Tire Guys

Since I'm pretty anal about vehicle maintenance I was surprised to get a trouble light showing low pressure while driving today. I was taking my mom and dad to lunch at the time. I dropped them off and parked the car to do a walk around. This is what I found with the tire hissing rain bubbles.



I ran back inside and gave them my order, busted ass home (10 minutes away), and changed cars with my wife. I still got back in time before my lunch order arrived.

So what do you think, is it repairable? It looks more like a slice wound than a puncture wound (nail). At any rate I'm heading to my tire shop to find out.



I don't like to run tires down to where I'm squeezing the last 6-8k miles out of them. These tires have 41,000+ miles. So they may end up all getting replaced. They don't look bad though.

 

Replace all four, keep a used one for the spare which is probably a donut. Sell the other two used for $25 each on Craigslist for beer money.

 

That sucks that it's between the lugs. I believe that's gonna leave a wide gash/puncture, but depending on the size of the hole where the air is actually escaping, you may still be able to plug it. Those tires are still good to me!

 

This is off my 4Runner which is a traditional truck frame chassis. So the spare is full sized and chained between the frame rails.

 

Sooo... $75 for beer money. Even better.

 

I was the "tire guy" for more than a decade, that tire is done Buddy. Too big of a slash thru the belts to safely say it's fixed.

 

Throw a plug in it and roll on...

 

That's what she said.

 

Agreed, could be patched from the inside, but a plug...or two...won't get you far before they let go or the belt separates. With it being that close to time to replace them anyways, why worry about being on borrowed time?

 

tube it and plan on buying new tires.

 

You were in need of an alignment anyway...

 

Conclusion. My tire guy of course said no way on repairing. But he also said I might have another 10,000 to 15,000 miles on the remaining. He said replace the tire and it will have no effect on ride, shimmy, alignment etc. because my other tires were still in good shape. When I'm ready for new tires I will get 4 new ones and this will become my new spare.

Thanks for thoughts and witty commentary.

 

That tire is shot. Also, while you're at it. let your spare down and lube the suspension mechanism for it. Should be done every 10k, probably never gets done on most trucks. The usual time to find out your works are froze up is at night.

 

Yeah that chain gets lubed regularly along with the take-up mechanism.