Ok, so last night, I finally got around to patching a slow leak in one of the tires on our Saturn. There was another really slow leak in another tires, so I figured I'd do both. This escalated to me deciding to do a rotation, as I've badly neglected it for a while. I noticed the passenger front tire looked odd when I pulled it off. I inspected it, and it seems to be separating.
Please excuse the crappy pictures, they were taken at 12:45 at night with a camera I'm not familiar with.
Anyway, I know this isn't normal. This damage does not continue around the entire circumference of the whole tire, but does appear to affect about 50% of the tread.
Does this look like outright damage, or does this look like a tire defect?
I checked the Driver's side front tire, and it also has similar damage.
I plan on calling Saturn on Monday and seeing if they can goodwill a set of tires from a different brand or meet me half way on a set that I purchase at another retailer. I can't say I've ever seen that sort of damage on a 29,000 mile tire.
EDIT To the powers that be, the title should read "Does this look normal" instead of it referring to some guy I don't even know.
paul
Reader
9/26/10 12:22 a.m.
Looks like a poor attempt at a re-tread...
Derick Freese wrote:
*EDIT* To the powers that be, the title should read "Does this look normal" instead of it referring to some guy I don't even know.
Oh CRAP! And I was SO ready for a witty reply.
I should have made them install fresh tires. The car existed on those tires (and less than 20 total miles) for about 18 months. The build date wasn't much before the build date of the car (like 4707, car was built in January 2008), but as we all know, sitting can kill tires. I'm really hoping they'll work with us. We just can't afford $500 on a set of tires right now.
The tire is coming apart, looks like it's also out of tread.
To add more, no it's not normal but at that point in a tire's life it's not unusual.
Also, this is Norman:
alex
Dork
9/26/10 10:14 a.m.
This looks Norman (Mailer):
The tire look to be at the end of their life anyway.
Don't expect any help from Saturn. Does it even exist anymore. You would get better response from the tire manufacturer.
There are used tire places.
Saturn still does exist, for another month at least. But they still won't be any help.
GM still honors the warranty. According to the warranty book that came with the car, the tires have a 25,000 mile warranty through GM, not Hankook.
The tires still have quite a bit of tread left. They're not worn down to the wear bars. The blurry picture makes the tread depth look worse than it actually is.
Anyway, we had a car break in over the weekend, and compounding that issue with the tires, my wife wants to replace the car. It's starting to develop German car quirks which come with higher-than-BMW parts costs. We're looking to dump it off for something more common. The wife recommended a Speed3. We're going to check one out tomorrow.
I'd love to get 29,000 miles out of a set of tires.
The quirks aren't really repeatable and the dealership has been unable to replicate any of the issues. Over in the Astra boards, it seems like these cars are starting to fall apart beyond about 50,000 miles.
In case you haven't financed a car, when you trade in, you can often walk out with a new car with nothing out of pocket.
For a new car, the Astra just doesn't have a very good electrical system. I've had it unlock itself a few times, which is a possible reason the break-in over the weekend was easily possible. I've had it shut down the turn signal and brake light circuits for seemingly no reason. The transmission is already getting harder to shift.
And sometimes, when SWMBO speaks, you have to listen, especially when she's the one that makes the real money in the house.
If that's the case, then I'm going to be looking at Lemon Law litigation and seeing if I'm still within the time frame. The brakes will occasionally make a noise. In the state of FL, that's enough grounds to initiate the Lemon Law proceedings.
