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Car Tire Angst
schattenjaeger
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have a honda civic with Bridgestone Turanza something or others on them. The tires have slightly more than 20k miles on them. I recently had a nail and associated slow leak in a rear tire. By the time I noticed the leak two or three days later the tire had about 15 or so psi in it (I know, but it really didn't look visibly low). The nail was pretty close to the sidewall. It was still through the thread, but maybe a quarter inch or so from where the thread ended.
The place I took it to patched it and warned me about its location and to keep an eye on it in case it starts leaking again. I've been thinking and given that car tires are pretty important, maybe I shouldn't be too sketchy about this. If I were to buy new tires, do ya'll have any opinion on just replacing the back two? Internet research tells me that's common and to put them on the back, which is where they'd go anyways. Since it's so desirable to have the new treads on the back, and the front are 20k miles more worn, would I ever even rotate them again?
Also, should I consider just getting four new tires? That would give me a chance to change tire types since these are OEM (they were replaced once before, but with the OEM again for reasons I don't recall). Is that being unnecessarily wasteful with only 20k on the front tires (and I rotate them regularly). Am I being unnecessarily wasteful in the first place by distrusting the plug?
If four tires is a good idea, does anyone have any tire recommendations?
The place I took it to patched it and warned me about its location and to keep an eye on it in case it starts leaking again. I've been thinking and given that car tires are pretty important, maybe I shouldn't be too sketchy about this. If I were to buy new tires, do ya'll have any opinion on just replacing the back two? Internet research tells me that's common and to put them on the back, which is where they'd go anyways. Since it's so desirable to have the new treads on the back, and the front are 20k miles more worn, would I ever even rotate them again?
Also, should I consider just getting four new tires? That would give me a chance to change tire types since these are OEM (they were replaced once before, but with the OEM again for reasons I don't recall). Is that being unnecessarily wasteful with only 20k on the front tires (and I rotate them regularly). Am I being unnecessarily wasteful in the first place by distrusting the plug?
If four tires is a good idea, does anyone have any tire recommendations?
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Also, more internet research tells me that the best way to repair tires is to plug it and also patch it from the inside, which involves demounting the tire and means you can make sure the puncture didn't damage anything. I'm not sure what the place I went to did - is that worth call and asking about?
High speed blowouts are very rare.
I don't think I ever drove over 55mph however, don't do much highway driving... I do about 25miles a day for work. Anywhere from 10 miles to 60 miles on a weekend.
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A lot of the time "the internet" doesn't know half of what it thinks it does.
I think they are just covering their behinds for continued leaks, as a proper patch on the inside of the tire is a liiiiitle more tricky to apply when it's so close to the sidewall. Honestly, the repair should hold just fine, and if you aren't noticing a significant tire pressure loss over the course of the next week I think you're golden.
The main problem with replacing two tires is when drive wheels have different diameter tires. Replacing two tires on a 2WD car is acceptable, so long as the tread depths on the drive tires are similar (front or rear). The reasoning behind this basically boils down to the car having to make up for that rotational difference internally, which wears components out prematurely. That's why replacing anything less than 4 tires on a 4WD or AWD is a big no-no.
As far as I know, the Bridgestone Turanza EL400 is a 60,000 mile tire. You should have lots of life left, and I would trust a proper patch (or plug-patch, as the case may be) as I would trust a perfectly good tire.
EDIT: Oh, and as far as rotations, you're perfectly okay to do that, so long as the tires stay paired up on the drive axle. Make sure that the tread depth left and right are similar. Front to back doesn't cause the associated wear/damage that left to right does.
For what it's worth I do lots of freeway driving at 70+mph, and am driving a few other people on a 1.5 hour roadtrip this very saturday. I can ask someone else to drive, but am not sure it's necessary.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=52
Basically, new ones on the front make it much easier to hydro-plane and spin out. I looked this up, because I thought the same way, you brake/steer with the front.
I know it 'sounds right', but this is bad and dangerous advice. @tinwhiskers is right: You _absolutely_ want new tires (if you're getting two) on the rear. Any responsible tire shop (when they aren't trying to get you to upgrade to a full set) will either tell you this or have signage to that effect.
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and the patch could come loose
i think you should just monitor it
if you do have to buy tires, it's fine to just buy two. hell, I've just bought one before.
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Thanks for the feedback everyone! I've quoted this reply because it now becomes relevant since the tire was at 25 psi this morning (although I'll air it up once just in case the shop accidentally underinflated it).
If I do get two new tires on the rear, the front ones will have 20k plus more miles of wear on them. My understanding is that rotating the tires is to keep them wearing evenly, and that, as mentioned above, you want disproportionately unworn tires on the rear. Since they will always be considerably less worn in my case, it seems like rotating them would create the situation I want to avoid. Does that make sense? And since it is FWD the front tires will wear faster so the back ones likely won't "catch up"
Also, as far as replacing just one tire, I think the idea is to not have differently sized tires on an axle because it messes with the differential, right? Is that concern overstated? Buying two tires (one of which is absolutely needed) wouldn't be a huge burden for me, but again, if I'm just being unnecessarily paranoid I'd like to know.
You don't want different circumference tires on an axle, whether it be for differential or traction control reasons. You can replace just one, but it should be close in circumference to the the worn tire (I think the Subaru dealership told me within 1 cm, so there should be tolerances your dealer can tell you). It may sound ghetto, but if you cannot find such a tire new, there may be places you can get used tires from.
Right, the problem in my case being that rotating them puts the considerably more worn tires on the back, which is apparently bad as has been discussed. In that case, replacing a pair seems to put me in a cycle of always replacing them in pairs, and never getting their full life since I won't be rotating them. Thing is, I'm not sure how much loss that is and if it'd be worth it in the long run to just replace all four.
Tires are dumb, I'm buying a tank.
Edit: Or replace all 4. That works too, but is unnecessarily expensive for FWD/RWD.
If you believe the idea that having badly worn tires on the rear is more dangerous than the front, then that's an unavoidable consequence. I'm sure millions of people have successfully ignored or been unaware of this advice with no ill consequences but since I'm aware of it I feel like I need to at least ask.
I think you've got the right idea here. Also, it's not like you're replacing two tires and leaving two BALD tires on the car. Your other tires are perfectly fine. I would honestly suggest putting the new tires on the front to even up the wear a bit, and start rotating as per usual.
What sort of a climate do you live in? Do you see extreme rain often? That would be my only concern about rear tire hydroplane.
One of the reasons for putting the used tires in the front is that the car, being heavier up front, will provide more downward force on the tires and improve their contact.
What you're trying to avoid with a rotation schedule are two things--uneven wear front to back due to normal usage, and uneven wear from side to side due to being a delivery truck (not too common) or alignment issues (who knows?). Your tire shop can usually give you a good idea as to whether you need an alignment done.
If you keep a good rotation schedule, then your new rear tires will be broken in a little by the time they go to the front, which isn't _as_ bad.
(Keep in mind, the advice here isn't necessarily because we're worried you'll fishtail off a mountain the first time you hit a drop of water. At the same time, how much rain you experience is irrelevant. Any non-trivial amount of rain on a flat or poorly graded road has the potential to cause hydroplaning. It does not take a lot as long as there is standing water.)
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I still don't believe it. Some folks think understeer is safer than oversteer, good for them.