20/20 Story about old tires - IMPORTANT!

[bnickel]

They are overly cautious. I had a hole in the shoulder of a tire and the local shops wouldn't fix it, so I bought a kit and fixed it myself. That was on my daily driver - over a year ago. No problems so far and I beat on that car regularly.

a few of the tire shops i've worked at wouldn't have a problem repairing a
sidewall puncture, but they wouldn't guarantee the repair either since it's
very hard to get a patch to stay put on a sidewall due to the flexing as you
drive down the road. we had rubber vulcanizers at a couple of the places
where i worked that would melt the patch into the tire and make it almost
impossible to leak again, it's called hot patching and is my preferred
method of tire repair

 

[other_shoe]

On the state inspection issue, I was just saying that if you got a case in front of a jury where a shop had mounted old tires, then the lawyer could ask questions like the following, "And don't the people of the great state of Texas entrust you with their safety by granting you and your employees license to perform vehicle inspections? Do you not advertise your duty to public safety with a sign in your window? Shouldn't the people of Texas have a higher expectation of caution from those to whom we have granted this authority?" It doesn't for a moment mean the shop did anything wrong, but it's the sort of thing that the general counsel for a chain would take into consideration when giving input on company policies.

Bnickle, you know way more about how a tire shop works than I do; I'm just suggesting another angle.

 

[other_shoe]

On a safety note, like 1320Stang, I had some "roll around the shop" tires. Mine were clearly unsafe for driving -- cracking tread and unmatched sizes. After having the car towed up to a shop for some welding, I was dismayed when the shop owner called me to say that the work was done but it didn't steer well when he got it over 40 mph.

Point being that you may know the car's limitations, but even automotive professionals overlook -- or in this case forgot what they were told about -- important safety issues.