Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with tire

Is tire pressure different if you measure with tire off the car (as compared to when it is on the car and holding the weight of the car)?

chefscotticus — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:34:50 -0800

Is tire pressure different if you measure with wheel off the car (as compared to when it is on the car and holding the weight of the car)?

Do new car tires go on the front or the back when you only need two?

Opposite George — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:03:40 -0800

Front-wheel drive car. Back tires worn and will be replaced. Front tires okay for now. Where should the new tires go? My dad just asked me to get the back tires replaced on his 1995 Hyundai Elantra. It's front-wheel drive, no ABS or traction control.

The back tires are worn evenly, but there's not much tread left. The front tires are worn evenly and still have plenty of meat. I don't know if he regularly rotates the tires, and can't ask him as he's away and hard to reach. I want to get this done before he gets back.

So, I'll ask the shop to replace the bad tires -- I have that much figured out. What I don't know is whether to ask them to put the wheels with the new, meatier tires on the front and move the current fronts back, or just to replace the tires on the back and be done with it. He lives in southeastern NY state, which means he gets ice and snow in the winter, if that makes a difference.

What do you all think?

Car shakes at 55 mph. What service do I need?

capitalist.pig — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:37:41 -0800

Car shakes at 55 mph. What service do I need? I own a 2002 Pontiac GrandPrix. It generally rides pretty smoothly. But when I start to go faster than 45 mph or so, the car starts to feel wobbly and the steering shakes a little bit, and the ride can feel bumpy/rocky.

I'm certain that I've ran over a pothole or two this past winter.

What type of service does my car likely need? Alignment? Tire balance/rotation? Other?

Tire Pressure?

furiousxgeorge — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:14:34 -0800

What is the recommended tire pressure for a '98 Buick Regal?

Would a tire that is losing pressure rapidly be safer on the front or back of the car?

Malice — Sun, 17 May 2009 03:10:33 -0800

I have a tire that keeps losing pressure rapidly. In a car with front wheel drive, would it be safer to have the tire on the front, or the back? At least until the tire can be replaced. How would this effect (or not effect) the car?

What could that be knocking in my car?

Epsilon-minus semi moron — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:39:22 -0800

Nissan Altima filter: I have a '97 Altima. There is a noise coming from(I believe) the rear left tire. It seems to be a knocking when driving normal speeds and more of a scratching at lower speeds(~20 and under). It also seems to be more pronounced at the lower speed. Though this may just be due to the lack of engine/wind through the windows noise. I'm pretty sure it goes away when I apply the brake Any ideas? I'm going to take it to be checked out, but would like to have some ideas going in. I'm a girl and look like I'm 15 years old, so being able to say "I think it's xyz". I just don't want to chance being told "you need a new rear axle", when it's actually something simple. Thank you! Also, I plan on posting to some Nissan forums, but wanted to spread my net wider.

Good thing I don't have to go to work today

Brandon1600 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:16:25 -0800

What is the best and cheapest way to fix a flat tire? I woke up this morning and went outside to get something from my truck. I found my rear, left tire was completely deflated. I had suspected a leak for a few weeks and, believe it or not, I was going to do something about it today. I had filled it up once and it looked fine yesterday. I've never fixed a tire so I Googled some answers. Much to my dismay I couldn't find a reliable source. Some say to use fix-a-flat. Others say to use repair kits and fix the tire from the interior.

I guess I am asking for recommendations on tire repair kits and techniques for a 2001 Nissan Frontier. The type of tire is a General Grabber UHP. They are less than year old.

Thanks

Changing a tire on a VW Jetta

Horace Rumpole — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:45:57 -0800

My 2002 VW Jetta has a flat tire, the hubcap requires a special key to remove it, and I can't seem to find the key. Can someone tell or show me what I'm looking for? (It's our first flat in this car, and the manual doesn't show it clearly.) If I call roadside assistance to change the tire, and I can't find the key, will they likely have a key with them?

Is low rolling resistance another word for snake oil?

abkadefgee — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:49:52 -0800

Are "low rolling resistance" tires a worthwhile investment? And how should I go about finding them? How much more should I pay for this type of tire? I recently heard about "low rolling resistance" tires as I was looking for new cars for my car, and was intrigued.

A couple of days ago, I actually called a tire store and they took my question to mean "This guy will pay for anything" and tried to steer me towards a much more expensive tire while downplaying the feature I wanted. Other stores have just sort of blown me off or looked at me funny.

And by the way, for me a "worthwhile investment" means that it works, not necessarily that I save a bundle. If I pay more up front, but still save fuel, I might consider doing that for environmental reasons.

Oh, and if you'd like to recommend a specific tire, the size of tire for my car is P205/65R15 92H

How do you choose tires for a car?

Chuckles — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:49:24 -0800

How do you choose tires for a car? In particular, what is the best deal on all-season long lasting tires for a 2004 Toyota Matrix XR Front Wheel Drive, size 215/50/R17 in Southern Ontario. Some backstory...

So, my Mom needs new tires. The original equipment tires were some kind of performance compound type which have a wear rating of 200. She wants something that will last much longer, and perform well in winter weather (that is, cheapest possible tire per km driven, while not sacrificing utility in Canadian winters).

Problem is, she has been told by at least a couple of local shops that she has to replace the tires with similar performance compound type models. The local shops say that handling will be effected by any change, and they won't do it (or at least they don't want to).

This seems insane to me (Note: I've never driven, but I am technically minded). Sure, soft tires are going to handle better in ideal conditions, that's the whole point, but that doesn't seem relevant to my Mom's driving, or safety, or to anything other than up-selling an old lady.

Current status...

So, this whole 'replace with similar' issue may have been solved, because she has been shopping around and found places who are suggesting (or at least accepting her choice - whatever) a couple of relatively long wear tires. However, that doesn't really address the important question - what is the best value available.

Candidates...

Goodyear Assurance Triple Tread, at $195 each installed (and balanced, although why you'd quote an installation without it being a complete and proper installation is a mystery to me). These have an apparently extraordinary wear rating (according to tirerack) of 740!

Falken ZE-912, at $150 each installed. These have a wear rating of 480.

Finally, real questions...

Better deals around S. Ontario? Will the Goodyears really last 1.5x better than the Falkens? Remember that these have to be good in snow.

What's wrong with my car?

amro — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:33:34 -0800

What is wrong with my car? As you can hopefully see from this photo, there is something large and metal that I believe is a part of the rear axle pressing hard into my rear passenger side tire and making it bulge out rather dramatically. There are more photos here. It's clearly not driveable, and I'm having it towed to a garage in the morning. But I hate looking like a dumb broad when I describe what's going on with my car to a mechanic, and I also fear that, to someone less than scrupulous, I have a big target on my head that says, "I'm a sucker and you can charge me anything!" Unfortunately, I don't yet have a trusted mechanic in my town (although I'm asking around tonight among local friends for recommendations). Therefore, I'm hoping to get at least an idea from you fine folks as to what could have happened. I don't recall going over any large potholes, and I didn't have an accident. The car just began making a loud noise, faster or slower depending upon how quickly the tires were rotating, as I drove home from work today. The noise obviously came from the metal pressing against the rotating tire, but I can't pinpoint anything that might have caused the axle, or whatever is pressing into the tire, to come... undone. Any thoughts from the more mechanically inclined? I'll be checking in and happy to provide any additional information. Oh, and it's a 2006 Saturn Ion, automatic tranmission.

Geting Rid of My (Car's) Spare Tire

ilyanassa — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:13:05 -0800

Where can I get rid of a old donut-type spare tire? The tire shop won't take it because it has a rim. I recently replaced my ancient, deflated donut spare tire with a full-sized spare. But the tire shop wouldn't take the donut because of the attached rim. I called the city's solid waste department and they weren't at all helpful - said I've have to pay someone to take the tire off the rim and then take the rubber and rim to two separate recycling centers. I just want to get rid of the crappy deflated donut tire that's been in my trunk for months! Help!

Am I being bullshitted by the tire shop?

pontouf — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:53:03 -0800

So I got a flat tire on my 1984 toyota corolla. I just got my rear tires replaced two months ago and the flat was one of them. I went to get it replaced because I figured it was a defect or something. The shop told me it was my fault because of snow chains. Problem is... I haven't used snow chains on them... So are they totally bullshitting me? I've only ever used snowchains on my tires once, for about 10 blocks and on my front tires only, BEFORE I even got the rear tires replaced. So what gives? They happened to see the snow chains in my trunk when they pulled out the busted tire and matched up a groove that was worn into the inside of the tire. They showed it to me (and I kept the old tire) and it definitely looks like something wore a circular groove all the way around it, but there is no way it was snow chains.

When I pulled over to see the flat it was nearly half off the rim and the valve was torn out. Does anybody have any idea what could have caused this OTHER than snow chains? I hate being swindled and I know they only decided it was snow chains because they saw I had them.

How do I remove a wheel from a car?

OlderThanTOS — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:26:18 -0800

This car is a '97 Toyota and it was was functioning well when parked. It had a flat tire and has been parked in my driveway for three weeks. When I went to change the flat today, I could not get the wheel off. To be clear, the lug nuts all came of relatively easily, but the rim seems to be melded/rusted onto the axle. What do I do? Crowbar? Chisel? Dynamite?

Cheap Tires in Buffalo?

smitt — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:07:52 -0800

BuffaloFilter: Where should I go for discount tires? I am a Canadian heading south for some shopping (like many, many others). I am looking to get new tires for my car and was wondering if any locals in the Buffalo or Niagara area can recommend good places to go for tires?

Thanks.

How do you get flat tires from nails?

atlman — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:56:36 -0800

How do nails/screws get stuck in tires? One would think that a nail or screw or other piece of metal would be lying flat on its side on the road, so when a vehicle runs over it, how does it raise up to puncture the tire?

Even if it were sitting upright, wouldn't the vibrations of the approaching vehicle cause it to fall over?

What are the toughest tubes I can get for my (most likely) inappropriate bike tires?

Bengston — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:03:27 -0800

What are the toughest tubes I can get for my (most likely) inappropriate bike tires? Ok, so a couple of weeks ago I decided to turn my nice old Schwinn Sports Tourer into a fixed gear bike. To do this I needed to get a new wheel set and for whatever dumb reason I decided to get another set of 27" wheels instead of switching over to the much more common 700 size. I didn't want to end up with another pair of 1-1/4" tires for the bike so I ordered some 27 x 7/8" FasGrip Slicks from Harris Cyclery. Unfortunately they are nearly impossible to get on the rims and require 2 people to push the last bit of them over the edge. Now, just a couple days after getting the bike all setup, I woke up to find a mysterious flat. Despite my ride home the night previous going off without a hitch, when I went to take the bike to school in the morning I found that the valve on the tube was nearly completely torn off. I don't want to have to buy new fatter tires to protect my tubes and end up sinking even more money into this bike, so I am looking for recommendations for a miracle tube that will be tough enough for me not to worry about.

Tire shop questions

zek — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:34:18 -0800

I've got to replace my front tires, so I have some dumb tire shop questions. I've got to replace the tires on my car in the morning due to uneven front tire wear. I'll be dealing with a typical suburban Firestone shop.

1. (Most important) If I want to get the front wheel alignment fixed, how much extra time is normal? Five minutes? Twenty minutes? Fifty minutes? I have no idea how long this takes on top of new tires.

2. Is it ever a good idea to have new tires balanced? Or is this something that is only done to used tires?

3. Are there any tire upsells that I need to avoid?

4. What do you say about the "used" tires some shops sell? Are they ok buys? Or should I get new?

Thanks!

How long can I drive on a lightweight spare?

es_de_bah — Sat, 12 May 2007 09:52:26 -0800

How long can I drive on a temporary (light-weight) spare tire? What are the dangers involved? Yes, yes. I should only drive on the thing for a max of 50 miles, and only at reduced speeds. But I'm broke and coming up on a payday.

So what's the deal? I understand that the spare will wear out eventually, and that my gas mileage is down, and that I'm putting stress on the other tires.

But other than that? Am i hurting my car? And what's the longest any of you folks have made it on a donut?

Why so small, tire?

selfnoise — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:47:50 -0800

Help me understand what's wrong with my new bicycle tire. I'm trying to put a new front tire on my bicycle. Basically the instructions seem to be: remove the old tire with clips, put air into the tube (a little bit) until it takes shape, put the tube in the new tire, put the new tire on the bike.

I bought a 700x23 tire to replace the current tire, which is 700x26. My understanding is that the 700 refers to the size of the tire, and the 23/26 to the width. So I thought I was all set. When I go to put the tire on the bike, though, it doesn't seem to want to fit all the way around the rim. Also, when I put the tube into the tire it doesn't expand smoothly throughout... it seems to develop some kinks, like the tire is too small.

I put the other tire back on the bike, which was 100x easier. Is there some reason why this tire won't fit on the rim, or do I just need to try a little harder?

Do wet riding conditions increase the chance of getting a flat tire?

Chuckles — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:40:59 -0800

Do wet riding conditions increase the chance of getting a flat tire?

Why does a detached tire roll faster than the car?

spiderskull — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 21:59:07 -0800

[PhysicsFilter] In movies, when a tire comes off of a speeding car, it begins to move faster than the car. Why does the velocity increase? This is a topic of debate among some of the post-doc Physicists in my lab. There were a few theories proposed that I don't claim to understand:

* The lack of constraints on the tire causes a shift in energy (by conservation of momentum), which simply translates from rotational to kinetic velocity. I don't really understand their argument here, since there is a removal of active forces, and possibly a change in mass of the system (from rotating tire-wheel-axel combination to just tire).

* The diameter of the tire changes, since there's no more weight on it, and so this causes the acceleration. This is counterintuitive simply because the diameter should increase, causes a reduction in angular velocity.

* The process is akin to alpha decay, where the mass of the car is much greater than the tire.

Also, in the movies, the tire seems to jump first, then land and speed ahead of the car.

Tire tread styles on front and rear

forallmankind — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 10:13:58 -0800

Question about difference between tire tread styles on front and rear. I have this tread style on the front and this tread style on the rear of my rear-wheel drive Infiniti G35.

I need to replace the front tires and, having just replaced the rears with tires I'm really impressed with (because they stick like glue), I would like to use those same rears on the front. Will I experience any difference in performance changing the front tread style to match the rear?

(if it's of any use, the fronts are 225/45WR18 and the rears 245/45WR18, and I want to replace them because since I've replaced the rears, the fronts aren't gripping so well)

Which bike tires do I need?

cubby — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 12:54:21 -0800

My current Fuji road bike has 700x23 tires that have worn out. When replacing tires, do I need exactly the same size or could I go for a 700x25 or a 700x20? What might the difference be? Are there particular tire brands/models that are ideal for durability and general city biking?

I am become Shiskabob, destroyer of tires

phearlez — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:48:46 -0800

The car rental company wants money and I don't want to pay. Does it get any simpler? Well, it gets more complicated - I've been told the country in question reimburses for pothole damage and I like the idea of them paying much more than me paying. But is it true? So my Puerto Rican vacation was a fantastic adventure filled with the kind of expensive traumatic moments you expect from a vacation, including not one but two pothole-caused rim bendings and tire rendings.

I'm okay with accepting responsibility here, except on my way to return the car I stopped to gas up and asked if they could simply repair the rim. After an initial yes, the mechanic said "Oh, no, that's an alloy rim. If I try to bang that back out it'll just crack."

Aside - why does a DODGE NEON need snazzy rims? Which the rental company claims costs $270. Give me a break.

Anyway, he went on to say that the Puerto Rico road situation is so horrid that the government will pick up the tab if you document where the incident happened. Yes, I accept that my source is perhaps not the most credible but at the same time this rental company told my friend the previous day that there'd be no charge for her identical incident.

Perhaps it's complicated by my returning the car to a franchise where hers went to the company main location. Perhaps my dent was simply worse (which it was). Maybe it was phase of the moon or I smelled funny. But I'm on the hook for major bucks and she got off scott-free.

To make a long story marginally less painfully long, I'm looking for two things here.

One, is this claim of a reimbursal program baloney? If it's not I don't see why I'm being soaked for $360 for a small non-performance tire & rim. I can find no mention in my googling.

Two, has anyone had any luck haggling with rental firms over this? I don't believe for a second they are actually paying $259 for that rim when TireRack has a variety from $89 and up for me, the non-fleet buyer.

Any and all strategy advice is welcome.