hopping into my Prius and head out of town for several days. I called home, got one of the group to drive my Prius to meet me, and arranged for AAA to drop the truck off in my driveway. they planted it diagonally blocking the entire driveway.
Well, tires for duallys are not common anymore, so apparently the only tires easily available narrow enough are trailer tires. So immediately after buying a truck, I had to buy seven new tires as none of them were in good enough condition even for a spare.
Sort of on topic, tried to remove a wheel on my XC70 using the stock jack because I didn’t feel like dragging the big heavy one out of the basement.
For those who don’t know, P2 Volvos don’t have lift points, they have lift lugs. So the stock jack has a weird hook instead of what you might be expecting. So after screwing with it for like 10 minutes, I finally get it on, start lifting up the car-
Car falls off. And I think I did something wrong, but no, the jack punched a hole in my driveway.
Godawful jack. I haven’t used it since.
Not common. About 1.5 year ago I had a screw puncture and used a gummy worm plug for the first time. Was holding air perfectly when I sold the car.
On a mission to pick up oil at my local auto parts store, I was driving my Camaro along a 45mph road with some beautiful shadows cast by trees in the afternoon sun.
*BONK* *KA-THONK*
Wait, one of those shadows was a pothole.
The car felt fine, so I kept driving the half-mile to the store. By the time I’d parked, the void I’d traversed had vanished from my mind.
As I headed to the cashier to pay for my oil and some shop towels, another customer staggers in, and asks the cashier if they service flat tires at this location.
*Uh-oh.* The GM warning chime *boop-boop-booped* in my mind.
“There was a huge pothole on the road near here and both the front tires on my Lexus are flat,” the rattled driver said, “and this was the closest auto place I knew of.”
Mental *boop-boop-booping* continuing in the background, I paid for the oil & towels and headed out to check my car.
I saw the Lexus IS 350 sedan parked next to it, front bumper almost caressing the pavement with both front tires at 0 PSI.
The Camaro stood tall, no damage at all to its beefy A/T tires on smaller-than-factory wheels.
This has been a PSA: thick tires are where it’s at. I’ve had zero tire issues in the 95k miles I’ve run the A/T sizing, versus three nails in the first 20k miles on the stock 20″ wheel size. Sidewalls will save you.
Screw in the tyre on the Unobtanim 12″s on the Figaro, when I came down in the parking garage to get it:
No biggie, fixed it with one of those beef jerky looking rubber plugs – and some slime spray from the inside for good measure.
Probably going to mount new tires myself next time also, so I can just give myself a hard time about using the spray… and pay myself a little extra for cleaning that rim 😀
Hit something in the road and then seconds later the TPMS light came on. Didn’t even know 2010 models were equipped with it since the light has never come on before in 70k miles.
Pull over and go to install the spare but couldn’t find the jack handle so I had to improvise. Of course, I found the handle when I went to put everything away.
Drove to Les Schwab where they patched the tire for free even though I didn’t get the tires from them (and frankly will never because it’s hard to find reviews of their private label stuff). They do it at a loss in hope that you get your next set from them.
Took three goes for the garage to balance the wheels after the last tyre buy on my C5.
First time was with an apprentice, who did not know that light alloy wheels need a lot of precision, second was with a fully qualified mechanic, who should have known better.
Third time I took the workshop foreman out to show the state of the wobble, and he then did all four himself, and it is a smooth as silk.
Do not think that putting AI chips in the machine would make things work better — if the mechanic putting the lead on is not precise, there is nothing which will work.
As for punctures, average one every three years — usually bits of wire which have worked into the tarmac until we came along.
I recently had a slow leak in one of my Model 3’s tires. No big deal. Since it is a Tesla, I opened the app to schedule service to patch the tire. After inputting that my tire had a slow leak, it said I would receive an estimate to approve momentarily.
A few minutes later I received a message saying my estimate was ~$300 (most of which was a “diagnostic fee”) and it prompted me to approve the estimate. Yeah, no – I don’t need to pay $300 to have some dipshit tell me I have a nail in my tire. I ended up taking it to an independent shop a few blocks from my house and a more reasonable dipshit fixed my tire for $10 plus tax.
I can’t believe Tesla has the nerve to ask customers to pay a $300 diagnostic fee for a tire with a slow leak. I don’t even think it costs this much to replace the tire.