I drive a 2009 Honda Fit Sport with Bridgestone Turanza EL470 tires and almost 14,000 miles. Today I noticed a bubble in the front passenger-side tire :-(

I'm planning to take it to a tire shop tomorrow, but have some questions:

1. Is there a chance the tire is defective and covered under some kind of warranty? Note that I drive in pot-holed Los Angeles.

2. BigOTires sells the Dunlop SP Sport 7000 tire. Would this work well with the other three Turanza tires?

3. Considering that the other tires have 14,000 miles on them, does this mean I might need to replace them all?

I'm trying to keep this whole ordeal as cheap as possible, and was planning to go to a Firestone Center (for Turanza) and/or BigOTires ( for Dunlop).

What should I do? Any advice on this will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

bulge in a tire can only be fixed one way. replacement. a bulge in the tire is caused by the seperations of the cords on the inside of the sidewall of the tire. to answer your questions

1. no, tire bulges are usually impact bulges meaning you probably smashed your tires on something. example. a pothole. def. not covered in a warranty.

2. it could. the 2 tires that came OE from the factory are actually the DUNLOPS and the BRIDGESTONE TURANZA. personally i would prefer the turanzas. i swap out my OE dunlop SP sports for BRIDGESTONE POTENZA RE760 sports after only about 3k, thats how much i hated the dunlops. Its bridgestone or nothing! (i work for tires plus so i'm bias.)

3. replacement of all 4 is not necessary. the Fit is a front wheel drive car, now if it was an AWD car with the new tire having more then a 2/32nd tread difference then, yes, yes you would. Not on the fit though. you'll be fine with just replacing one.

my advice? just replace the one with the impact bulge with jsut another TURANZA.

 

I hit a pothole and got a flat on one tire... and I ended up swapping the whole set. But, I had planned on it eventually anyway... the flat just made me speed up my plans.

That being said... the most likely recommendation is to swap two tires (on the same axle).

I'm in the camp that believes keeping the good tires in the rear. There are those that believe in putting the good tires in front and some that don't particularly care.

Tirerack actually talked about having tires shaved to better match treads on all tires. If... and I that's a big if, if you do that, you can just get one tire.

 

Thanks for your replies. I ended up getting another Turanza at a local Firestone. Fortunately my other tires have almost no wear, so I only had to change the bad one. Total cost was ~$159, with $126.99 for the tire and the rest in misc taxes, fees and labor.

 

Really? I got my oil changed at the dealer at about 12k miles... and my tires were all worn halfway already. Which was why it wasn't too hard to decide on getting a full set for myself.

 

FUCK! really? that better of been with roadhazard. firestone and tires plus are the same corporate so believe me when is say this. that sounds kind of steep for a stupid 185/60/16! (assuming you have a sport.)

 

correction 185/55/16 (rare tire size). i would expect some big tire company franchise/corporate owned shop would hike up its tire price to make profit. i doubt if you were selling this 1 tire you wouldnt have done it any cheaper.

 

Price sounds about right. Shouldn't have charged for the valve rebuild kit but with all the fees like recycling fee, disposal fee, balancing and mounting, it all adds up quick.

 

your right :P i keep forgetting i don't pay retail price.

 

I also had a bubble on my passenger rear. I drove for about ~2.5-3K miles before replacing my Turanza with a Dunlop yesterday. None of the local shops including the dealer had Turanza in stock and I need to go for a long trip tomorrow hence I just bit the bullet and replaced it with Dunlop. Honestly I dont notice any difference (but its only been a day). Even the Dunlop came to $162 inc. of installation and taxes in NJ at STS. Dealer was much more with a wait time...

 

Screw stock size. I will replace it with 205/50/16. More choices definitely.

 

Why no warranty claim? Only 14,000 miles should have got you at least pro-rated 50-60% off the new tire. A sidewall bubble is a manufacturing defect and cannot be easily blamed on road hazard. Too late now for you, but others read your warranty cards in the glove box.

_

 

A sidewall bubble is typical of a pothole hit. The tire sidewall is pinched between the road surface and the rim edge resulting in a de-lamination of the layers of rubber in the sidewall. Tire Tech Information - Sidewall Separations/Bubbles

HTH,

B

 

sidewall bulges are usually NEVER a manufacture defect. more of a result from an impact. also pro-rates have nothing to do with mileage/tread life remaining on OE tires as they have no mileage warranties.