Worn/flat tyre advice

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You made a thread to say the tyres only 5 months old and to ask where you stand. That was whining.

Also, when I was learning to drive I had to revise a number of things about the car's safety, including headlights, screen wash and tyres. Then I had to answer 3 questions before I got in the car for the practical. I accept that you might have passed before all that, and it would've been nice for the garage to warn you, but the usual reaction from the customer is that you're trying to scam them.

Sorry if this is all a bit brutal, but the truth so often is. If we all checked our cars as per the owners handbook suggests, blow-outs and engine failures would almost never happen.


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Also, and MOT pass is NOT a safe car, it's a car which meets the minimum standard required to drive on a public highway in the UK. It's an important distinction to make.
 
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BigglesPiP said:
Edit:
Also, and MOT pass is NOT a safe car, it's a car which meets the minimum standard required to drive on a public highway in the UK. It's an important distinction to make.
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I think it would be unfair to judge someone for assuming that.
It's not very good that the minimum requirement doesn't a safe car make.

I parked next to a Scenic with 3 bald tyres the other day.
They were like slicks and there was a baby seat in the back. Scary stuff.
 
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Since a recent discussion about checking the insides of your tyres on here recently, I do it quite regularly.

I also stick laser alignment on my car once a month due to the state of our roads over here - it takes five minutes to stick it on and figure out whether its within tolerance, and not much longer to make any adjustments. If you have any friends at garages, its worth doing, and if you're only checking, it can even be done on the floor.

+1 for alignment being part of the MOT, although, perhaps at least with slightly higher tolerances.
 
Fair play, but i think that's OTT and if we all did that you wouldn't be able to move in barbados due to all the holidaying wheel alignment technicians :)

It's certainly something i'd have done at the first sign of any trouble or every couple of years. You can tell by feel and - as seen earlier - tyre wear if something is amiss.
 
To be honest, if you were being picky about the kind of standards that VOSA expect you to adhere to, we would all check our tyres before each journey.
What you should do as a private car owner is really check your tyres and pressures every week, its quite an important thing, takes literally less than 5 minutes and could save you money, points, or in the case of the OP here had it happened a couple of minutes earlier, possibly your life.
 
Even the outside edges of the tyre look close to verging on the illegal, don't they? Surely you would have spotted that even if the inside edge was hidden.
 
UPDATE!

So, this is why I *love* cars :rolleyes:.

Had my wheels aligned by a place off www.alignmycar.co.uk (thanks West... ish :p).

When I came back to collect my car they said they'd "never seen a car with it's tracking so off before". Of course. I mean, I expected nothing less. Oh and then when they came to adjust the wheels, the adjustment arm broke, so I had to have a new one of those fitted. Again, as expected - I'd have been stupid to assume I could've just paid £35 for the alignment and left.

Total cost: £129 including a new tyre to replace the old one too. Here's a photo of their alignment system screen thing:

IMAG0544.jpg


Anyway, I wish it ended there. But that would be too straightforward, right?

I left the morning after with my colleague heading to Stoke-on-Trent to film a wedding. About an hour into the journey and the steering goes funny on the motorway. I pull over and we have a look but can't see anything. I'm not with the AA or anyone so I carry on. It gradually gets worse and worse but I managed to get to our destination, steering wheel wobbling and noises galore. The hotel kindly let me use a computer to find the nearest Kwik Fit for me to rush off to before the bride finishes getting ready.

I pass another tyre garage on my way to Kwik Fit so I pull in there - at this point I think my wheel's going to fall off any moment anyway. Short bit of the story: they remove the "new" tyre that the alignment centre put on and replace it with an actual new tyre.

Check out the tyre I had fitted the day before:

IMAG0553.jpg


IMAG0554.jpg


Anyway I've just gone back to the original garage and they won't do anything - not even refund me the cost of the tyre they fitted. "It's impact damage and that could have happened after you left". My ******* arse did it.

So again, what the hell can I do? Everything that goes wrong with cars seems to have the clause "it could have started after you left" - dodgey mechanics must be laughing! Is it even worth reporting them to Trading Standards or anyone? Or will they just use the excuse?

Here's some more pics of the tyre if anyone can work out how old it actually is:

IMAG0555.jpg

IMAG0556.jpg

IMAG0557.jpg

IMAG0558.jpg


:mad:
 
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Thats a very odd looking tyre. Michelin MXT is a very old tyre, I didn't even realise they still made them. Energy was what I thought was the entry level Michelin tyre. I can't find it listed for sale on any of the main tyre sites either.

I suspect, though I don't know enough about it, it's a discontinued tyre thats been sitting around for quite some time! How much was it?
 
There should be a production date on it somewhere. Usually they are in the form week number/year, so a tyre made in mid January 2009 would say '0309' as the production date. Not sure if that will have such a number in the same format, best thing you can do is photograph every single number and post them here and we'll have a look.
 
[TW]Fox;16884980 said:
There should be a production date on it somewhere. Usually they are in the form week number/year, so a tyre made in mid January 2009 would say '0309' as the production date. Not sure if that will have such a number in the same format, best thing you can do is photograph every single number and post them here and we'll have a look.
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All the dates on the tyre are in the pictures above. The closest to a "date" mark seems to be "06-1130-01". The guys who replaced the tyre in Stoke said it was so old that it didn't have a date, but then they didn't really spend ages looking either.

Either way, does the date effect where I stand/what I can tell Trading Standards or whoever else?
 
If you have a receipt then why should the date of manufacture affect anything.

I did a quick google and found a link back to 1994 when people were talking about the MXL, can't be that old can it?

As suggested I'd contact Michelin directly, send them the pics and name the garage that originally fitted them. I'm quite surprised that the garage didn't help as normally they'd offer to send them to the manufacturer but guessing that they know how old the tyre is they probably know what the outcome is likely to be.

Your last pic, it looks like there's some damage to the inside edge and a chuck missing on the raised edge, problem this causes is even if Michelin inspect the tyre, what looks like damage in the pics won't help your case.
 
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IAmATeaf said:
If you have a receipt then why should the date of manufacture affect anything.

I did a quick google and found a link back to 1994 when people were talking about the MXL, can't be that old can it?

As suggested I'd contact Michelin directly, send them the pics and name the garage that originally fitted them. I'm quite surprised that the garage didn't help as normally they'd offer to send them to the manufacturer but guessing that they know how old the tyre is they probably know what the outcome is likely to be.

Your last pic, it looks like there's some damage to the inside edge and a chuck missing on the raised edge, problem this causes is even if Michelin inspect the tyre, what looks like damage in the pics won't help your case.
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Michelin won't give a toss because that tyre is over a decade old and should be in the bin, not fitted to a car, as new in 2010. It's simply unacceptable for any garage to fit tyres like that.
 
Right as I'm a tyre geek I've been doing some research. Please do not take this as absolute fact because I might be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge that tyre was produced in December 1994. I am almost certain this is the case.

The key is in the DOT code. The DOT code is required by American legislation. For tyres produced before 2000, it takes the form of the text DOT, a 3 chracter code indicating the plant it was made in (In this case A5M), then a second group of numbers indicating the week made (In this case 49) and the year of the decade it was made in (In this case the 4th) with a little triangle which identifies it was made in the 1990's.

Therefore it is a tyre made in Week 49 of the 4th year of the 1990's.
 
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