scared of new tires

[fatalhashbrown]

I drive a trusty 93 ford escort, with only 80,000 miles on it to date. I recently got a set of new tires before I go on a lengthy road trip in a few days. Seeing as how the car is aging, I didn't want to put alot of $$$ into tires. I opted to go the economy route and got some no-name (Doral brand) cheapo 40,000 mile tires. I've never had any issues with tires coming off before, but within 10 hours of getting the tires, both my front tires went rapidly flat. The first happened at a stand still while sitting in my garage, the 2nd while driving to work the morning after doing 35mph. The shop says there was a defect in the sidewalls.

I had them check the rear for the same "defect" and they claim they are fine. Here's where I get scared. I'm going back today to get the fronts replaced (they had to order more in) but how do I know that the rear tires aren't defective as well? I'm worried that either A) they are going to go flat while I'm winding through the mountains on my way to North Carolina in a few days resulting in a wreck or B) They are defective and I won't know until another 5000 miles when I have them rotated to the front where they are under more stress, at which time I will likely have to argue with the shop to replace them for free.

Any advice?

[CL8]

Originally Posted by fatalhashbrown

I drive a trusty 93 ford escort, with only 80,000 miles on it to date. I recently got a set of new tires before I go on a lengthy road trip in a few days. Seeing as how the car is aging, I didn't want to put alot of $$$ into tires. I opted to go the economy route and got some no-name (Doral brand) cheapo 40,000 mile tires. I've never had any issues with tires coming off before, but within 10 hours of getting the tires, both my front tires went rapidly flat. The first happened at a stand still while sitting in my garage, the 2nd while driving to work the morning after doing 35mph. The shop says there was a defect in the sidewalls.

I had them check the rear for the same "defect" and they claim they are fine. Here's where I get scared. I'm going back today to get the fronts replaced (they had to order more in) but how do I know that the rear tires aren't defective as well? I'm worried that either A) they are going to go flat while I'm winding through the mountains on my way to North Carolina in a few days resulting in a wreck or B) They are defective and I won't know until another 5000 miles when I have them rotated to the front where they are under more stress, at which time I will likely have to argue with the shop to replace them for free.

Any advice?

1. go to another tire shop and have them inspect the tires.
2. Make sure you have road side assistance like AAA before you go on your trip, in case the tires do fail.

[CapriRacer]

The odds are against there being a problem with the tires. More likely is that your alloy wheels have corroded and they are the source of the leaks.

Have the tire shop spend some time looking for the area of leakage - and then check them by checking the inflation pressure yourself - daily would be good - until you are satisified that the leakage has been fixed.

[J-Ri]

Alloy wheels need to be cleaned with a die-grinder and a scotchbrite disc every year to get rid of the corrosion, or they'll start to leak from the bead/rim. Sounds to me like the shop you took it to didn't want to admit that they don't do quality work and blamed the tires instead. Take a spray bottle of water and dishsoap and spray around the rim where it meets the tire. If you get bubbles, it's the shops fault, not the tires. I have never seen a tire with a defect that caused it to leak air so rapidly, and two on the same car... I don't like to say impossible, but...

Since there's more weight on the front, the same PSI will make them look much lower than the rear much sooner. If you check pressures, I bet they'll all be close to the same. On a small car, it takes roughly 15 PSI to make the fronts look almost full, while my tire gauge doesn't go low enough to measure the rear (so less than 5 PSI)