Firestone tire policy.

[Kruel J]

Firestone tires were failing to the point Ford was replacing the OEM's for free.

Firestone and Ford tire controversy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Don't waste your money on FS tires. I worked in the tire industry for about 4 years. They're still lousy.

 

[fredball]

I always figured if I expected her to eat it then it's only fair for me to try it as well.

Problem was, I started really liking them and found myself snacking on them with her.

@fredball your OP made me think of her today. She's been gone 12 years........

Thank you.

Your more than welcome to play ball with either of my hoodlums

 

[bbbass]

Buy a 3 ton jack and tire socket wrench and do it at home

I'm decrepit enough that I can't do my changeovers any more. The winter tires are on rims, but I had to beg the stepson to use his lift, air wrench, and torque wrench. He's a good boy...

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

firestone is saying that for liability reasons. on tires there is a DOT date code and if its 6 years passed the date code they will try to sell you tires/tell you not to install them.

 

[gmerkt]

In general, tire stores won't work on tires over 10 years old. Idaho44 made a good case for practical reason. BUT: These days there is always the issue of potential liability that comes into the picture. So, they won't re-mount 10 year old tires nor will they repair them.

I've found Discount Tire to be my go-to store. They've been pretty good to me. They have the "10 year rule." Lots of tire places are tricky about repairs now. There is a certain area of tread course kind of in the middle that they will repair. The inner or outer courses of tread, that's not repairable according to guidelines. Mis-matched tread designs, another potential liability issue.

So now I have tire repair plugs on hand to make my own repairs if the tire store won't do it. I've got a couple of expensive tires on my 04 Crown Victoria that had tons of tread left but got punctures on the highway that resulted in slow leaks. In both cases, the punctures were in the "wrong" place and the tire store wouldn't do it. So I successfully repaired them myself. And assumed any liability issues that might come up but I'm guessing odds are way in my favor they won't.

As to timed-out tires. My 72 Ford Ranch Wagon has tires 20 plus years old, still have what I consider plenty of life left in them, not weather checked, etc. One failed for no obvious reason. Took it to the tire store, they couldn't find the leak either but it was moot due to age. I just had them pull the tire off and I saved the rim. I had a tire in the spare wheel well that I found laying in the middle of a street. It was a new spare that fell out from under a pickup truck. Mounted on a Ford wheel, it rode around as a spare for years. Now it's on the road vice the one that went bad. Mis-matched tread design, I'll assume that liability too.

My take on contemporary tire quality is thus. I think modern tires are pretty reliable and have been for some 20 years or more. For one thing, they will usually take a puncture (or several at once) and still hold air. It's rare to get a puncture and have immediate, significant loss of air. Some people drive around with nails and screws in the tires all the time and don't even know it because there is no loss of air. This was never the case with tube tires. And, how often do you see a car broken down along the side of the road with a blow-out? Not often these days. Tire wear is pretty good now too, they last longer than they used to. On my cars, 40K to 60K is normal.

Highway safety studies show the single most common cause of catastrophic tire failure is under-inflation. So you can have a brand-new tire that is seriously under-inflated that is more dangerous than a 10 year old tire that is properly inflated.

Les Schwab. My experience hasn't been such that I'd go back. Yes, they sell major brand tires. They also sell tires with their own branding. So within acceptable manufacturing standards, they may specify how the vendor makes them. My experience is the ones I bought didn't wear very well.

Brands of tires. I've favored Michelin tires for decades, mostly without any issues. My 04 Crown Vic and 06 Mercury Grand Marquis came from the factory with them and that's what I bought as replacements. It's been years since I've bought a major "US brand." I put that in quotes because of the multi-national nature of the tire business. I've had two sets of Toyo tires that I didn't buy, they came to me on cars. Expensive tire, very hard, noisy, rough riding. When Mrs. Merkt's Hyundai needed original tire replacement at 60K, I bought Falken an economy radial and those have worked out well. Those 20 plus year old tires on the 72 Ford wagon are Arizonian brand, economy radials from Discount Tire. Original cost, $26 each. Current replacement cost, about $100 each.

 

[CoastRange57]

Some kind of vague azz Federal law prevents recap casings from being reused if they are over 8 years old, and some other obscure federal chickensh*t laws that tire shops use to try and sell you new tires. Had a tread separation on tires on my F250 last summer.Took it to LS to get another tire and the mf said they had to replace all the tires because they were 8 years old. With less than 25,000 on them. I told them to put the tire back on and I was leaving, oh we can't do that. That outfit is worse than a low rate used car lot.

I should have never went there, because they stripped a stud on my Ranger a few years back and said I had to have it repaired at my cost of course. Again, I told them to put the f***** tire back on and I would fix my own stud. Never set foot in that place again. Found a great tire shop in Redmond, couple of Hispanic guys run, great service, good tires, you can haggle with them a bit and they get you in and out.

 

[leadcounsel]

Firestone tires were failing to the point Ford was replacing the OEM's for free.

Firestone and Ford tire controversy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Don't waste your money on FS tires. I worked in the tire industry for about 4 years. They're still lousy.

Uh, yeah, that was about TWENTY THREE YEARS ago. And it was a combination of bad material batch and over/under inflating. I suspect they've corrected the problem since it hasn't been a problem since. I stand by my opinion of Firestone quality for the AT Revos.

 

[leadcounsel]

I bought my winter tires online and had them shipped. Tires Nation
Then took them to Mienikee to mount/balance for $20 each. In total, I saved several hundreds of dollars doing it that way. Walmart was a couple hundred more, and then the big shops were nearly double what I spent for the identical tires.

 

[Kruel J]

Uh, yeah, that was about TWENTY THREE YEARS ago. And it was a combination of bad material batch and over/under inflating. I suspect they've corrected the problem since it hasn't been a problem since. I stand by my opinion of Firestone quality for the AT Revos.

Uh, yeah. They're still junk. You ever work in the industry? Rhetorical.

 

[notazombie]

Like...in the middle of the Explorer thing?

 

[skeetshtr]

Running ten year old tires is a good way to get familiar with your jack and lug wrench on at the worse time possible Not worth it. This is very true on boat trailer tires as well. Ten year and older tires the ones that litter the road side of the mountain passes on hot summer days Not worth the risk and trouble to try to squeeze more life out of them . Most tire manufactures recommend eight to ten years max.

 

[SUPER X]

Discount tires for life. Schwab to me is the worst but to each their own.

Where is a discount TIRES located

 

[SUPER X]

I had problems with a few sets of UNIROYAL TIRES bulges and belt separations.

 

[fredball]

Hot summer days
If you go to Tire factory and have them fill your tires with Nitrogen you'll never have a tire explode from heat ever again
when i had my 5th wheel I had them replace air with Nitrogen

lots of large trucking companys do it

 

[leadcounsel]

I'm of the opinion now that well-maintained tires reaching around year 8-12 should be assigned to spare tire duty only for short term emergency. But I'm not an expert. Tires are expensive (as is mounting costs) and I hate throwing away tires with a lot of life left on them.

 

[Kruel J]

Like...in the middle of the Explorer thing?

Way the hell after. Like within the last 10 years.

 

[LuckySG]

I've sworn off all tire stores.

All they do is push you to buy more stuff you don't need.

I really like Firestone All Terrains. I just don't buy them directly from them anymore.

My last time in a Firestone store was a few years ago.

They were messing with my brakes, I never told them to touch my brakes, they stripped a screw. Took me forever to get them to replace the entire assembly since they should not have touched it in the first place.

Don't even get me started on Les Schwab.

You had a run in with Lester the Tire Molester too? I have never had a good time in any of their locations.

 

[Flopsweat]

Running ten year old tires is a good way to get familiar with your jack and lug wrench on at the worse time possible Not worth it. This is very true on boat trailer tires as well. Ten year and older tires the ones that litter the road side of the mountain passes on hot summer days Not worth the risk and trouble to try to squeeze more life out of them . Most tire manufactures recommend eight to ten years max.

Don't get me started on trailer tires. I came so close to getting a flat miles from home. Was fueling up when I noticed the trailer tires were low, snapped off the valve stem and then noticed that every tire on the trailer was dry rotted. How I missed that on the walkaround I don't know. Anyway we parked the trailer and got a big floor jack from the house a couple of blocks away and switched out the spare. Limped a fully loaded quad trailer to the tire store and bought all new tires. And we still got to ride! I can just imagine one of those puppies letting go in the fast lane.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Discount tires for life. Schwab to me is the worst but to each their own.

Same here, got tired of Swabbers always trying to bubblegum me...

 

[LuckySG]

Same here, got tired of Swabbers always trying to bubblegum me...

Me too. I liked the name America's Tires much better, but the last dozen sets I have bought have been from them even with the stupid discount name.