Tire company offers inspection guidance for offroad vehicle owners. How Old and Dangerous Are Your Tires Determining the Age of a Tire. Free Shipping. Buy Continental CrossContact LX20 Tire 22565R17SL 102T at Walmart. com. First of all, make sure your tire is paired with an appropriatelysized rim. Our tires follow ETRTO standards for rim compatibility see chart below. Repurposing my used truck tire into furniture was a great way to put a durable, used item to work for another lifetime. We havent had a coffee table for a couple. Diagnosing Tire Problems. Home. Auto Repair Library, Auto Parts, Accessories, Tools, Manuals Books, Car BLOG, Links, Index. Copyright AA1. Car. Do you have a steering or handling problem that nobody seems to know how to fix Or a wheel that nobody can balance Or a weird vibration that wont go away It might be a bad tire or a bent wheel Most tire manufacturers today have a pretty good grip on quality control, and perform extensive tests to weed out tire defects that may occur in manufacturing. Tires are a hand built product that requires skilled labor. Mistakes sometimes happen, though, and tires that are less than perfect sometimes slip through the screening process. So if you have recently replaced your tires and are now having a steering, handling or tire related problem, it could be a bad tire. The more difficult situations to diagnose are those where an existing set of tires may be causing a problem. The underlying cause may be a manufacturing defect that took time to make itself noticeable, or it could be the result of structural damage to the tire caused by a pothole or improper mounting. If you suspect a tire problem, inspect the tires carefully for obvious tread or sidewall defects such as cuts, bulges, ripples, bruises, scrapes, missing chunks of tread, separations, cracks, etc. Uneven tread wear may indicate misalignment, under or overinflation or a tire construction defect. Tire defects that can cause a steering pull or vibration may not be visible to the naked eye because they are inside the tire. This includes defects such as off center belts, misplaced belt splices, damaged belts or cords, or beads that are in different planes as well as variations in sidewall stiffness force variation. TIRE CONICITY PROBLEMSWhen a tire is being built, the belts must be almost perfectly centered. According to some tire manufacturers, a belt that is out of position more than one millimeter may cause a steering pull on some vehicles. The position of the outermost belt is the most important because it has the greatest effect on directional stability. A tire with an off center belt will lead to one side because the location of the belt shifts more weight to one side of the tread than the other. This condition is known as a conicity problem, and occurs because the tire behaves as it if were cone shaped. A cone always rolls in a circular path towards the pointed end. A conicity pull will therefore always be directional either to the left or right, and can be reversed by switching the front tires from side to side, or by mounting the offending tire backwards on the rim. Conicity problems can also arise when the beads are not in the same plane. The resulting difference in sidewall height and loading will create the same unbalanced steering forces that make the tire want to roll towards the shorter side. Conicity problems are usually most noticeable on the front wheels, but may affect tracking and induce some rear axle steer on vehicles with independent rear suspensions. Vehicles with less caster also seem to be more sensitive to conicity probably because high caster angles have a stabilizing effect on the steering. If you are trying to diagnose a steering pull and suspect a tire may have a conicity problem, rule out the other possibilities first. Check inflation pressure in both front tires and make sure it is equal on both sides. Low pressure can cause a pull towards the side with less pressure. Compare tire sizes and tread wear on both sides. Measure tread wear, too, because the steering will pull towards the side with the shorter tire the one with the most tread wear. Also, check ride height and make sure it is within specs and is equal on both sides. The steering will usually pull towards the low side. Check for brake drag. A frozen or sticky caliper can cause a pull towards the side thats dragging. Next, switch the left and right front tires to see what effect it has on the steering. If the steering still pulls in the same direction, the problem is not a bad tire. It is an alignment problem. Take your vehicle to an alignment shop and have them check for camber or caster misalignment, or the presence of a rear axle thrust angle. If the direction of a steering pull changes direction when you swap the front tires, one or both front tires may have a conicity problem. The next step would be to swap the front and rear wheels on one side right or left to see if it eliminates the pull. No change would tell you it is the other front tire that is causing the steering pull. Swapping the other front tire to the rear should eliminate the problem as long as the offending tire remains in the rear. But if somebody rotates the tires later on and the bad tire ends up back in the front again, the steering pull will return. Replacing the offending tire will get rid of the problem altogether, and may be necessary if the tire causes problems in the rear, too. Another way to reduce the effect of a tire conicity problem is to increase the inflation pressure of the tire. But the tradeoff may be a harsher ride and increased center wear in the tread. TIRE VIBRATION PROBLEMSThough vibrations are usually caused by an out of balance wheel and tire assembly, it is important to remember that vibrations can also be caused by excessive radial vertical and lateral sideways runout in the tire, wheel or hub. Loose, worn or damaged wheel bearings as well as certain kinds of tread wear can also cause annoying vibrations. When troubleshooting the cause of a vibration problem, start by inspecting the wheels. Look for evidence of missing weights, mud or dirt packed in the back of the rim or debris embedded in the tread that could create an imbalance. Also, rotate and wiggle each wheel by hand to check for excessive play or noise from the wheel bearings. If your vehicle has alloy rims particularly a performance or sports type vehicle, tire slippage on the rim may have thrown the assembly out of balance. This can happen if a long lasting lubricant such as silicone was applied to the rim or tire bead when the tires were mounted. Under hard acceleration or braking, the tire may actually rotate slightly on the rim. The cure Remove the wheels, put the wheel and tire on a tire machine and break loose both beads. Thoroughly clean both mating surfaces, then reinflate the tire to reseat the beads and rebalance the assembly. If the radial cords in the sidewalls of a tire are not spaced evenly or are damaged, it can create a waddle or vibration due to force variations in the stiffness of the sidewall as the tire rotates. This condition, which is referred to as loaded runout, is most noticeable at low speed 5 to 3. A Tire Problem Detector may be needed to diagnose this kind of problem. This device has a roller that can be positioned under a tire it can be checked for spindle movement while rotating the tire slowly with the weight of the vehicle pressing down on it. Another source of vibration can be uneven tread wear. Run your hand across the tread in both directions. If one way feels rougher than the other like toe wear, lack of rotation may have caused a heel and toe or sawtooth wear pattern to develop on the tread blocks. This kind of wear is most often found on the rear tires of front wheel drive cars. The wear may be barely perceptible to the naked eye, but is rough enough to produce an annoying vibration at medium to high speeds that feels like a bad wheel bearing.