Tire repair question and replacement tires

That's a LOT of patches.

It sounds reasonable to me actually, that an overpatched tire becomes dangerous at speed. Though I can't say I've ever had occasion to investigate such a rule.

I recently gave up trying to bargain hunt with darlings of the whimsical tirerack.com reviews. The original Firestones on my car had horrid wet traction and I couldn't wait to get those pieces of crap off my car. I think I lost patiencee with them around 25k actually. The Dunlops I replaced them with (Sport A2 or its successor I think) had some sort of issue I can't recall--out of round was one of them. After those went out of round or got too thin, then I reluctantly tired the Kumho's that were such the darling of tirerack.com and inexpensive to boot. They were fabulous for a whopping 10k miles and then I felt like the cars tires were out of balance for the rest of their life despite frequent balancing attempts and fastidious rotation. Most recently, I finally went to Wal Mart and got the Michelin's ... and have been extremely happy with those.

So I'd encourage you to give Michelin a try again. I think Sears will bend you over on them though. My experience at a local Wal Mart tire center was shockingly good. They had me in and out in under 50 minutes. If you have a Wal Mart with a tire center in it near you or if you're a Sam's club member it's worth thinkin about.

I have also read a lot of raves about the Goodyear Triple Treads here over the year. I let availability be my guide--I couldn't find anyone stocking the Goodyears in my car's size, so I ened up with Michelin's.

Best Regards,

-- Todd H.

I'm not sure I would take a chance on tires patched even twice, to be honest. I mean, you're willing to risk your life instead of spending $500 or so on a set of tires??

Dan D '99 Impreza 2.5 RS (son's) - with new tires Central NJ USA

Sorry, why would you need to replace all 4 tires? Can you not just replace the one that is bad?

I'm asking this because by daughter just replaced a tire on her 2001 Forester. Jon

It's a bad idea and not manufacturer recommended on an AWD vehicle. Slight differences in circumference can allegedly damage the very expensive transmission components.

If you wanna buy just one tire, it may need to be shaved down to the existing tires' circumference.

-- Todd H.

I ended up buying a set of four Michelin Primacy tires at Sears. They told me they replace one tire all the time on Subarus, but having read the owners manual I didn't want to risk it. It's full of dire warnings about what will happen if you don't replace all four tires at once. If I had only 5,000 miles on these tires I would probably go ahead and just replace one, but with 25,000 miles I figure there would be too much of a difference in the treadwear--even if I could find the same Geolanders.

The steering seems less nimble with the Michelins than with the Geolanders, although they always seemed almost too nimble, like the car was just about ready to sway. I read the reviews and the Michelin Primacy MXV4 is supposed to have excellent steering response. Could the difference be due to something like tire pressure or because they aren't broken in yet? They are certainly quieter than the Geolanders and don't squeal on turns, which the Geolanders always did, and loudly.

-yngver

I never knew before now that repairing tires was unsafe, because I was never so unlucky as to get four nails in the same tire while the other tires are all patch-free. You'd think the odds would mean at least a couple of those nails could have ended up in different tires. Unfortunately in city driving there is plenty of opportunity to pick up nails and screws and other debris so just about everyone ends up patching tires--and most people can't afford to be buying new tires every couple thousand miles. My last nail puncture in this tire was in May, so you can see how frequently it happens.

With the wheel alignment, it came to $800. At least with road hazard coverage, next time this happens I'll get a prorated deduction off a new tire--but just one tire, not all four.

My husband went through a similar situation when his Subaru Legacy hit some road debris which shredded one tire at 15,000 miles. There are other reasons we are unlikely to buy another Subaru but this is one of them. I'd like to just replace one or two tires at a time, and while AWD is nice to have in a snow storm, most of the time it just means less fuel economy. I like my Forester for the most part but that is a costly drawback.

-yngver

Its not 'alleged'. The Subaru AWD (standards at least) use a liquid viscous center diff. It detects the difference in the speed of the wheels to lock up (it assumes you are slipping on the wheel spinning faster). If there is uneven wear on the tires, they will turn at different rates. If the difference is large enough, the center diff will begin to lock up. On dry road, that could destroy it.

I don't know if it is done anymore but when a tubeless tire became hazardous to patch, they would just put a tube in it. Can you have that done now?

Not in my experience. One nail (bolt, actually) in one tire over

DK

Not to encourage anyone to do as I did. I got a nail on a tire and they did not want to patch it, even though the nail was far from the sidewall. I ran the tire for two more years until it wore out, with the nail in place and having to check the pressure every two weeks.

After having used the Michelin MXV4s, at $160 per tire, I will never buy Michelin tires again. They had the worst traction ever on wet roads and could never be balanced properly.

When I went to the Goodyear place to get the Mich tires balanced, the guy asked me about the grip of the Michelins on wet roads, he had a smirk in his face and then he said, "not too good huh?"

Anyway... I went to Yokohamas and loved the AVS db, best tires I have had so far... got discontinued.

Tried the TOYO proxes TPT, same tire my friend had on a 2001 Outback. Both our cars developed the same tire noise and uneven wear patterns. These tires sucked big time even though they had great traction.

Went to KUMHO ECSTA ASX and after 5K miles, I am very pleased, almost as much as with the Yokos.

Todd H. wrote:

Probably a different city. Speed bumps in the alleys seem to collect debris, a lot of it sharp. Actually, I never got so many nails and screws in my tires until I got this Subaru Forester. I wonder whether the Geolanders are prone to puncture.

-yngver

I wish I had read more reviews like this before buying the Michelin Primacy MXV4. This tire is top-rated on TireRack, and most people say the OEM Yokohama Geolanders are terrible tires, but my initial reaction driving with the new Michelins is "what happened to the nimble steering I thought was a feature of the Forester?" I wonder if I can take these tires back and order Geolanders, even though they squeal terribly. But I didn't realize that "sporty" feel was due to the Geolanders.

-yngver

Other than the OEM potenzas which were awesome for the first 15-20k then sucked, the best tires I've put on my outback are Cooper Cs4 tourings- great price, performance and a 70k (yeah right) treadlife. I wasnt pleased with the kumhos I tried on it. The key I think with kumhos is to get the made in korea ones. Made in china tires are the pits.

Another excellent tire for the price is the Falken ZIEX 512. Great ride, even wear, excellent (for an all-weather) rain grip. Nimble steering, no unexpected surprises, not even in deep rain in highway ruts. A little offroad driving, but not enough to say anything. I can't evaluate long term I've only got 11,000 on these.

I can't tell you about snow > Not to encourage anyone to do as I did. I got a nail on a tire and they

Hi,

It's been a while since I did that, but it seemed the "practice" from shop to shop would vary tremendously when I did. One shop wouldn't, another would, another would "look carefully" before doing it--that kind of stuff.

A buddy has a restored British sports car w/ wire wheels, and they require tubes. W/ radial tires, radial tubes are required. Don't think that's such a problem today as all the tubes I've seen recently are for radials. Mounting them isn't a job for the careless or uninformed. He says he's had much better luck doing "odd" stuff when he's sought out an independent tire shop run by a guy w/ a little grey in his hair than w/ chains employing a high number of 18-20-somethings of dubious educational achievement and even more dubious abilities in the critical thinking department, who are also probably pretty well locked in to company policy as defined by the legal dept....

Rick

I'd get them to try to explain What the danger was? Would like to find it explained on the the net. I never counted the # of plugs, and Didn't use Steel Belted tire plugs, just Plain rubber ones, and then started to make them out of old inner tube, and never had a plug or tire fail. Got to where I didn't pull the tire off the car to plug it, and even had a reversible screwdriver shaft in a steel belted tire tread, on an angle, flapping around like a broken skid chain, hitting the fender.

I had kids cut a sidewall, and according to Popular Mechanics, a 2 inch dia hole in the tread or sidewall could be vulcanized. It was a new tire so I went to a vulcanizer, and they wouldn't do it, and wanted to sell me a Used tire. I patched it myself with a bicycle patch on the inside of the tire. It held for a year till the patch came loose. I had enough miles on the tire to get rid of it. I have some patches for patching sidewalls.

Should be hearing from the Darwin Twins soon.))

VF

I don't know exactly what the danger is if there are too many patches in a tire. Firestone said they won't patch a tire more than three times. Not sure why three is the magic number. Sears said they couldn't patch it again because the puncture was too close to an existing patch. That at least made a little more sense than the "you can only patch a tire three times" argument, as though it is a state law or something.

On the Net I only came across a Snopes discussion in which a tire dealer claimed you can't patch a tire more than twice. Apparently there really is no specific number, just how many times a particular tire shop will repair the tire before they say you have to buy a new one. Some might only patch once, I guess. Or not at all. For most people, if they have a flat and are running on the under-sized spare, they are kind of at the mercy of the tire shop.

-yngver

I've had a 1999 Outback Sport, 2002 2.5RS and 2004 WRX and absolutely hated the Bridgestone RE92s. Was able to find an OB sport with BF Goodrich T/As, and they were better, but the suspension just wasn't made for handling. Replaced the RE92s on the WRX with Continental Extreme Contact. Excellent wet and dry traction in all temperatures, stiff sidewalls handle well in summer even though all-seasons. Since I'm in the snow belt I still switch over to winter tires for december through february, Vikings made by Cooper. Again, excellent rubber. Consumer reports picked them #2 to a Michelin, ahead of two different Blizzaks.