Tires, tires, tires

7006 messages, Last post on Oct 29, 2009 at 11:24 AM

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What is this discussion about? Tires, Wheels, Steering

Edmund's Feature Article: Tire Safety: Don't Ignore the Rubber on the Road

For dedicated winter tires, also have a look at the Snow/ice winter tires discussion topic.

Outline

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#6977 of 7006 talking to myself, cont. by stickguy Sep 14, 2009 (12:21 pm)
Looked up the Kelly's on line, and didn't find anything to be impressed about. Certainly not enough to be worth ~$50 on a set of 4! frm making the rounds, looks like the best deal (dropping down to an H from a V) is either the Avid H4S of Potenza Grid G019. not surprising, the same exact pair I had to choose from back in April when I put tires onthe Accord (same size and everything). Probably will go with the Avids that I put on the accord. They certainly have worked well, and from the tirerack test, the Yokos have better wet traction than the Girds (always a plus, especially when the kid is driving!)
#6978 of 7006 Slow Tire Leak by 0123456789 Sep 15, 2009 (4:49 pm)
Hello, I have a 2003 car with 19,000 miles on it. The car still has the original tires on it. It seems like one of the tires has a slow air leak in it. This one tire leaks down from the recommended 29 PSI to 25 PSI in a day and to 20 PSI in a week. However, it doesn't seem to get fully deflated even after months (the lowest was like 13 PSI after many months). I've got two questions: 1. What might be a possible cause of a tire air leak that doesn't seem to fully deflate the tire even after many months? If the tire had a puncture, wouldn't it eventually become fully deflated and visibly flat? 2. Is it possible that permanent, unrepairable damage has been done to that tire from driving the car for 6 years and 19,000 miles with the tire severely underinflated (below 20 PSI)? It is possible this air leak was present when I bought the car new. I wasn't very diligent about checking the tire pressure, so it took me a while to figure out that there might be a slow air leak. The tire looked normal to me. Thank you in advance for your response! Replies to this message: ruking1 (Sep 15, 2009 5:29 pm) obyone (Sep 15, 2009 5:39 pm) ruking1 (Sep 15, 2009 5:44 pm) and 1 more...
#6979 of 7006 Re: Slow Tire Leak [0123456789] by ruking1 Sep 15, 2009 (5:29 pm)
Replying to: 0123456789 (Sep 15, 2009 4:49 pm) Slow leaks can be caused by any number of things. The best thing to do is to bring it into a tire shop, so they can troubleshoot/isolate/correct. As part of the process they can inspect your external and probably more importantly, your internal tire structure. Replies to this message: obyone (Sep 15, 2009 5:39 pm) ruking1 (Sep 15, 2009 5:44 pm) 0123456789 (Sep 16, 2009 6:57 pm)
#6980 of 7006 Re: Slow Tire Leak [ruking1] by obyone Sep 15, 2009 (5:39 pm)
Replying to: ruking1 (Sep 15, 2009 5:29 pm) Tires being 6 years old should be replaced. That should solve the slow leak and any concern over damage caused by running an under inflated tire. Replies to this message: ruking1 (Sep 15, 2009 5:44 pm) 0123456789 (Sep 16, 2009 6:57 pm)
#6981 of 7006 Re: Slow Tire Leak [obyone] by ruking1 Sep 15, 2009 (5:44 pm)
Replying to: obyone (Sep 15, 2009 5:39 pm) It can be truly pristine or a disaster waiting for a place to happen. Inspection by a professional is at the very least, a second opinion. Replies to this message: 0123456789 (Sep 16, 2009 6:57 pm)
#6982 of 7006 Re: Slow Tire Leak [ruking1] by 0123456789 Sep 16, 2009 (6:57 pm)
Replying to: ruking1 (Sep 15, 2009 5:44 pm) Thank you for the responses ruking1 and obyone. I will take it to a tire shop and see what they think of the problem.
#6983 of 7006 Need advice, this problem by marsha7 Sep 23, 2009 (7:39 am)
is driving me nuts...I have 2004 Crown Vic, OEM tires were Goodyear Eagle LS and the car rode smooth as glass for 48,000 miles...I then had the tires replaced with new LS tires, and we went thru about 7 sets of tires because none of them could be balanced...the car would ALWAYS vibrate between 50-70 mph...we finally settled on Eagle RS-A tires, which vibrated the least, but still never ran smooth... At 98,000 miles, time for new tires (car now has 128,000 miles)...again we went thru 3 sets of Goodyears, always bad vibration (steering wheel shakes and my seat vibrates) between 50-70 mph...so we changed to Michelins, still the same problem...tires have been road-force balanced, and balanced on three different computer balance machines...all machines balance it to "00", but on the car they still vibrate... All 3 machine technicians have told me that my wheels are NOT bent, yet no one can balance these tires...does anyone have any thoughts of this??? There is a place that advertises they can balance wheels ON the car, I thought of trying them, but how can they balance rear wheels on the car at high speed since the axles connect to the differential??? This is driving me nuts since 2006, and it is so odd that the factory tires/wheels were perfectly balanced, and no one has done it right since then...and these are all tire specialty shops!!! What would my next step be from here??? Replies to this message: kiawah (Sep 23, 2009 8:14 am) imidazol97 (Sep 23, 2009 8:20 am) ruking1 (Sep 23, 2009 8:22 am) kiawah (Sep 23, 2009 10:25 am) imidazol97 (Sep 23, 2009 10:34 am) imidazol97 (Sep 23, 2009 10:53 am)
#6984 of 7006 Re: Need advice, this problem [marsha7] by kiawah Sep 23, 2009 (8:14 am)
Replying to: marsha7 (Sep 23, 2009 7:39 am) Have you considered that the problem might not be the tires? - Loose body part (like air dam under the car), that begins flapping in the wind as the speed picks up. - Shocks (or Struts, don't know the Vic suspension) bad - Driveshaft/axles out of balance - Is the alignment in spec, or a bad ball joint, causing premature wear of the tire throwing it off balance?
#6985 of 7006 Re: Need advice, this problem [marsha7] by imidazol97 Sep 23, 2009 (8:20 am)
Replying to: marsha7 (Sep 23, 2009 7:39 am) >What would my next step be from here??? Several thoughts. Which Michelins did you put on? And they were Road Force balanced? The Michelins should have been nearly perfect if the Road Force tech knew what he was doing... Did it come on with the new tires and the old ones were great and smooth? Has it been aligned to the Nines--right on the optimum setting. Some cars are sensitive to slight variation from the optimum alignment. The old tires may have worn and become flex-adapted to the slight misalignment. I am thinking of GM H-bodies with the sensitivity to alignment and out-of-round; I really haven't heard it discussed re Fords. I see two approaches. One is to take it to a Ford dealer with a long-time (old and/or knowledgeable) alignment guy. Let him check every rubber bushing, link, and other part for wear. Two would be to find an independent shop guy who understands the physics of everything about a car and he might find it. Is there any chance it's a brake rotor slightly out-of-round bumping the caliper and causing a vibration? Or a caliper dragging slightly. A comment that's my opinion about replacing a popular new car tire with a like tire. I was told the better tires go to the new car plants and the slightly less than perfect tires go to the service dealers for replacements. I had a Century that came new with a particular brand of tire which I won't name and it was as good or better driving than the Michelins I had on the other Century. When I replaced the tire at a dealer, the tires were out-of-round/out-of-balance all the way to Charleston (SC) and back. When I went to the tire store, he didn't even offer to put on another set of same national brand tire; he recalled I'd priced Michelins along with the national brand and he put on Michelins at no extra charge. That was when I heard that replacements sometimes weren't as good as the new car version.
#6986 of 7006 Re: Need advice, this problem [marsha7] by ruking1 Sep 23, 2009 (8:22 am)
Replying to: marsha7 (Sep 23, 2009 7:39 am) I think a lot of it has to do with how FORD builds their cars specifically alignment and suspension sub systems. It would seem that since yours is a Crown Victoria and local police departments push modified Crown Vics, the municipality mechanics that service police Crown Victorias would be an awesome resource. The worse the shop supervisor could say is no, so I would ask him and ask to speak with the mechanics and or him/her.