Sorry for the title if it looks confusing or misleading... First time notice this. It is a summer tire that I have changed after Easter. It has a production date in late 2016, and the issue only appears on one of the four tires. Actually this tire is also the only one that had a plug after hitting a nail a few years ago. The tissue does not not scary but wonder if any experienced driver can share how safe is it to continue driving with this tire? We plan to change another car later this year so would prefer to avoid buying a new set of tires if it is still safe to contine
IMHO: It should be safe to continue; but I would place it in the rear; NOT one of the front tires. If it begins to inflate/push out like a balloon - it would be unsafe, at that point. Hope this helps....
That looks like sidewall damage from running with little to no air in the tire. The sidewall folds and gets pinched between the road and the rim. I agree that you should only use that tire on the rear of the car, so there are less stresses on the sidewall (less weight on it, less cornering forces, etc.) and if it fails catastrophically at speed, then you don't want it on the front of the car. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Thanks both for the reply. The tire was stored in the garage during the winter and I found out the issue after I switched the winter tire to the summer tire. I did not drive that much - during the last 6 years I added 32,000 km. so the tires have still good thread depth. I guess the safest option is to buy 4 new tires, or just 2? The price difference is not so much I guess, compared to the potential benefit.. Just do not want to "overkill" as we plan to change car later this year...
Two tires would be acceptable, especially if you are going to sell it soon. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
thanks, do the two new tires have to be the exact same brand or even the exact same model as the old tires?
It is best to have the same brand, size and model. I have seen people put any tire on their cars, but it's just not safe.
I will be putting two "All Weather Tires" (probably Nokian WR series or equivalent) on my 2020 AWDe this Fall as the OE tire treads are getting too thin for good snow traction (they never had good ice traction). I will have to be careful for the first winter as the rear tire traction will be less than the front which increases the risk of a spin out. When I replace the other two OE tires the following Fall, the traction issues will be fully resolved. JeffD
6 year old tires that look like that are NOT to be trusted. IF......you plan on doing ANY "high speed" driving at all, I suggest that they all need to be replaced. Often age is just as important as tread depth.
thanks, have contacted a workshop to order two new tires, not exactly the same model (my current model is Point S summerstar 3, and the new ones are PointS Summer S) but according to the workshop it is no problem. We live in Norway, a small country so things are not so directly/easily availabe, compared to the States I guess. A good thing about here is highway speed limit in most cases are below 110km/h, or even 90 km/h around my area so we do not do very "high speed" driving. also summer tires use for half of the year normally, just some context in case anyone find it slightly interesting thanks again for every reply.
In this context, I would consider "high speed" to be anything over 70 kph or so. Maybe you should ask your "workshop" what they think about the two remaining tires.
not very good at the translation of the terminology here, maybe "dealer" is a better word than "workshop"?
Just the update, today I have my two tires changed in a dealer. I put the new ones on the rear, But actually the dealer suggested putting the two new ones front...
I generally agree that one should follow the advice of the real "experts" but In this case, I don't. They almost universally recommend putting new tires on the rear......for both front wheel drive and rear drive but I don't agree with that. I know how to handle loss of traction on the rear because I've had a lot of practice at doing that. I have no idea what to do should you lose traction on the fronts. And with front wheel drive, the fronts will wear faster. So I think your dealer was right. But I am in a tiny minority with that opinion.
I'm with you Mr. Spade. When I have to buy just two tires, on my cars with front wheel drive I put the new ones up front.
