Ok... John Jr's home on spring break. He complained of a nasty wobble & pull while driving home, so I went for a little test-drive this morning. Oh Yeah - not nasty - BAD!!
Got out & looked around and found the RF tire had no tread on the outer edge, a visible blister under the tread, and a "kink" in the tread-lines. A belt separation or internal failure would be my guess. (OK, the fronts were about shot, we'll just replace them sooner than anticipated... the rears still have 60% tread.)
Shop around online and get a decent price for some decent replacements. Nothing fancy, just hoops for a 100K+ college beater. Set up the appt. online, reserve 2 tires, click on "finish order". Print out my copy. Across the middle of the order is **Because you are ordering less than 4 tires, we will mount the new tires on the rear for safety & handling**
HUH!!??
They even have a video that explains that when you don't correct a skid, you'll go azz-first in the ditch!! (Funny thing that the cartoon at :36 seconds shows steering correction, but the video and narration at :52 seconds states "The driver's hands don't move....".)
They will be putting the new on the front... OR moving the rears up front for free (if their "corporate policy" doesn't permit new tires front only...
SShink said
Mar 9, 2014
That's interesting John... my Dad always used to say 'Put the best tires on the front, that way you can steer if one of the back ones blow out." Of course, that was in the day of rear wheel drive, but always made sense to me.
Hopefully they will work with you on this, or probably make you sign a 'I promise not to sue you...' form if you put the new ones on the front. Our culture has taken that option to a new extreme IMO.
Back in Black said
Mar 9, 2014
That is odd. When I take the Malibeater in for an oil change, the receipt states they didn't rotate the tires because the fronts had more tread left than the rears.
Chris R said
Mar 9, 2014
Its whats called a seperated tire in the industry. Happens all the time actually. Most of the time, its caused by things like the million potholes we have to deal with. Especially this time of year.
bowtie said
Mar 10, 2014
add to that the typical underinflation from people not checking thier tires....
I always went with the idea that your steer and drive tires needed the best tread for traction both accelerating and braking.
Derek69SS said
Mar 10, 2014
There's all sorts of bad advice out there...
We used to (maybe still do, haven't watched TV in almost 2 years) have a law-firm give safety advice on their TV commercials recommending that you put your best tires on the rear so that the rear doesn't try to pass the front in a slippery curve... I sort of buy that for extremely unskilled drivers, but I still prefer better tires on front for better braking.
Another tip that has me scratching my head was one I heard on the radio saying not to use overdrive on icy roads... in low-grip situations, IMHO it is far better to gear UP rather than DOWN. The last thing you want on ice is unexpected engine-braking, especially with FWD.
John D said
Mar 10, 2014
Update... "Discount Tire" politely refused putting the new hoops on the front.
Jr. called me from the shop... so I had him ask "If that's the case, there will be NO CHANGE to your "out the door pricing" to move the rears to the front... RIGHT??!!
They put the newbies on the rear, and moved the rears up front.
(It's not a big deal, the old rears have 60% tread left... but what about doing what the customer wants, not what some industry/gov't/"expert" study/LAWYER recommends??. I think Derek nailed it... lousy, complacent drivers (I call them "two holers"... Key in this hole, Gas in that hole, that's all I need to do).
bowtie said
Mar 11, 2014
I'm still trying to figure out how you would prevent fishtailing the rear end out by having worn front tires that couldn't hold a tight turn anyway?
John D said
Mar 17, 2014
I'm still trying to figure out how you would prevent fishtailing the rear end out by having worn front tires that couldn't hold a tight turn anyway? They probably figure it's easier for a "two-hole driver" to crank more correction into an "understeer/plow" condition (with its inherant throttle-lift & "oh-sh*t" stab on the brakes), than having a reasonably skilled driver do a controlled steering input to compensate for an "oversteer/slide" condition....
Update v2.0
Kid went back to school yesterday, and I did my usual "pre-flight" on the rig before he left. Just for S&G's I checked tire pressures. Fronts (old rears ) = 34psi (What I run tires at on this car) Rears (new hoops) = 28psi
!!!***!!!....... They can't even inflate them to the sidewall recommended 32psi?
I also discovered that the accessory drive idler pulley was making some growlings... so a new pulley & belt went on it... $22.50 for the steel pulley & bearing, $50 for 5 feet of rubber (and another addition to my "If I ever meet the engineer who designed this I'll punch him/her in the nuts/ovaries file ")
Chris R said
Mar 17, 2014
Unless the guy at the tire shop didnt have a very accurate gauge when he checked the tires. But they more then likely didnt check them.
Lost in the 60s said
Mar 18, 2014
I believe most tire shops inflate for "ride". They will use the low end of the inflation table.
Ok... John Jr's home on spring break. He complained of a nasty wobble & pull while driving home, so I went for a little test-drive this morning. Oh Yeah - not nasty - BAD!!
Got out & looked around and found the RF tire had no tread on the outer edge, a visible blister under the tread, and a "kink" in the tread-lines. A belt separation or internal failure would be my guess. (OK, the fronts were about shot, we'll just replace them sooner than anticipated... the rears still have 60% tread.)
Shop around online and get a decent price for some decent replacements. Nothing fancy, just hoops for a 100K+ college beater. Set up the appt. online, reserve 2 tires, click on "finish order". Print out my copy. Across the middle of the order is **Because you are ordering less than 4 tires, we will mount the new tires on the rear for safety & handling**
HUH!!??
They even have a video that explains that when you don't correct a skid, you'll go azz-first in the ditch!! (Funny thing that the cartoon at :36 seconds shows steering correction, but the video and narration at :52 seconds states "The driver's hands don't move....".)
http://www.discounttire.com/videos/2NewTiresDTC.html
They will be putting the new on the front...
OR moving the rears up front for free (if their "corporate policy" 
doesn't permit new tires front only...
That's interesting John... my Dad always used to say 'Put the best tires on the front, that way you can steer if one of the back ones blow out." Of course, that was in the day of rear wheel drive, but always made sense to me.
Hopefully they will work with you on this, or probably make you sign a 'I promise not to sue you...' form if you put the new ones on the front. Our culture has taken that option to a new extreme IMO.
Its whats called a seperated tire in the industry. Happens all the time actually. Most of the time, its caused by things like the million potholes we have to deal with. Especially this time of year.
I always went with the idea that your steer and drive tires needed the best tread for traction both accelerating and braking.
We used to (maybe still do, haven't watched TV in almost 2 years) have a law-firm give safety advice on their TV commercials recommending that you put your best tires on the rear so that the rear doesn't try to pass the front in a slippery curve... I sort of buy that for extremely unskilled drivers, but I still prefer better tires on front for better braking.
Another tip that has me scratching my head was one I heard on the radio saying not to use overdrive on icy roads... in low-grip situations, IMHO it is far better to gear UP rather than DOWN. The last thing you want on ice is unexpected engine-braking, especially with FWD.
Update... "Discount Tire" politely refused putting the new hoops on the front.
Jr. called me from the shop... so I had him ask "If that's the case, there will be NO CHANGE to your "out the door pricing" to move the rears to the front... RIGHT??!!
They put the newbies on the rear, and moved the rears up front.
(It's not a big deal, the old rears have 60% tread left... but what about doing what the customer wants, not what some industry/gov't/"expert" study/LAWYER recommends??. I think Derek nailed it... lousy, complacent drivers (I call them "two holers"... Key in this hole, Gas in that hole, that's all I need to do).
I'm still trying to figure out how you would prevent fishtailing the rear end out by having worn front tires that couldn't hold a tight turn anyway?
They probably figure it's easier for a "two-hole driver" to crank more correction into an "understeer/plow" condition (with its inherant throttle-lift & "oh-sh*t" stab on the brakes), than having a reasonably skilled driver do a controlled steering input to compensate for an "oversteer/slide" condition....
) = 34psi (What I run tires at on this car)
(and another addition to my "If I ever meet the engineer who designed this I'll punch him/her in the nuts/ovaries file 
")
Update v2.0
Kid went back to school yesterday, and I did my usual "pre-flight" on the rig before he left. Just for S&G's I checked tire pressures.
Fronts (old rears
Rears (new hoops) = 28psi
!!!***!!!....... They can't even inflate them to the sidewall recommended 32psi?
I also discovered that the accessory drive idler pulley was making some growlings... so a new pulley & belt went on it... $22.50 for the steel pulley & bearing, $50 for 5 feet of rubber
Unless the guy at the tire shop didnt have a very accurate gauge when he checked the tires. But they more then likely didnt check them.