Today while doing tire rotation I found a bulge on the sidewall. Is this normal? or is the tire toasted? My truck has only 7,500 miles.

 

Oh yea. I wouldnt drive too much further than that. Too bad there arent any warranties on tires. The sidewall of the tire has broke down causing it too swell and bubble.

When I bought my jeep wrangler, it had a set of cheap wrangler tires on it. They were known to go bad, but i ran as long as possible. It got so bad, I couldnt make a hard stop because the tires were separating. When I would go to make a hard stop, the front end of my jeep would shudder and shake leaving my front end bouncing.

anyways, theres my contribution.

 

ya, the belt is blown. I would drive it just far enough to get a set of new tires and thats it, it can blow out at anytime....

 

I've had lotsa Goodyears do that.

 

Classic Goodyear belt separation. My first set of Wrangler Radials did that in the mid 80's. Replaced them with another set, because I really liked the tread pattern. Two tires cupped and a third had the belt separate on that set before they had 25k on them. That was my last set of Goodyear anythings. Since about 1993 I've run nothing but Mickey Thompson/Dick Cepeks on my trucks and have never had a tire problem of any kind, short of pulling a nail out of the tread...

 

There's no warranty on the tires for obvious failure? I can see them not giving a treadwear warranty, but to me that should be covered.

 

I just checked my paperwork, and my tires come with a warranty. Depending on wear, you might have to pay some, but at least you shouldn't be out the price of a new tire. Check your paperwork (mine was in the black manual holder) and contact your dealer.

 

Update:

Went under the truck to take another look. Bingo! There is a similar bulge on the inside of left front tire too. If this is such a common problem, maybe we should start a class action law suit.

 

I had Good Year on my old Dakota and I should have known better than to have them on my new truck. They were horrible with any sign of rain or snow, and the new ones are just as bad. I will never buy Good Years on my own, but since they were already on the truck, I would have had to try to get the dealer to swap them off, which probably would have caused me to not get as good a deal as I did.

 

Honestly, I don't know how Goodyear and Firestone stay in business. Everyone I know with a truck who's had either tells horror stories of cupping, belt separation, blow outs with like 8000 miles on them. But they both stay among the highest oem seller on the market...