Dreaded flat tire and I dont like it a bit :(

None of this makes much sense. To wear a tire out until it leaks would require driving beyond the steel belts showing through. Where they that bad? You couldn't do that to any tire in 36,000 miles unless there was bad alignment problems. If you got new tires, you need to get the alignment checked.

Either the tire shop or the dealership isn't being honest, and my hunch is it's the tire shop. A dealership isn't going to miss an opportunity to sell you new tires.

There are only 2 types of leaks; those that are from punctures, and those that are from sealing issues around the rim or valve. There is no such thing as a flat from old or worn out tires, but those can be contributing factors.

Do you have a picture of the worn out tires? You might need to apologize for the little email this morning.

 

I didn't find anything that punctured the tire. The tire tech couldn't find anything either. He said the sidewalls had issues with it. When my husband looked at the remaining tires, he said the tread was down too low to drive. My tire light came on Friday night as I was parking the car, I left it sitting in the garage until yesterday afternoon, and it was completely flat. I had a return voice mail from the dealer, but I'm not going to deal with them. So I've got taken by someone. It's not the first time.

 

My wife's Acura recently had a low tire. I hadn't checked it in about 6 months, but used a spray bottle of soapy water to locate the leak. The puncture was so minor that I could barely see the tiny new bubbles forming at a rate of about 1 every 5 seconds. It was coming from the tread area. I had to drive a screw into the puncture to make the wound large enough to plug, which I consider to be a permanent fix. Talk about counter-intuitive, I had to make the problem much worse before I could fix it. I had contemplated just ignoring the leak, which might have only required filling the tires once a month. Anyhow, I guess my point is that punctures don't always have a sharp object embedded, and they aren't always easy to detect. It certainly wasn't as easy to detect as that time I pulled a 9mm bullet from my tire.

The tire shop should have put the tire under water (they have machines to push the tire into a tub of water) and locate the leak. If they didn't do this, then they were either lazy or were determined to sell tires and not to diagnose the problem (probably both).

As an aside, tire tread provides traction on wet or loose surfaces and has nothing to do with dry pavement performance.

While 36,000 miles is a bit early, at least you got over half the life out of them. Typical would be 50-60k. My personal habit is to run 'em until there is no more tread left since tires are so over-engineered. That said, you wouldn't want to do that in the rain, and most vehicle codes have a legal minimum tread depth.

 

He told me that he did do this.

 

If tread depth is low it's a moot point anyway.

 

at 45,000 miles, my oem tyres are only about 50% worn. there is a little thumping sound in one of them though. i will also be keeping mine for another year, but i don't have any carpool stickers.

 

That is about the point I scrapped my remaining OEM tires last month, after the second one was damaged beyond repair. The two remaining originals had 4/32" of tread left in the middle, about my minimum in this wet climate. But the edges had less, and they were showing early signs of tread separation.

This set had been banished to the drier seasons last year, as I obtained a newer set going into winter. It was put back on in the late Spring, then barely made it through summer. That newer rubber went back on several weeks earlier than planned.

 

I think my solution will be to have 2 sets of tires. 1 set of snow tires that I also use during the rainy season, and 1 set of "dry" tires that I use the other half of the year. This way I won't get caught in too much rain with my balding dry tires, and I can wear them down to nothing.

My Prius was sold from a Russian guy that owned a tire shop, so he put the cheapest new tires he had in stock on it. I'm hoping they wear down quickly so I can put something more efficient on, but I tend to go 70k or so on a set. It's going to take a while.

 

i am also thinking of replacing mine because of the whumping. no rush, since it hasn't rained here in two years, and i haven't been scammed by a tyre dealer. yet.

 

Maybe your whumping can be fixed by a rebalance? I'm going to put antifreeze in my tires one of these days to try dynamic balancing for myself. Since I go so long between tire sets, they inevitably go out of balance over time.

Maybe you are too, seasoned, to be scammed.

 

how do you inject liquid into the tyre?

 

Good question, I'll let you know once I figure it out!

Actually, that's the main reason I haven't done it yet. I can only think to either build a contraption that holds the fluid and accepts a tire inflator to inject it through the valve, or to break the bead of the tire and pour it in. Neither of which are quick and easy (for me).

I suppose I could also get a cheap balancer and some stick on weights to balance my own tires, but I like the idea of a fluid constantly adjusting for any imbalance that develops, including rocks that get stuck in the tread.

 

Method I have used in past to insert liquid sealant into motorcycle and bicycle tires that have Schroeder valves is to use a valve core removal tool to screw out the inner part of the Schroeder valve, inject the fluid, and then screw the valve core back into the Schroeder valve and re-inflate. The tool is simply a small fork that fits precisely over the sides of the valve core and allows the leverage to unscrew it to be applied. (Some metal valve stem caps are designed to be usable for valve core removal.)

Could I ask you to more precisely describe the "whumping" sound?
I ask because I have had a very bad history where the whumping sound comes from the initial stage of tread or steel belt separation , which is followed within 1000 miles by complete tread separation and failure. Dangerous to let It go that far as on 4 out of the 8 times that has happened to me, the result was a sudden blow out.

 

ouch, that doesn't sound good. i'm going to replace them soon, but i'm not sure how to describe the thumping except like there's a flat spot on the tyre and every rotation you get a whump. starts around 25 mph, and disappears over 60.

 

Sounds like you need to stop travelling too fast or too slow

Choose either super hypermiler or set a new speed record!

 

Bejasus, bisco, please be careful.
Look for a more worn spot on the tire tread (mine looked like a small bald spot), or a small crack a bit bigger than a weathering crack and a little longer right where the tread merges into the sidewall. If you find either, the tread or belt separation is imminent .
Are you having any shimmy or rhythmic twisting in The steering wheel that coincides with the thumping? If yes, the problem is probably one of your front wheels. If no, the problem is probably one of your rear wheels. The rear wheel is better for a blowout as it will just give you more drag on that side and a gentle pull that way (plus a bunch of noise from the flat tire and its pieces) . But a blowout in the the front gives a rather vicious yank to the side of the blowout, and your steering authority is decreased because only the remaining tire is gripping correctly. Further , the car will be tilted in the front, which can be disconcerting.
Bottom line: please carefully check for which tire or tires is the problem and replace it, even if it is with a used or mismatched tire , which is not normally desirable but still better than handling a blowout at high speeds on a busy road. Good luck, man!

 

thanks for the warning, it's in the rear, cause i moved it to the front, and it was horrible, twice as bad. no shimmy or twisting, but i'll have a close look at it. i took it to my gas station, and he thought it was fine, if i didn't mind the thumping. not sure how savvy he really is though.

 

Argh!!
I was told the same thing when I first complained about one of my tires that later failed!! The uneven tread wear can be very hard to spot, particularly if you have alignment problems like excess toe in or toe out that produces scuffing of the tread on the side. Dang, I hope yours holds together or at least blows out slowly! Actually,,I had one that threw the belt from the carcass but I heard all those pieces hitting the wheel well in time to slow down before the carcass burst, which made it easier to jack up the car to change the tire. Good luck, man!

 

NY city pothole or metal plate on road repair.. decided to change oem tires at 43k..

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