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txkent
04-12-2005, 09:55 AM
Ok... you guys know what fun it is to find replacement tires for your MM - right? :bigcry:

Well, I noticed that my rears were wearing thin in the centers, but the wear pattern on the fronts were within limits - so I decided to go buy some new rears. Wrong. I had to special order them - at NTB by my house in Pflugerville - just north of Austin. Waited a week, they came in, I had them installed, and was a truly happy camper -- for 2 days.

After 2 days, I came out the the garage to find a low driver side front. Lo and behold, a roofing nail. :censor: I filled her up, made sure I had my portable compressor in the trunk - and went to work. On the way home, I stopped for gas & a haircut - and noted while filling up that the right front was low. VERY low. Pop the gauge on it - and maybe had 10lbs of pressure left. Looks like on my drive home from work I ran over something - not sure what yet, and popped that one. Filled it up with air, and went home - really not wanting to deal with NTB and their slow special order process.

Long story short - filled the tires up with air this morning, drove slowly to work. (Can you drive fast on I-35?). I called Walker Tire Service here in Austin, and not only was the person on the phone very cool - they will have tires to me either tomorrow or early Thursday morning.

I'm getting in the habit of doing a 'pre-flight' inspection on my MM whenever I get into it. It's my daily driver, and my wife doesn't understand why I spend my Saturdays outside with it... :D My 2½ year old son does - he calls it "MY CAR" and when I buckle him into his car seat he starts chanting "FAST!" until we get on the road and open it up a bit. My hope is to keep it up and maintained and running and in the best shape I can until he's old enough to drive -- when I can hand the keys over to him.

Since I bought it used - there are some little things I still need to work on - a few scratches and paint chips that need to be taken care of. I want to do the work myself - but need to study up on how to get the best results.

Anyway - just wanted to share. I've been lurking here for a while.

TxKent
Pflugerville, Tx

2003 MIB
04-12-2005, 10:03 AM
(Can you drive fast on I-35?)
Yes, but only between Waco and Georgetown. :D

Good story-Welcome to the board!

TechHeavy
04-12-2005, 10:17 AM
I'm getting in the habit of doing a 'pre-flight' inspection on my MM whenever I get into it.
This is a great idea. We do it every morning and every evening at UPS, (only we call it "pre-trip" and "post-trip" inspections). I've gotten so used to doing this at work that I do it on my personal vehicles as well... lol. As a matter of fact I find myself looking at other cars on the road around me and yelling at them at red-lights if they have low tires... (usually young female drivers.... uh.. no offense to the ladies here).

It sounds like you've just had the the run of bad luck with your tires, (but they usually come in 3's right, so maybe you're done?). I have 27,000 miles on my original tires. The rears are almost ready to be replaced, but fronts are still good.
Maybe after your replacements you'll get better mileage out of them, (as I have).
Good luck!

jgc61sr2002
04-12-2005, 10:48 AM
TxKent - Welcome aboard. :welcome:

FordNut
04-12-2005, 11:26 AM
Ok... you guys know what fun it is to find replacement tires for your MM - right? :bigcry:

Well, I noticed that my rears were wearing thin in the centers, but the wear pattern on the fronts were within limits - so I decided to go buy some new rears. Wrong. I had to special order them - at NTB by my house in Pflugerville - just north of Austin. Waited a week, they came in, I had them installed, and was a truly happy camper -- for 2 days.

After 2 days, I came out the the garage to find a low driver side front. Lo and behold, a roofing nail. :censor: I filled her up, made sure I had my portable compressor in the trunk - and went to work. On the way home, I stopped for gas & a haircut - and noted while filling up that the right front was low. VERY low. Pop the gauge on it - and maybe had 10lbs of pressure left. Looks like on my drive home from work I ran over something - not sure what yet, and popped that one. Filled it up with air, and went home - really not wanting to deal with NTB and their slow special order process.

Long story short - filled the tires up with air this morning, drove slowly to work. (Can you drive fast on I-35?). I called Walker Tire Service here in Austin, and not only was the person on the phone very cool - they will have tires to me either tomorrow or early Thursday morning.

I'm getting in the habit of doing a 'pre-flight' inspection on my MM whenever I get into it. It's my daily driver, and my wife doesn't understand why I spend my Saturdays outside with it... :D My 2½ year old son does - he calls it "MY CAR" and when I buckle him into his car seat he starts chanting "FAST!" until we get on the road and open it up a bit. My hope is to keep it up and maintained and running and in the best shape I can until he's old enough to drive -- when I can hand the keys over to him.

Since I bought it used - there are some little things I still need to work on - a few scratches and paint chips that need to be taken care of. I want to do the work myself - but need to study up on how to get the best results.

Anyway - just wanted to share. I've been lurking here for a while.

TxKent
Pflugerville, Tx
If the tread is ok on the fronts, plug 'em. Every time I put new tires on I get a nail within a week or so. If I got new tires every time I ran over something and got a flat, I'd have to get a second job to pay for them.

jgc61sr2002
04-12-2005, 12:45 PM
If the tread is ok on the fronts, plug 'em. Every time I put new tires on I get a nail within a week or so. If I got new tires every time I ran over something and got a flat, I'd have to get a second job to pay for them.


IMO pluggging a tire is a no no. They should be vulcanized. Tire is removed from the rim and the repair is made from the inside.

Rider90
04-12-2005, 12:53 PM
Maybe NTB put a roofing nail in your tire when they did the rears.

"He only wants two out of four tires? Only the rears?"

Cha-Ching.

FordNut
04-12-2005, 01:35 PM
IMO pluggging a tire is a no no. They should be vulcanized. Tire is removed from the rim and the repair is made from the inside.
That's what all the tire shops say, too. I have put many, many miles on plugged tires with nary a prollem.

Either way, fix 'em instead of replacing them if they're not worn out.

txkent
04-12-2005, 02:40 PM
Maybe NTB put a roofing nail in your tire when they did the rears.

"He only wants two out of four tires? Only the rears?"

Cha-Ching. That was actually the first thing that I thought of! :D The fronts can stand to be replaced... They are wearing more on the edges than I like, although the car will pass inspection. I'm just tired (no pun intended) of dealing with tires. I want good rubber all the way around.

txkent
04-12-2005, 02:42 PM
If the tread is ok on the fronts, plug 'em. Every time I put new tires on I get a nail within a week or so. If I got new tires every time I ran over something and got a flat, I'd have to get a second job to pay for them. The nail on the driver front tire is a bit too close to the edge to plug I believe. It's all ok... Although I might have to go get a 2nd job!! :)

FordNut
04-12-2005, 03:26 PM
That was actually the first thing that I thought of! :D The fronts can stand to be replaced... They are wearing more on the edges than I like, although the car will pass inspection. I'm just tired (no pun intended) of dealing with tires. I want good rubber all the way around.
You ought to check some of the threads about alignment. The OEM specs caused excessive wear to the inside edges of the fronts and there are some revised alignment recommendations posted. Just be sure to find a shop that won't damage your rims, that's covered in another thread.


The nail on the driver front tire is a bit too close to the edge to plug I believe. It's all ok... Although I might have to go get a 2nd job!!
In that case, new tires are certainly in order.

Donny Carlson
04-12-2005, 06:57 PM
Yup, that's something I'm very familiar with. There hasn't been a set of tire on my Marauder that didn't have at least one flat repair. Mostly the rears, though I did have a nail in the front tire once.

Each was successfully repaired and did not leak again. If your tires still have life in them, repairing is the way to go.

Incidentally, I have a tire pressure/temperature monitor in my car. All cars starting in 2008 will have tire pressure monitors, though I gather it will be more along the line of an idiot light "check tire pressure". My system lets you know of a problem before the "ooh, that tire is bulging I better check it" stage. I have the alarm preset at 26PSI, but I can tell you I will know long before then if I'm losing pressure. The morning I discovered a nail in my tire I knew there was a problem because the tire was off 6 PSI from the others -- and that never happens.

The system aint cheap, and its a PITA when changing tires due to the design of the Marauder wheel and location of the sensors. But I expect once the OEM stuff starts hitting the market you'll see a lot more and less expensive monitor systems available aftermarket.

RVT04
04-23-2005, 08:27 AM
Ok... you guys know what fun it is to find replacement tires for your MM - right? :bigcry:

Well, I noticed that my rears were wearing thin in the centers, but the wear pattern on the fronts were within limits - so I decided to go buy some new rears. Wrong. I had to special order them - at NTB by my house in Pflugerville - just north of Austin. Waited a week, they came in, I had them installed, and was a truly happy camper -- for 2 days.

After 2 days, I came out the the garage to find a low driver side front. Lo and behold, a roofing nail. :censor: I filled her up, made sure I had my portable compressor in the trunk - and went to work. On the way home, I stopped for gas & a haircut - and noted while filling up that the right front was low. VERY low. Pop the gauge on it - and maybe had 10lbs of pressure left. Looks like on my drive home from work I ran over something - not sure what yet, and popped that one. Filled it up with air, and went home - really not wanting to deal with NTB and their slow special order process.

Long story short - filled the tires up with air this morning, drove slowly to work. (Can you drive fast on I-35?). I called Walker Tire Service here in Austin, and not only was the person on the phone very cool - they will have tires to me either tomorrow or early Thursday morning.

I'm getting in the habit of doing a 'pre-flight' inspection on my MM whenever I get into it. It's my daily driver, and my wife doesn't understand why I spend my Saturdays outside with it... :D My 2½ year old son does - he calls it "MY CAR" and when I buckle him into his car seat he starts chanting "FAST!" until we get on the road and open it up a bit. My hope is to keep it up and maintained and running and in the best shape I can until he's old enough to drive -- when I can hand the keys over to him.

Since I bought it used - there are some little things I still need to work on - a few scratches and paint chips that need to be taken care of. I want to do the work myself - but need to study up on how to get the best results.

Anyway - just wanted to share. I've been lurking here for a while.

TxKent
Pflugerville, Tx

welcome to the only board on the planet
any others are like watching ozzie and harriet reruns
been running 41 psi cold front and rear on both mms for about 12000 miles and have not noticed any significant wear. the first 7000 on my fronts were terrible at 32 and i had the laser alignment to new specs and swapped the rubber with the spare out of both trunks and so far the increased pressure is keeping the tire flatter on the pavement and not wearing so much in the center on the rears and the fronts are looking good
but there is nothing to be done about running over debris
i have 40000 on the 97 gm with a plugged tire, a michelin xgt4 that came on the car 8 years old and running 40 psi cold still look new