I recently had a similar problem as yours with one of the 25k mile Continentals on the Altima. I just replaced the one bad tire with the same manufacturer and model. No issues.
1 bad tire, what would you do?
- Thread starter Rufus711
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I am not a lawyer, nor have I played one on TV. And I did not spend last night at a Holiday Inn Express. From your description it sounds like you need a replacement. For me, if it is within 2/32" I'd buy one new one. More than 2/32" and I'd buy 2 tires. Unless being AWD or whatever it has to have 4 matching tires at once. YMMV Good luck figuring it out.
I misspoke, the tire mileage is 8k. Bought the vehicle as certified preowned and the dealer replaced the tires before the purchase.
I've been all over the map on this one. I had a nissan hardbody truck that eventually wound up with 4 different brand tires. Never was a drivability issue. I drove a 2006 Expedition that had two different tires on it (paired front and rear), and it drove like a pig.
I will buy 4 when I get tires now. A little older and a little better financially than the 20 year old version of myself. Now days it bothers my OCD to have mismatched tires on a vehicle. Buy a set of 4 for piece of mind. Any damage while at 4/32 means time for new rubber at the earliest convenience.
I will buy 4 when I get tires now. A little older and a little better financially than the 20 year old version of myself. Now days it bothers my OCD to have mismatched tires on a vehicle. Buy a set of 4 for piece of mind. Any damage while at 4/32 means time for new rubber at the earliest convenience.
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I had a sweet older lady come to my house the other day and asked if I could tell her what the light on her dashboard meant. It was simply the maintenance minder telling her that some maintenance event was due such as an oil change. Her son maintains the vehicle so I reset the light for her.
She mentioned that she had spent over $600 between two tire stores in the past year because of flats and the TPMS light having been on for years. She bought 2 tires from Discount tire and 2 tires from a local shop and she thought that she had 4 new tires on her vehicle. I looked at the car and she had 2 new tires on the front, a bald bologna skin from 2017 on the right rear and a serviceable 2019 tire on the left rear. She couldn't understand why she didn't have 4 new tires that she paid $600 for. The simple answer is that she was robbed by the unethical individuals at the local tire shop. She approached them with a flat and those rascals removed the tires that she purchased from Discount tire and sold her two Kumho Solus TA51a for $350. They sent her out with the old tires on the back and the TPMS system still non-functioning.
I bought one replacement tire from Sam's club to replace the one unserviceable tire and I replaced 5 of the TPMS sensors (Toyota has one in the spare also) for her. My cost for the tire and the sensors was $310 total ($150 tire, $160 sensors at $32 each). She tipped me €100 for me to spend on my next trip to Germany.
It's a shame that people are so crooked that they'd leave a little old lady vulnerable on the highway just so they could make a few hundred ill-gotten bucks.
She mentioned that she had spent over $600 between two tire stores in the past year because of flats and the TPMS light having been on for years. She bought 2 tires from Discount tire and 2 tires from a local shop and she thought that she had 4 new tires on her vehicle. I looked at the car and she had 2 new tires on the front, a bald bologna skin from 2017 on the right rear and a serviceable 2019 tire on the left rear. She couldn't understand why she didn't have 4 new tires that she paid $600 for. The simple answer is that she was robbed by the unethical individuals at the local tire shop. She approached them with a flat and those rascals removed the tires that she purchased from Discount tire and sold her two Kumho Solus TA51a for $350. They sent her out with the old tires on the back and the TPMS system still non-functioning.
I bought one replacement tire from Sam's club to replace the one unserviceable tire and I replaced 5 of the TPMS sensors (Toyota has one in the spare also) for her. My cost for the tire and the sensors was $310 total ($150 tire, $160 sensors at $32 each). She tipped me €100 for me to spend on my next trip to Germany.
It's a shame that people are so crooked that they'd leave a little old lady vulnerable on the highway just so they could make a few hundred ill-gotten bucks.
Just buy the one new tire, and have the tread shaved down to match the other tires
It is sad that people would take advantage of an old lady, but she should also pay attention to what tires got replaced and what they did with the old ones
Really?
How many tire shops even shave tires these days? Wouldn't you be voiding new tire warranty by shaving it? And how much does it cost? May just make more financial sense to buy a second new tire.
If it's AWD you'd be stuck buying 4 new tires so no, I doubt tread shaving one tire would be more expensive than that.
It's not AWD. OP has clarified that
Key word IF as stated
That isn't always true. There is some amount of allowable variance.
Going through this now with my daughter's Toyota RAV4. Tire shop tells me then won't even put 2 new tires on if there is more than 4/32 difference between the new and the older tires that will remain on the car. I wonder why it should make that much of a difference though. I believe that this particular car, as many are, is front wheel drive under most conditions and only switches to AWD when needed. Is this correct?
Are there AWD systems that could fail due to differences in tire diameter? The answer is Yes!
If a tire shop put on a single tire on one of those units and it were to fail, who would be responsible for the repairs? The tire shop!
Are tire shops supposed to know which systems are and which are not vulnerable to damage from differences in tire diameter? That's quite a big ask as they would have to stay up-to-date on what is available in the constantly changing world of AWD units. A simple approach might be to view ANY AWD system as suspect and choose to play it safe.
What about having a release to be signed? The courts have ruled that tire shops are supposed to be the experts compared to the average consumer, so the shop can not sign away their responsibility.
The only work around is to bring the wheel by itself to the tire shop and have them mount a tire on it - and don't tell them what it is going on. That way they are not involved in any way in the decision making process.
I would think that any "major" tire retail operation such as Firestone, Goodyear, Mavis, ETD, Discount Tire, etc., has computer systems that are very up-to-date as to what vehicles have all-time AWD and thus are susceptible to damage if all 4 tires don't match, and what vehicles are part-time AWD and therefore are not as susceptible. Smaller garages maybe not.
That, and there is on awful lot of small print on those tire shop receipts. Somewhere I imagine they are absolving themselves of any liability if we go against their directives. Maybe the shop can't sign away their liability but can we sign it away for them when we sign on that dotted line?
No, that's what the courts have ruled: The tire shop is always responsible even if the customer signs a waiver.
Further, that small print doesn't change how the courts view this interaction. It's just that lawyers try their best to discourage people.
I've got one bad Michelin X ice3. It won't hold air and leaking through the tread, only 6k miles and on the car two years.. It's 185/70-14 but they don't make that anymore. I see some 175/70-14s are available. Waiting to see what Discount Tire will do warranty wise.
