Sunday, August 04, 2024

The Bother Of The Bulge

On Monday, I took Abby back to her place at the University at night.

On the highway, in traffic I hit a pothole right on with my driver's-side front tire.  The hit was a mighty bang.

However we were able to continue on and get her home and it seemed all was fine.

On Thursday I met up with a buddy for lunch. On leaving the restaurant, we both noticed the front tire was looking kinda odd.

There was the biggest bulge I had ever seen in the tire. So much so that my friend was rather impressed it had yet to blow out.

Luckily we were close to Costco so I called ahead and they had tires in stock in my size so we drove there and my friend followed in case there was a blow-out.

Made it there all-right, trying to keep excessive maneuvers to a minimum.

The Costco tire tech was also of the opinion that the tire had to be replaced ASAP, and it was most likely caused by hitting a pothole, and I know the one I hit. Sigh. That bulge was most huge.

Had to replace all of the tires, which was unfortunate. The old tires had less than 50% of life remaining. The passenger rear tire already had an annoying slow leak from a nail where the puncture fix seems to have worked, but only kinda, with the need to refill it monthly.

Tires were replaced in an hour, and took it back today for the torque check.

So a very unanticipated bother and an unanticipated large expense, but it had to be done.

On the plus side, the new tires are Michellin all season tires and the car shows a seriously marked enhancement in handling and road-ride comfort as well.  Rather impressive what a difference really good tires can make.

5 comments:

markshere2 said...

Grandpa:
"If it has t!ts or tires, you're gonna have trouble with it eventually"

Pigpen51 said...

I saw the headline and thought it was going to be about the Olympics. If you didn't see it, a pole vaulter was over the bar, and on his way down, his um, bulge hit the bar and knocked it off.
I never pole vaulted but I did participate in high school track and field. If I had done the pole vault event, the only thing that could have hit the bar on the way down would have been my gut, which I have fought with until this very day.
On a better note, I have lost about 50 pounds in the past year, and now weigh less than I did upon high school graduation.

Aaron said...

markshere2: Very true.

Pigpen51: I did not see that first hand but heard of it, and I'd bet that pole vaulter will be very popular with the ladies as a result.

drjim said...

I put a set of Michelin Blizzak tires on my Cherokee when we moved here, and the difference in cold, wet, and snow was eye-opening.

Pigpen51 said...

In a bizarre twist, today I went to my storage unit. It had been robbed, with a medical scooter and car carrier, a dog ramp, and a set of 4, brand new snow tires taken. The tires came with the mini van that I bought in February, and were brand new.
I spent the day speaking with the storage unit owners, my insurance company, and the police getting an incident report.
All in all, the total value figures out to be over $2200. Fortunately for us, our insurance company will cover the loss. The owner of the storage units have a policy that you must have insurance on the items in storage, or they will sell you a policy for an additional $12 per month.
They do have security cameras, which they will check to see if they can figure out anything. And of course I had a very high quality lock on the unit. Even if I get reimbursed I still am angry. This is the first time in my life that I have been robbed, other than in high school sports.