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Swapped winter tires... one all season comes back bald?

910 views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  tracer bullet 
#1 ·
So I went to an automotive center to swap my blizzaks off for my all season tires for summer and I received a call that one tire was in need of replacement. I thought this was odd since they were only 2 years old at the most (I don't drive a whole lot) and I had them swapped for 6 months for winter tires since.

I picked my car up and asked about it, the guy said maybe 5000 miles are left on it and when I went outside I noticed that it did look extremely bad, but the other three looked fine. I took some pics with my phone if anyone knows about tires. But I don't understand how one tire gets this bad compared to the others. It might make sense to me if I had similar wear showing on one of my winter tires, but I'm almost to the point where I think they could have given me a bad tire to make a sale. Is that a possibility?

This is the bad one:


The other three look like this:
 
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#5 ·
I guess it's possible. When they were taken off in November they were put in the tire bags so I didn't actually see them. I think the lesson to be learned is to check off on things like this because regardless of what actually happened there's nothing that can be done. I guess I'll have to replace it and keep an eye on it. But as I said, I've had the winter tires on for about half the time as these tires and there is no noticable wear on one over the other at all in comparison.
 
#6 ·
oh i see that all the time bud, means you have either something out of alignment or... (if it drives straight, goto the next part) something is worn out.

likely culprits are tie rods (outer or inner), ball joints, strut mounts, or even a bad wheel bearing. though you'd really hear a bearing that bad, however you may not really feel the other things.


ball joints will sort of make a clunk or stuttery sound over bumps and potholes.
an outer tierod issue will not really make a sound, you may not even feel it. if you do feel it it'll be a little knock when you rock the wheel side to side. an inner can make the same sound/feeling.


a strut mount will make knocking clunking sounds over hard bumps, you'll know that one.



put the car up on jack stands, lifted by the lower control arms. get as close to the tires as you can on the arms.

grab the wheel at 3 and 9 and push back and forth with your palms sharply. it should feel solid like you're pushing back and forth against a wall.

grab the wheel at 6 and 12, push like above, it too should feel solid.

use a pry bar, long pipe, or long piece of wood to lift the wheel slightly and sharply. there should be no clunks or pops. have a helper do the lifting while you rest a hand on the wheel. it should just move up and down slightly, with no clunk or sharp feelings.
 
#7 ·
Driving can do it too, I know I scrubbed the crap out my front driver's side tire many years ago, mostly because where I lived required me to do 2 x 270 degree turns to change highways and get to my neighborhood on my way home every day. Of course I barrelled through them as fast as I could and still grip. Took just 1 summer to get that one tire looking even worse than the picture.
 
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