Nailed again

Evidently I failed to make the appropriate sacrifice to the Tire Gods after my first flat tire back in '06, or the second one in '07. True, they waited a bit longer before coming after me again (#2 followed #1 by less than nine months), but I'm sure that was only to lull me into a false sense of security. And now they're being more insidiously subtle in their smiting.

Back in April, almost exactly two years after flat #2, I took my car in to the dealer for an oil change and state inspection. Oh, I said, and can you take a look at that right rear tire — it seems to have a slow leak. Well, they did, and it did, because it turns out it has a nail in it. Fortunately, it was repairable (the tire, not the nail), so the third smiting by the Tire Gods wasn't a flat-out flat, though I'm sure it woud have ended up as one, had I not had to get the car inspected just then.

Well, one thing they pointed out to me from the inspection was that two of my tires just barely had enough tread left to pass inspection; that would be the two original-equipment tires left after replacing the first two flats. The service manager tried mightily to get me to replace the tires right then, but I declined because a) I wouldn't buy tires from a car dealer unless I was desperate and b) I was already looking at over $2,000 for repairs that I had to have done to pass inspection (a small matter of the front suspension and steering being shot to hell, not to mention the front brakes).

OK, it's six months later and today I took a look at the tires while cleaning black crap (brake dust?) off my wheel covers, and it's glaringly obvious from the clearance over Abe's head when I stick a penny in the treads that if I were to have the car inspected now, the front tires would most certainly not pass. The rear tire treads are fine, and they bloody well better be considering that they're only three years old and thus have only about 20,000 miles on them. The left rear tire was a little low on air, so I contemplated going up to the Wawa to top off the tires. Instead, I checked some tire prices online and then called the Kramer Tire that's about a mile from my house and asked if they had two of the tires I needed; they did, and the price was OK, and they said they could install them today. So I head out to Kramer and they put the car on the lift while I settle down in the waiting area with a book.

And then the guy comes and asks me if I've seen "what's going on with the left rear tire". I hate it when I get that kind of question. "What's going on" turns out to be — you guessed it! — another nail, this time in one of the good tires with plenty of tread left. And it's at an angle pointing outward, and there's this nice little bulge in the sidewall, and it's not repairable. I have been smitten — smote? — once again by the God of Punctures and Other Tire Mishaps. Would I like to add a third tire to my purchase? says the tire guy, as if I have much choice. Since I don't really care to risk having the tire come apart some fine morning on my way to work, I buy a third tire.

The only saving grace is that it seems when I bought those two tires from Kramer back in '06 (a different store, but still the same company), I got a "road hazard protection plan" with them which basically says if the tire fails due to a nail, glass, pothole, etc., they'll either fix it for free or, if not fixable, you get a replacement at an adjusted price (prorated for mileage). Didn't even know I had this "protection plan", but clearly it's a good idea around here, so I ponied up $9.99 per tire to get it on the new tires. I mean, look, that's three nails in three years (at least; I never did find out what caused flat #2). I've never been in such an apparently nail-littered area before. I drove for 25 years in and around Ithaca/Syracuse/Binghamton (upstate New York) and never picked up a nail.

Oh, and they also noted that my rear wiper is torn and offered to replace it for $15. No thanks. Replacing a wiper is one of the few pieces of car maintenance I can actually handle myself (along with replacing the air filter and checking the air in the tires), and for a lot less than 15 bucks.