Always check the full tyre

[Impressed]

MOT Friday gone.

Had a quick look around the Z.

Wipers, lights and tyres look ok to me.

 

Anyway all going well untill the Eagle eyed inspector found this.....

 

I personally think he was being a bit picky. What do you guys think.

[GMballistic]

So he still passed it though right?!

[Stutopia]

I'd want better condition rubber for an all expenses paid trip to a third world brothel, but for the road, looks fine

[SithOllie]

[Richie94gts]

Fussy fussy mot inspectors

Was that actually on the car - any ideas how it ended up like that?!

[Impressed]

Yep it actually was on my car and it drove fine.

 

I have 2 theorys.

 

1. Its a cheap tyre and that part was softer than the rest. This happened to my father many years ago on a brand new Datsun Cherry. A tire with plenty of tread developed a flat spot. The dealership had it examined and the results were that that part of the rubber had not been vulcanised.

 

2. For some time (quite a few months) I have had some brake judder on the front. I was waiting until the service and MOT to get it all sorted together. It was not bothering me that much because by daily comute is 20 miles motorway and a couple of miles back roads. It is possible that the tight spot on the disc was causing most of the braking force to be consentrated on this part of the tyre.

 

Any knowlegable types please chip in.

 

Where you can see the braiding split the rubber was around 0.5mm thick. Just perfect for a blowout on my way home. If on the motorway, damaged wheel, crash barriers and lorrys etc. If on the back roads, head on into an inocent family? I dont want to think about that.

 

If you are going to take the effort to check your tyres dont just take a look at a bit of it and check the pressure.

 

CHECK THE TYRE.

[Wendy]

Although your first post has an amusing aspect, if your story was not so serious.. I am glad your MOT was due and I think you have been very lucky as have other road users.

 

Personally,I don't understand - you have a judder on the car, for some months and don't check what is causing it or think it might be worth a look.

 

This is seriously dangerous and you have been travelling on a motorway ?

 

I think you might want to include - If you car does not feel right and judders, get it checked, even if it has cheap tyres and you have heard of this happening before.

 

Stunned !!!

Edited June 28, 2015 by Wendy

[Toon Chris]

Option 1: Knowing from experience that cheap tyres have been unreliable in he past you put them on a RWD 3.6l V6 car. Erm ...

Option 2: Your wheel judders and you think its the brake likely to be the cause? Not the lump that has fallen out of your tyre?

[docwra]

Always a lot of high horses around in threads like this

 

1. Federals arent cheap tyres.

2. Brake judder is pretty difficult to get out and check, and is hardly unheard of on RWD cars, its usually bushes ......... which an MoT is an ideal opportunity to check.

 

Id say thats been damaged somehow, if you had the arches touching the tyres over a long period youd see exactly that kind of damage, it might just be bad luck though.

[AliveBoy]

[Impressed]

Thank you doc.

 

To clarify a few points,

 

These tyres were fitted a couple of years ago because its all the garage had in stock to fit and I had a nail in a tyre. I now have four Avon tyres.

 

The brake judder was not serious enough to be of immediate concern, intact it was within MOT limits. The front rotors have now been skimmed.

 

Yes I tried to make the post slightly amusing but my intention was to get a serious point across which is:- I checked the tyre pressure and wear on inside edge and outer edge what I could see on full lock. I foolishly expected the edge wear to be more or less even around the circumference of the tyre. So I missed this damage on the inside edge which is why I put in big bold letters "CHECK THE TYRE"I think if you read my post again Wendy you will see it is Serious if slightly amusing. How often do you check the full circumference inside and out?

Edited June 29, 2015 by Impressed

[Vlad]

Option 1: Knowing from experience that cheap tyres have been unreliable in he past you put them on a RWD 3.6l V6 car. Erm ...

Option 2: Your wheel judders and you think its the brake likely to be the cause? Not the lump that has fallen out of your tyre?

 

Pretty sure it's 3.5 V6

 

 

Lucky escape there to be honest...if that popped on motorway, could've been a different story!

[brillomaster]

i presume you had a wheel alignment after the new tyres were put on? really bad wear on the inside edge of the tyre while the rest of it looks fine is a surefire sign of the tracking being out.

 

Even so, it would have had to have been out for a long time to cause that much damage. Consider yourself very lucky that you had your MOT due, that tyre cannot have been more than a few days away from catastrophic, potentially life threatening failure.

[Impressed]

I did not get the tracking done as the tyres were evenly worn except this part. If I had pictured more of the tyre you would see that the rest of this edge is ok.

I am now thinking to get the tracking checked anyway.

[Wendy]

I may not check my tyres fully every time I check the pressures, but then I do not put off checking a slight brake judder for the cause or any other feeling, sound etc etc.

I think you are really lucky to have got off so lightly , both in your car and on here.

 

Hopefully the knowledge you take away from this - is to listen to sounds from your car and the feel of it and take action before putting yours and other road users lives at risk.

 

Yes, tyres and lack of tread has got to be one of my biggest bug bare's, being the only thing that keeps you in contact with the road I do not think this is a bad thing. Maybe others do not see this as serious, I do, hence balancing, tracking, alignments are all done and up to date on my cars.

 

Glad to hear you are at least thinking of getting your tracking done.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Wendy

[docwra]

Hopefully the knowledge you take away from this - is to listen to sounds from your car and the feel of it and take action before putting yours and other road users lives at risk.

 

Im sorry, but thats some of the most self righteous crap Ive read on here, and Ive read plenty. Why not go the whole hog and remove the calipers, hubs, all of the steering arms and bushes and check they are still within manufactirers tolerance - if you dont you might be "putting yours and other road users lives at risk" ............ in fact, Id just start taking the bus to be safe.

 

If a car is only vibrating under braking then its unlikely to be the tyres any more than the clutch or the crank pulley, and unless it sounds like someone smashing on the chassis with a hammer its unlikely to be anything major. Potentially catastrophic issues tend to give you a bit more warning than a bit of a shake once in a while. Out of interest when did you last check the whole of your tyres, your wheel rims and your brake disks for any damage?

[Wendy]

So you too drive your cars with a judder under braking and don't think to investigate further ?

[docwra]

So you too drive your cars with a judder under braking and don't think to investigate further ?

 

Define "investigate further" - Ill have quick look, but I wont be taking wheels off or anything unless its severe, and in that case I wouldnt be driving the car in the first place. FWIW I wouldnt be minutely checking the tyre as its not actually part of the braking system, if there was a tyre fault it would be doing it all the time.

I dont know if youve ever travelled in a taxi, or a 15 year old family hatch, or anything made by Italians but if you fully checked every minor issue every time you would never actually get to drive the car.

 

If theres something noticeably wrong with your car then of course you have to have a look, but to suggest that the guy is endangering peoples lives because he isnt carrying out a full inspection over what was obviously a fairly unintrusive issue is a bit much IMO.

[brillomaster]

I did not get the tracking done as the tyres were evenly worn except this part. If I had pictured more of the tyre you would see that the rest of this edge is ok.

I am now thinking to get the tracking checked anyway.

 

its really a no brainer to get the tracking checked, as if you put new tyres on a car with bad tracking, it'll just eat through the inside edge again. I've had front tyres that were fine across 90% of the tread, but the inside 10% was almost down to canvas.

 

most reputable places will check tracking for free, and only charge if an adjustment is actually needed.

[Impressed]

Wendy,

Due to my engineering knowledge and 28 years of owning and taking to bits cars and motorcycles I knew from the symptoms that the slight judder was due the brake rotor starting to delaminate. I also knew that it was not going to fail catastrophically but gradually get worse. So I took the decision to hold off a few months to align the MOT, Service, rotor machining and any other faults that may present themselves for one visit to the garage.I do the common checks occasionally like fluids, tire pressures and visual inspection but like I said, the rest of the tyre was fine even the edges apart from this spot. So the only mistake I made was to assume that the tyre would be evenly worn around it circumference. Read again before you rant, CIRCUMFERENCE. I did check the full width.The damaged tyre had no symptoms what so ever so why would I suspect this.This was the very reason for my post to alert others that it is possible for this to happen without you knowing and to check the full tyre.

I should not tell you this but I let the service go 400 miles overdue for these dates to align.

Please feel free to use that as a basis for your next novel.

 

balancing, tracking, alignments are all done and up to date on my cars.

 

Do you have a check list for these items you could share? I would hate for my balancing to go out of date and not realise.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Impressed

[Impressed]

So Wendy,

 

Now you know I am a qualified engineer and I am not a 17 year old that has bought a 3.5l car you don’t seem so volatile.

I have read structures, material science, engineering and manufacturing engineering.

 

So let’s have a quiz. It’s off topic but may be fun. These may not all apply to the 350Z but cars in general.

Anybody can take part but please let Wendy and The Toon reply first. I would like to have an apriciation of these two.

Please people do not look these up on Wiki etc. that would spoil it. I have picked these questions out of my brain and I will answer them in the same manner to the best of my knowlege. Obviously I have the advantage as they are my questions. I am unsure of a couple to be honest as I ran out of questions.

 

1) Do you know why there are 2 hydraulic circuits on your cars brakes? There is a common point of failure but we can come to that later. Opps I may have given you a hint to question 3 here.

 

2) Why do you think the prop shaft on your 350Z is made of the exotic material Carbon Fibre? Hint, it’s not so it looks nice or is lighter or stronger.

 

3) Why do they make it difficult by having your 2 headlamps on different fuses?

 

4) Why do they continue making plain engine bearings out of lead when it is very soft?

 

5) Why do they make brake rotors out of cast iron when heat treated steel is much harder and wear resistant?

 

6) Why do you think they go to the effort of forging RAYs when casting is a cheaper option?

 

7) Why do they make it so the impact of a collision has to be such that there is a danger of the chassis buckling before the airbags deploy? Why not give you a nice pillow anyway?

 

8) Why do you think it would be worse to have a blow out on a motorway at 70mph as opposed to on a back road at 60mph? I know which I would prefer.

 

9) Can you remember what a distributor and points were for?

 

10) Do you understand why in the USA the 350Z is considered the most dangerous car?

 

Sorry some people but I do not appreciate being belittled on a public forum.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Impressed

[Kieran O'Quick]

Aw shiiite - can't resist a quiz. Ok no cheating

 

1 If one fails, the other will work. So you stop

 

2 Something to do with balance? Or heat?

 

3 So you can get home on a night and the cops just see a bike if you position it right

 

4 Because the damn things misfire so much harder metals would break.

 

5 Judder. They love it.

 

6 Lawsuit for a failed cast wheel is a test case - could cost billions. Or eh, pass.

 

7 Burns

 

8 Motorways are straight. = more time. Unless you're hemmed in by trucks, might as well be a narrow road.

 

9 Moving trains around, duh.

 

10 Button below the wheel..

[Azure350z]

I can't resist a quiz, these are my guesses:

 

1) Redundancy, if one circuit fails the other should still be able to stop you.

 

2) Weight but also torsional strength in the way the fibres are laid.

 

3) Redundancy, if the fuse blows in one you don't suddenly loose all lights, you'll still have one to get you home.

 

4) Because they are cheap, they conform to the mating surface very well and with the lubrication they don't suffer great wear.

 

5) Because steel would be more expensive and you need the disc to wear slightly.

 

6) Strength, forge to keep the material grain which means a stronger wheel.

 

7) Air bags are rock hard when deployed, the chassis absorbs a lot of the energy from the impact which reduces the amount of energy throwing your face in to the dashboard, the air bags provided extra cushioning for you as the car can't absorb all of it.

 

8) Higher speed, more likely to have cars and vehicles around you (more hard things to hit and more people in danger) and because motorways tend to have no run off area.

 

9) Distributing the current to each spark plug, points were the contacts.

 

10) The Americans can't drive, it's rear wheel drive and manual so they have no chance but also because for them it's a small car.

[ilogikal1]

Sorry some people but I do not appreciate being belittled on a public forum.

 

But it's perfectly acceptable for you to do the belittling though?

[Grundy]

Jeez dude calm the **** down? Get off your high horse. Wendy is clearly just trying to offer what she would do to avoid situations like that. It might be OTT but I guess she doesn't get in situations where her tyres could blow up on a motorway potentially causing a big accident.