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TR6 205/75 15 on TR6

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T

tdskip

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That is the tire size the PO has on the TR6 I just picked up. The passenger side rear tire won't hold air for more than a couple of hours. The other three are fine and tread and sidewalls look good.

So I need to make a decision on what to do.

Money, as always, is a consideration.

Replace just that tire or bite the bullet, sell some plasma, and replace all four?
 
Depending on the age and brand you may not be able to buy a new tire that matches the other 3. Tire dealers may say any radial tire with a 50K mile life expectancy is the same as any other tire with the same life expectancy. That's not true. Construction, tread design, rubber compounds all factor in to the equation.

I say Fix the bad tire and drive it until you need to replace all 4.

BOBH
 
I say go for broke. Have you considered selling an organ. Or piano.
 
Any idea how old those tires are? I would replace them all if over 10 years old for safety reasons.
 
First of course is to identify where it's leaking. Might be just a bad stem, or a poorly seated bead; in which case a new tire isn't necessary. Could also be a leaking wheel (ditto). If it's a nail through the tread, the tire can be repaired cheap.

Side note, America's Tire Co (aka "Discount Tire" in other parts of the country) got me as a repeat customer by repairing a puncture on someone else's tire for free. (NFI)

If you must replace just one tire, be sure to put it on the front. Differences in rolling radius can cause the differential to wear faster (and it's a lot more expensive than tires).

Personally, I'd buy 2 new tires and move the one good one to the spare. Don't like to mix tires on the same axle, but mixing front/rear is usually OK.

Try it out on some hard turns in a safe place; then if the handling is unpleasant, switch them front/rear. Small differences in sidewall compliance, etc. can make a noticeable difference in how the car performs near it's limits.

I shouldn't admit this; but I have been known to use "Fix a Flat" to extend the life of a leaky tire. Planned to replace the tire at my next paycheck, but wound up waiting over a year and it still held air. Don't try this at home !
 
If you are willing to go a little lower profile, like a 65 series, you can get new tires in a 195/65/15 or 205/65/15 fairly inexpensively ($60 bucks a tire or so if you shop the big discounters)
 
OK - the tire shop just called and it turns out that the tire is OK. What happened is that the rim was a bit skunked from sitting and there was corrosion where the tire bead was trying to seal in order to keep the air in.

Looks like some prep and paint will give me a surface that the tire will bite on.
 
TR4 said:
Any idea how old those tires are? I would replace them all if over 10 years old for safety reasons.
Click to expand...

Turns out this was sage advise - when I went to pick the tire up there was tread separation on the inside near the beading.

No way I am going to take a chance on that or the other tires.

Problem solved - new tires. (well, once I have the scratch anyway)
 
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