Today’s Lesson: If your heart desires something that requires a lot of money, don’t hold yourself back, buy it!
I’ve had a vibration in my front right tire for quite awhile now and so I dropped it off to the dealer…six weeks ago? They said it was due to rust build up or something to that effect. Very strange. A few weeks later the vibration came back, and it was worse.
At the same time, Dad was mentioning how I should get my tires checked to see if I need a new set since the winter was coming up. I figure buying a set of new all-seasons will do me good in the winter months instead of buying a set of winter tires. Too all those reading this entry and who are gung ho on the winter tires, bravo. I applaud you. But they aren’t for me.
Upon seeing the first snowfall of the year, I decide to drop the car off at Canadian Tire instead of the dealer in case they can find something else wrong with the vibration, and at the same time, check out the wear on my tires. After hoofing it home, I get a call an hour later saying one tire is bald, and the three others are pretty well done also. Also, they said that the bald tire was the reason of the vibrations.
Well. This all made sense in my head but I was a little wary of the bald tire causing the vibration (because the bald tire was on the opposite side). Regardless, I order four new all-seasons and pick up the car a few hours later.
Did it do the trick? For sure! No vibration. There may be a small one, but I’m not sure yet as it may just be the feel of the new tires on the vehicle. Must run it around the block a few times to find out if I’m imagining things or not.
Either way, the following observations were made:
– One would think that the dealer would have checked the wear on the tires and noticed they were pretty well gone.
– $564 later, I realize that there’s some cash that could have been used towards something fun in my life. 😉 Alas, the car is my fun. It gets me around places. But don’t hold yourselves back! Spend the money if you have it. This reminds me of the time where we were driving to Montreal and as soon as I cross the Ontario/Quebec border, cops come out of nowhere and flag me down to pull over. Ah crap. It was this giant speed trap where six cars pulled over. I knew I was busted so I waited there patiently. However, all the cops went to all the other cars lined up! I waited a few minutes and figured they must have flagged down the car next to me and not my own! I slowly pulled out (in case I was wrong and the cops were just taking their time getting to me) but no one motioned to me so I took off like a bat out of hell. That day, I bought a few clothing items, because in my eyes, I just won my own money back. Instead of a $150 speeding ticket, I had that in my pocket now for me to enjoy. Yeeha!
– Did you know ING Direct puts a limits on how many virtual bank accounts you may open? Doh! I loved the ability to just open a new account and fill it for random things I need in life – driver’s plates, swimming pass, bearskin rugs…I am on this saving kick where if I know there will be something in the upcoming year (let’s say…your property taxes!), then I just figure out how much it is per week and set up an Automatic Withdrawal system. It is working out supremely at this moment because I don’t get a nasty surprise around my birthday (“Hey guess what! You owe us $100 for your license plates! Happy Birthday!”). Anyhow, I was about to start one for saving up for my next set of tires, but alas, it does not allow me to do so. 🙁
iplaying: Bullet with Butterfly Wings [Live in Barrie 2000] – Smashing Pumpkins
10 replies on “Racing Round The Track”
How disappointing…
I thought this post was telling us that you bought a DS and mariokart…
what a let down all season tires are.
Haha…I see you have been disappointed doubly. I should not have led you on like that.
I have a question on the comment of all-seasons. May I assume that you’re trying to say that if I had summer AND winter tires, that in the long run, they would last me longer than just having all seasons? I would definitely consider winter tires if this is the case.
That’s not necessarily true.
All seasons are fine. To be honest, you don’t drive that much, since you take transit. So you don’t need two sets of tires. I think all seasons will do you perfectly.
But to make the last long, you MUST get them rotated. Your old set, one was bald? I bet cuz you barely rotated.
Marc-André was having a similar problem with his car and new tires also did the trick. After talking to the specialists at OK Tire he opted for winter and summer tires.
Logically, they should last twice as long because you are only using them 1/2 the time. Unless there is some freakish rubber deterioration conspiracy the tire industry in using as a means to get you to buy more tires… hummmm
Hmmm…I think the canadian Tire tires have a free roation every 10,000kms. I definitely didn’t get the tires rotated that often before. That could be the problem right there!
Logically Sammy, your comments ring true. You will essentially double the life of your tires, unless you’re on really hot pavement for a summer and your tires melt. Then you are screwed.
My car is 4 years old with 90k, and both my all seasons, and winter tires don’t show much wear. Once you’ve had snows in the winter, it’s hard to go back 🙂 BTW, all seasons should last up to 100k these days (assuming you rotate ever 10k, and keep the proper pressure).
What really stuck out from this post today was the fact that you were listening to Smashing Pumpkins, which of course reminded me of the Simpsons episode where Homer meets the Smashing Pumpkins.
Bill Corgan: Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins
Homer: Homer Simpson, smiling politely
I am getting my snow tires on tomorrow. The only reason I have them is because my sister had them with the car. I always used all seasons before that, and I honestly don’t notice that huge of a difference.
Excellent, excellent comments folks. Trish, thanks for the shout-out to the Pumpkins!
From everyone’s comments, there are a few assumptions I can make about why my tires didn’t last past 60,000Km.
– Factory tires suck. Granted, no way to prove this.
– I may have inadvertently overfilled the tire pressure at one point because I read on the side of the tire the MAX PSI so I filled it to that. That would definitely screw up something along the way.
– Rotating tires – Definitely didn’t get that done every 10K. Interesting to hear this. In the manual, it doesn’t say this…this could definitely be one of the problems.
So on these new sets, I will keep an eye on the CORRECT PSI to fill, and have them rotated every 10,000K. Cannot do any harm.
but did you refill with winter air and then change to summer air….. remember the consistency and density of air is different cold versus warm… as a true northerner ( Kap ) you Ryan would know this of course?
is MAX PSI a relation to MAX HEADROOM….is he a brother?….
I loved that show when it was on…
maybe you have created a fantasy super hero … by day a mild mannered IT/programmer by night saving struggling bands of musicians….