[sloheim]

800 miles into ownership... I've got a tire that suddenly won't hold air.

Made an appointment with my dealer, but he couldn't get me in for 2 days... so I went to a local garage figuring I just needed a basic plug.

Turns out there is a pin-size hole in a seam in the sidewall. Looks to be a tire defect. I'll be going back to the dealer tomorrow night to have them replace the tire.

Not that having 1 tire 800 miles out of sync with the others is a huge deal... and it obviously isn't Subaru's fault... its just disappointing.

 

[jacket4256]

I would be worried about someone patching a hole in the sidewall of a tire...

 

[sloheim]

I would be worried about someone patching a hole in the sidewall of a tire...

I guess I worded that poorly. He didn't plug it because it was in the sidewall. Instead, I need a new tire, which will put it out of sync with the other 3.

 

[jacket4256]

I guess I worded that poorly. He didn't plug it because it was in the sidewall. Instead, I need a new tire, which will put it out of sync with the other 3.

Got ya, Good I was thinking heck that is dangerous !

 

[sloheim]

Ugh. And now the tire is completely flat.

This is what it looks like with the donut. Very sad.

 

[BoxerRules]

How was changing the tire? Were the jack spots easy to find, and was dropping the donut from its holding area easy to do?

 

[sandy]

Don't tire stores or some other places provide service to wear down new tire tread to match other tires?

 

[Sparkland]

Ugh. And now the tire is completely flat.

This is what it looks like with the donut. Very sad.

Nice rim!!! Your tires will be fine. No need to grind down the other three. I am sure you are within the 1mm difference between all four tires.

 

[Nemesis099]

Nice rim!!! Your tires will be fine. No need to grind down the other three. I am sure you are within the 1mm difference between all four tires.

I agree my wife got a flat in her new car at 1,500 miles and they said it should be fine to just replace the tire. Granted this car didn't have an AWD system but even on a FWD vehicle you typically replace 2 at a time. Hardest part for me was realizing the tires were close to $300 each on the car due to the low profile.

 

[sloheim]

How was changing the tire? Were the jack spots easy to find, and was dropping the donut from its holding area easy to do?

I lowered the tire... but I figured Subaru provides 3 years, 36k miles of roadside assistance, so I let someone with a full-sized jack do it for me.

FWIW, it was easy to open things up and lower the tire.

 

[JazzyOne]

Was the bad tire on a rear or did the roadside assistance have to swap tires before putting the donut on the rear?

 

[sloheim]

Was the bad tire on a rear or did the roadside assistance have to swap tires before putting the donut on the rear?

It was on the rear.