Bald tires

[ShadowBall]

Bear with me - I don't know much about cars and I don't know what can make a car fail inspection (besides obvious things like missing wheels, giant holes, bodies in the trunk, etc.)

My BF got his car as a hand-me-down from his parents after they got a new one. It's a real POS, but it runs. Thing is the same exact tires have been on it since before I met him - meaning those tires are probably going on their 10th birthday, and they are totally bald. I think they're those all-season tires, but they sure don't seem like it in the winter.

Last year he drove me home in a snowstorm and we were going about 20 mph. The tiniest pressure on the brakes made us spin out several times. From what I've been told, having tires with even a tiny bit of baldness can make you fail inspection or at least get a verbal warning to change them around here, yet this car passes inspection just fine every year.

I'm just wondering if this is normal? BF's broke, so that car won't be seeing new tires anytime soon, especially after a couple of costly repairs over the last few months.

[AriGriffin]

Try looking on Craigslist or outright calling tire shops to find used tires in good condition. Around here (North Carolina) they range about $20-30 including installation.

[Slayer]

We don't have inspections here, so I can't offer advice on that.

But omg @ tires. I already had some idiot hit my back bumper while I was stopped at a red light. Thankfully he didn't leave a mark since he was already driving slow-ish and tried to stop early (it was a rusty old van so I don't doubt he didn't have winter tires even though it's the law here *grumbles*).

If you have cold winters with snow and ice, I'm not sure how well the tires will perform, if well at all. Spinning out with a tiny pressure on the brakes really freaks me out. If there's any cracks in the tires, you should really get rid of them.

All season tires are great for mild conditions. Rain, slush, a bit of snow. If you get real winters, you need winter tires. I don't know where you live so that's a decision for you. I have a set of all seasons for spring-fall and a set of winters for winter.

Since your BF is broke, passing inspection seems like a blessing for him even though it's not real safe, lol.

I really hope your winter is mild and stays mild (ours is mild, though it'll probably pick up soon; it gets later every year). I'm sure your BF probably knows by now how to drive as safe as possible with bald tires and knows when not to drive at all in bad conditions.

Good luck! Hopefully someone else can provide better advice for you.

[HappyFun Ball]

Some tire shops will sell "take offs" for cheap (a take off is the cheap tires that come with new cars, a lot or people will trade them in a get better tires)

[protege]

My BF got his car as a hand-me-down from his parents after they got a new one. It's a real POS, but it runs. Thing is the same exact tires have been on it since before I met him - meaning those tires are probably going on their 10th birthday, and they are totally bald. I think they're those all-season tires, but they sure don't seem like it in the winter.

If the tires are 10 years old, they really should have been replaced by now. That's really pushing one's luck. Tires, even ones that still have decent tread, eventually suffer from "dry rot." That is, the rubber starts pulling away from the steel belts, and the sidewalls start cracking, and in some cases...bulging. Combined with the lack of tread, it's a recipe for disaster. A sudden blowout, especially on a slick road, could send you sliding out of control...and things like trees, rocks, and poles, don't know to get out of the way. I know that money is an issue, but what price can you put on the safety of you and your passengers? Get some new used tires, pronto!

[ShadowBall]

I live in Pennsylvania - our winters aren't too bad, but we do sometimes get a snowstorm that dumps a few feet of frozen water on us. It's actually about 40 outside right now, though, which is weird for us in January. The night in question was shitty, though - slush and the more snow on top of that. I'm just thankful I don't live further out in the woods where the roads are in the sides of cliffs and there are no guard rails.

I think it's the law around here too to have winter tires on in winter and regular ones on the rest of the time. My guess is since BF's dad is such a cheapskate, he originally put all-season tires on so he could just grind them down to nothing and still pass inspection because they could still count as winter tires despite having no traction.

I have no clue if the tires are cracked either...I haven't looked that closely at them. I guess it depends on where you take the car to get inspected in order to pass; I know someone whose car passed when she had a crack going all the way across the windshield. A good stiff breeze probably would have shattered it, that crack was so huge.

There is a repair shop that often has lots of nice tires locally, but I don't know if BF could even afford $20-$30 a tire at the moment. He needs a whole new exhaust system and that's going to leave a big dent in his bank account, so unless the tires are somehow blown, they're not going anywhere.

Thanks very much for all the advice.

[kpzra]

Before my Impala was totaled, it had tires that admittedly needed new tires, but working nights I just hadn't gotten around to it. On the way home from work one day while it was raining, I hydroplaned and if the semi next to me hadn't hammered it, I would have gone under it, driver side first. As it was, I spun 3 times, crossed 2 lanes of traffic, hit the shoulder, bounced off, spun another 180 and went down the bank on the other side. I was VERY lucky, and scared the crap out of my husband who was on speaker phone at the time as I screamed pretty good.

Even if you have to replace them 2 at a time, it is better than having bald tires, or having one blow on you. Craigslist will sometimes have one for free when someone gets new tires. It's not optimal to have different tire types/tread, but again it's better than bald as long as they are the same size.

[crazylegs]

Tires will only grip in the wet if there is tread - essentially it's aquaplaning ever time you take it out in inclement weather. If the tires are as bald as you say you desperately need to find some tires with some tread somewhere...

[Slayer]

If your winter tire law is similar to ours, then all season tires are not considered winter tires.

Here, if someone is caught without winter tires, they can be fined $200-$300. That's a lot of money

[Shalom]

The legal limit is 2/32" of an inch. Basically you take a penny and slip it into the groove, and if you can see the top of Lincoln's head, you fail. Obviously tires shouldn't be allowed to get down that far.

I've got all-seasons on my car at the moment; if I had more income, I'd have sprung for a set of winter tires. Might still do it, but this winter seems pretty mild thus far.

@Shadowball: I remember winters in NE PA. I used to go back and forth between Buffalo and NYC when in school. One time I was heading up the 81 north of Scranton, and the cops just blocked the highway at exit 217 and made everyone stop right there on the road. Seems the highway north of there was a sheet of ice, and they weren't letting anyone through until the sanders made a couple of passes. Fortunately I was close enough to the exit to get on the ramp and pull over at the gas station, but they had 547 closed in both directions too...

[ShadowBall]

Must be his tires are really bare, then. If I shoved a penny into one of the grooves on the tire, it would probably fall back out. I've seen sneakers with deeper treads than these tires.

Must just be the place he goes to get the car inspected that lets him slide by every year with those barren things. Thankfully BF doesn't usually drive in bad winter weather (it seems to do alright in rainy weather, though), but I intend to ask if he's ever going to get the tires replaced.

[charred]

... I already had some idiot hit my back bumper while I was stopped at a red light. Thankfully he didn't leave a mark since he was already driving slow-ish and tried to stop early (it was a rusty old van so I don't doubt he didn't have winter tires even though it's the law here *grumbles*)...

Were you up by Port Asbestos when it happened?

[RealUnimportant]

When it comes to winter (or even "all seasons") tyres, forget the legal limits; if the tread depth is below 1/8" then they're considered past their service life, as they can't properly disperse water to retain their grip.

There's a terrifying eBay market for replaced winter tyres here in the UK, all advertised as 3-4mm (so about 1/8") depth and thus "legal" (our limit is 1.6mm here.) While they are indeed legal, they're not going to perform as expected in the appropriate weather conditions; false economy, false security.

[greek_jester]

Quick question - if you're in an accident & the bald tyres are at fault, would the insurance cover it?

[crazylegs]

Quick question - if you're in an accident & the bald tyres are at fault, would the insurance cover it?

Depends - if the vehicle is actually a fail on the inspection or not.

The police might be less sympathetic should he be pulled over (if you were doing that in the UK you could lose your licence...)