Tyre oddity

[mikeymikec]

I own a Mazda 323, it's 12 years old.

Pretty much from the point of buying the car back in 2012, it had a problem whereby the rear tyres needed reinflating on a regular basis; if I checked the tyres say once a week, the rear ones (especially the driver-side rear one) would have lost about 5psi, and if left unchecked for another week, the tyre pressure would have dropped to nearly 20psi (the tyres should be at 30psi).

I asked the garage I bought it from (and they service it too) to look in to it, and they re-sealed the tyres in question several times (most of this occurred outside of warranty so I was paying for it). Eventually I gave up asking and committed myself to regularly pumping the tyres.

During the last service, they told me that the front tyres were nearly illegal (ie. lacking tread), so I agreed that they should change them. Since then, the rear tyres haven't needed pumping. I am confused. Can anyone explain what happened (I'm assuming that the garage didn't do work on the rear tyres for free!).

 

[Itchrelief]

My guess is they moved the rears to the front and installed the new tires in the back. edit: Well heck, that's what I thought, but you'd probably notice which end of the car had the new tires on, so probably isn't it.

 

[tortillasoup]

There are various scenarios that could have happened that ended up with you inadvertently replacing the failing tire. The tire that was leaking was moved from the rear to the front at some point and then were replaced when they wore down the sides due to the insufficient pressure, making them illegal. Some shops have a policy of putting the crappy tires in the front and the good tires in the back, some like to do the reverse so you get more tire life out of your tires.

Check all of your tires to make sure none of them are leaking down. It's possible your crappy leaky tire has been relocated to the front.

 

[pcgeek11]

What is a "Tyre"?

 

[mikeymikec]

I checked all tyres every time I've checked tyre pressures, so I doubt that they could have switched them in that way. Furthermore, the front tyres actually look like brand-new tyres (judging by depth of tread).

One possibility I hadn't considered is that they moved the old front tyres to replace the rear ones, but surely if the front ones were "nearly illegal", they'd still be nearly illegal regardless of being used at the front or rear...

What is a "Tyre"?

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/tyre
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/tyre
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/tyre
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tyre

 

[Ferzerp]

They put the new tires on the front on a non staggered car?

They are dumb. That is all.

 

[mikeymikec]

They put the new tires on the front on a non staggered car?

They are dumb. That is all.

What do you mean? I don't know much about cars.

 

[jlee]

What do you mean? I don't know much about cars.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=52

 

[WackyDan]

If only doing two tires, the new ones should go on the rear and the two most decent remaining tires should be rotated to the front.

Years ago, the logic was to put the new tires on the front. A lot of that was a bit of myth about hydroplaning and a bit of fact surrounding front wheel drive cars in snow... Where more treads on the fronts would be best for traction.

Bottom line, newer treads on the rear = safer travel through patches of standing water.

I was going to replace two on my Wife's car, but then I noticed some fissures on one sidewall and after checking the dates on the tires, they were manufactured and put on in 2008... So I'm already beyond the 6 year recommended replacement age. Shame as they have about 50k on them and the current rears look like they could go another 15K+. Better safe than sorry...

 

[Ferzerp]

Basically, understeer is safer than oversteer.

 

[pcgeek11]

I checked all tyres every time I've checked tyre pressures, so I doubt that they could have switched them in that way. Furthermore, the front tyres actually look like brand-new tyres (judging by depth of tread).

One possibility I hadn't considered is that they moved the old front tyres to replace the rear ones, but surely if the front ones were "nearly illegal", they'd still be nearly illegal regardless of being used at the front or rear...



http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/tyre
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/tyre
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/tyre
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tyre

I know I was just messing with ya.