Single Tire replacement okay?

[zek]

Hey guys,

I've recently been having issues with tire pressure on one of my tires to the point that I have to fill in air almost everyday to keep the pressure at 33-34psi. Took it to my mechanic and he said that the pressure nozzle was rusted and he replaced it. he also said he found bubbles in the rubber on the inside towards the rim and he put some type of sealant or something to hopefully help that. none of this helped.

He said that I should replace the tire at this point and I have the original Continental 4x4 contact tires on. Is the mechanic full of S*** and also, he said i can change just that 1 tire as long as its the same exact make and model. Is that true? doesnt the tread wear of the tires matter?

Thanks!

[kerrton]

You're absolutely right, treadwear is the deciding factor here. Unless your tires are new with very minimal treadwear you must always replace tires in pairs. In my experience most tires defects in the tread can be easily fixed at a tire shop, sidewall defects normally should be replaced and this is up to the judgement and experience of the tire shop tech.. When you mention bubbles in the rubber that makes me a little worried about potential for blow-out at some point if you continue to use the tire.

A blow out at highway speeds can be deadly, for safety it may be better to replace the pair, or if it was me I'd proabably swing by another tire shop and get a second opinion before you spend $400+.

[zek]

yeah thats what i suspected. I took it to another mechanic and he found a leak and patched it up. I'll update if I still have issues with the tire.
I also did the "penny test" on the tread depth and they are around 2/32" for the front and 4/32" for the rear. Since the rear tires seem to have more tread, would it be okay to replace just the front tires with a different brand that doesn't cost me $200 a tire?

[philipa_240sx]

yeah thats what i suspected. I took it to another mechanic and he found a leak and patched it up. I'll update if I still have issues with the tire.
I also did the "penny test" on the tread depth and they are around 2/32" for the front and 4/32" for the rear. Since the rear tires seem to have more tread, would it be okay to replace just the front tires with a different brand that doesn't cost me $200 a tire?

A new tire has 11/32" tread depth. They are considered worn out at 2/32" at which point you will also see horizontal 'wear bars' across the tire.

Your tires a pretty much done. Start planning to replace all 4 of them... very soon. I wouldn't doing just 2 tires... that's a recipe for an accident. Your rear tires have less than 20% usable tread left, that combined with new front tires are going to result in a car that will want to oversteer (spin out) on slippery roads. If you really want to do this (perhaps to save money), put the worn rear tires on the front and the new ones on the rear. It's only temporary though. Within 10K mi. you'll be swapping out the worn front tires too.

[mx6bfast]

I replaced only a single tire twice. The first time there was something in the sidewall that caused it to need to be replaced. I asked if both needed to be replaced and was told no the other one didn't because there was enough tread left in the other tire. I ended up replacing the other tire a little later.

I am within a few hundred miles of 45k miles and still have 2 of the original tires on my Rogue.