Inbd Wear on One Tire

I would only replace the badly worn tire and only then only when the thread approached minimum specs. Of course, it's use would be limited to the rear wheels. Ignore any noise etc by turning up the radio...

Your car should last another 100K with the care that you give it.

JT

Elle wrote:

Hi Elle: After seeing your post, I looked up the Viva 2 tires at Walmart and they are listed as 175/70R13, not 165/70R13 as specified for the 91 Civic. If you find the 165's at Walmart, please drop a line. I am looking for a new set of tires for my own 91 Civic, but the 165's are now very hard to come by (Yokohama still makes them, but every service place I have checked lists them as on backorder).

By the way, as Grumpy notes, your Civic should last another 100K miles easily. I am plann> Any sage advice on whether to replace the other tires or how

AH,

The sticker inside my 91 Civic's glove compartment specifies the 175's. What's your source for the 165's?

My doggone Civic better last another 100k miles after the guzillion hours of labor I put into control arm bushings not long ago.

I had the breather chamber off a few years ago and thought I replaced the O-ring then, but maybe not. That's a good idea for older cars. The slowness of the oil accumulating at the bottom of my oil drain plug suggests a very slow leak. Could be a poor fitting drain plug (it's metric but aftermarket) or somewhat stripped oil pan threads. I also suspect the distributor housing O-ring (or seal near it) is leaking a wee bit, though it's only three years old.

JT (a.k.a Grumpy): Perfect. I wasn't sure about the rate of wear of front vs. back. Earlier I returned my fairly new, 5k mile old tire to the front and the worn one to the rear. No significant steering wander now. I did not want to spend $50 on a new tire, anyway.

Thanks for the input, AH and JT.

wrote

Oh, and I always get the el cheapo tires (usually at Discount Tire) here in Austin. They wear out in about 25K before they have a chance to "cup" etc. Pep Boyz is another source of good cheap tires. Never had a problem with either but stay away from Nation Tire 'n Battery. The cheapo tires there were impossible to balance and drove me nutz until they wore out, on two different cars before I learned my lesson..

JT

Elle wrote:

Based on my experience with NTB in Dallas area, its not the tires that are impossible to balance, its their balancing technique. Those guys can't balance any tire. Seems to be consistent throughout the chain. Apparently they don't calibrate the machines very often.

Ah1244, my 91 Civic is an LX sedan. always had 175s on it. Take care. :-)

wrote

It may be they are using "bubble-balance" machines. Apparently they worked pretty well with unbelted bias ply tires, or maybe the profiles were higher then or the front suspension less sensitive. Anyway, lateral imbalance makes bubble balance useless these days, but the machines are probably a tiny fraction of the price of spin balance machines.

If you've ever had a ceiling fan with flimsy blade mounts you've seen the effects of lateral imbalance. If a blade is not rotating in the same plane as the others no amount of diddling with weights will correct it.

Mike

IIRC, they only spun 'em once. At discount, they spin until they are done. OTOH, I had to NTB tires that were so bad, no one could balance 'em. That's why I've never been back.

JT

E Meyer wrote:

In my case, they were spun on a machine at all locations.

I like the way tires were balanced at a shop back east... On the car! That way, the entire spining assembly is treated.

JT

Michael Pardee wrote: