# Tires



## quatsch (Feb 4, 2021)

Startingover said:


> back tire is a few inches smaller than your other tires?”


What did it say on the sidewall?


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

quatsch said:


> What did it say on the sidewall?


we didn’t look. I guess I never look either. I figured they know what they doing.


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## mark sr (Jun 13, 2017)

I suspect the guy at the shop just grabbed the wrong tire when he put them on.
When you air up a tire it's common to just look at the gauge and not the writing on the sidewall.
I figure it's a great shop since they fixed it for free.


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## quatsch (Feb 4, 2021)

They love you!

I get urging to bring my car into the dealer for a FREE airbag replacement. If I don't replace it, it may kill me. Every 20 days I get this piece of junk mail.
So I looked up the "may" in this sentence.
30 people dead over 30 years, whereas 8000 die each day in the US.

They will hold my car hostage until I pay them whatever they want.


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

quatsch said:


> They love you!
> 
> I get urging to bring my car into the dealer for a FREE airbag replacement. If I don't replace it, it may kill me. Every 20 days I get this piece of junk mail.
> So I looked up the "may" in this sentence.
> ...


Is your airbag one of those Japanese names?

The first time I heard about it there was some young woman that was in an accident and died.

they said also what may have been the cause of her death was she was stabbed in the neck. Turns out when the airbag deployed there were metal shards that went into her neck and killed her. All I remember is the airbags had like a Japanese name that started with the letter T.


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## mark sr (Jun 13, 2017)

Takata
That's probably the brand you are thinking of. Only one that I've heard of having recalls.


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## Startingover (Apr 18, 2012)

mark sr said:


> Takata
> That's probably the brand you are thinking of. Only one that I've heard of having recalls.


YES.


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## quatsch (Feb 4, 2021)

Yes. The inflator is too strong, so there is a grain of truth in these danger warnings.

One letter I got had an image of the inflator about 2x normal.

Another two letters said they were from a structured settlement administrator. They weren't. I wrote to both addresses and said this was mail fraud.

One court system sent me papers so I could sue (pro se). IOW go have sex with yourself.

The other address was a small village who had a PO Box in their village. I told them that they were accessories to fraud. Someone actually called me back on this one.

Regardless, I disconnected the pass side airbag and I don't take passengers.

For a while I got calls. When they ask who they are speaking to, I say that is a good question.

What really frustrates them is when I start talking about a valve that I can't find, or why is the plate voltage on the 50L6 only 107v?

They even threatened to come by my house, so for a while I covered the VIN.


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## Mike Milam (Mar 3, 2017)

After about 5 notices I finally took the brides car in for the recall on the airbag. Turned out there other recalls I never was notified about. They replaced the air bag and both front lower control arms which got me a free front end alignment.


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## quatsch (Feb 4, 2021)

I never go in for service and so I don't play nice and so they feel I owe them many kilobucks.

My car supposedly has a lower control arm issue in salt belt states so I printed out the diagram and looked at it. No problem. 
Where I am is considered "sub tropical" by one climate classification system.

This is FUD, Fear Uncertainty Doubt, a marketing technique developed by IBM.


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## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

Mike Milam said:


> After about 5 notices I finally took the brides car in for the recall on the airbag. Turned out there other recalls I never was notified about. They replaced the air bag and both front lower control arms which got me a free front end alignment.


I will periodically check (aka when I remember) the government recall website. Sometimes it's just a warrantee extension which is handy to know.


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## quatsch (Feb 4, 2021)

The Zone Rep may tell you of "hidden warranties", if you have a problem and wonder if a lot of owners have it.


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## mathmonger (Dec 27, 2012)

quatsch said:


> They will hold my car hostage until I pay them whatever they want.


I had the drive shaft fall out of the pumpkin on my truck. There was a recall on it, so they fixed it for free. It only cost me $400 to fix my parking brake. But my parking brake was legit broken and I did get it fixed, so I wasn't too upset. Is it common to go in for a recall and it winds up costing you a bunch of unnecessary money?


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

Back to the topic in question.

Often the SPARE wheel is a smaller tire than the rest, and is sometimes mistakenly put on by an inexperienced tech at tire stores.

Are you sure they actually installed NEW tires on this.

Do they look new, or aged as the rest are?

And the numbers on the sidewall contain the year of tire manufacture, you will need to access the manufacturers website to decode it, because, I'm sure that you know nothing about that, most people don't know that fact.

ED


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

But spares nowadays are typically donuts, and a tire tech would have to be really dense to mistake one of those for a regular tire.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

huesmann said:


> But spares nowadays are typically donuts, and a tire tech would have to be really dense to mistake one of those for a regular tire.


While that is true, who knows what kind of spare wheel they really have.

It is a 2012 model RAV.

We need more history, was it bought used, New. 

And the list goes on and on.

And I have met some DENSE tire busters, in my lifetime. 

I often wondered if they got hit in the head by an old split rim . 

Most shops now will refuse to change a tire on one of those.


ED


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## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

de-nagorg said:


> And the numbers on the sidewall contain the year of tire manufacture, you will need to access the manufacturers website to decode it, because, I'm sure that you know nothing about that, most people don't know that fact.
> 
> ED


It's typically the last four digits of s/n numerically identify the week and year of manufacture (eg. 0120 would be the first week of 2020). I always check to make sure I'm not getting old stock.


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## quatsch (Feb 4, 2021)

Lehto's Law on YouTube talked about a shop that had defective transmissions waiting to swap out with a customer's car that comes in with a broken taillight and leaves with a transmission problem.
I guess he got his light fixed, though.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

lenaitch said:


> It's typically the last four digits of s/n numerically identify the week and year of manufacture (eg. 0120 would be the first week of 2020). I always check to make sure I'm not getting old stock.


I don't know if were talking about the same thing, but the last 4 digits of the DOT number (inside the oval) is the week and year of manufacture.

*How to Read Tire Codes*


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