Mi vida

The Tale of Two Tires

So I have a car story to tell but it's not as exciting as it could have been. I basically follow the motto: "If it aint broke, don't fix it". Well last year in October after I crashed my car into a tree and finally got it back after 6 weeks in the shop, I took it to Pep Boys to have the brakes done (they are what casued the tree crashage in the first place). At that time I was told to get two new tires because they would never pass inspection. Like I said I believe in "If it aint broke don't fix it" so i decided to wait to see if my car would pass with its current tires. It did so I did not buy new tires 10 months ago. Well at the end of June my mom and I were driving to Baltimore and my car was shaking badly and my brakes were really bad too. My mom was freaked out and I was a little bit too. I got the brakes fixed because my car was fishtailing when I hit the brakes and I did not feel like crashing into anything again. I went to the same Pep Boys and they recommended some work with the tires. I chose not to let them do it because they had messed my brakes up. They always try to get you to spend more money. My car was still shaking if I drove over 75. So i sucked it up and drove only 70 on the highway. Everytime I drove to fast it felt like my car was going to blow up. I was told by many people that my tire was flat at least once a week. I would go to put air in it (free at Wawa) and continue on my merry way. I drove this way for close to two months. My managers always told me my tire was flat, my neighbor left a note on my car, and I was even flagged down once by someone driving behind me. I would go and fill the tire until the next time it became flat. I decided to wait until Sept or Oct when my inspection is due. I had been driving long distances on it for most of the summer too. Well on Sat I went to put air in it before I left for NY. I looked at my tire and it looked like it was splitting around the edges. It didn't concern me at the time so I filled it with air and drove to NY on it. On my way up I had images of my tire bursting open and me losing control of the car. This didn't concern me too much either. At lunch the next day I casually mentioned my splitting tire to my family. They freaked out and told me I could have been killed. I still wasn't too concerned. We went outside to look at the tire. My dad and bro-in-law Josh noticed that both passenger side tires had NO treads. Josh said that the wire in the back one was starting to come through. I became a little concerned and said I would fix it this week in Philly. Josh repeated that my wire was poking through and I needed to fix it before the drive back. My parents took it to get fixed. So I had to pay for two new tires. The amazing thing is the difference in gas mileage. On the way to NY (with the bad tires) I used a little over 3/4 tank of gas. On the way back to Philly (with the good tires), I used a little over 1/4 tank of gas. Amazing huh? My car also doesn't shake anymore. It's amazing that the shaking was caused by bad tires. It's also amazing that God protected me from a bursting/exploding tire. That would have been bad.

posted by Ninita @ 9:32 PM