All Tired Out

Five or six months ago Nancy's mom, Karen, bought a used car after Nancy's dad drove hers through the back of their garage. This car is a Buick LaCrosse and right now it has about 28,000 miles on the odometer. She had been telling Nancy the car drives funny and especially so on slippery surfaces such as ice or compacted snow.

Nancy drove the car and confirmed that to be true. Last night after supper I drove it back from the restaurant and also noticed a problem. On a slippery surface the back sort of swings back and forth - sways from side to side - and when I would hit a bit of compacted snow it would kind of give a strange little jump.

Back at the house I looked at the rear wheels and noticed they appear to be way out of alignment. The left rear appeared to have a camber problem with the top of the wheel too far in toward the car and the right rear seemed to have a toe out problem with the front of the wheel sticking out too far. Karen made an appointment for an alignment check for Saturday morning here in Bismarck.

About two weeks ago Karen went to a Farmer's Union shop in Williston for new tires. One guy there told her she should have four new tires but the other said the rear tires were all right and she would be good with just two new front tires. She went with the latter option. The shop put on a pair of the higher priced Hankook tires.

Anyway, when I got home from work today the snow had melted off the tires and as I drove up to the house I took a look and thought to myself how much it looked like the left rear tire had no tread! Upon closer inspection I discovered the situation as shown in the pictures below.

Not only is the tire almost completely worn out all the way across but the cords or steel belts are showing along the inside edge of the tread! Dang.

This is the right rear tire. It has a different wear pattern with the tread gone from the inside and outside edges but with normal wear in the middle. This one is also showing cords along the inside tread.

Just think - she drove from Williston to Rapid City and back and then here to Bismarck with tires in such poor condition. Right now they probably aren't too far from coming apart.

I think it is pretty unusual both for tires to be worn out like this at only 28,000 miles and for the alignment to be so out of whack on such a new car. I just hope there isn't a more serious problem. Hopefully we'll find out on Saturday!