4 New Tires

Along the lines of everything happens at once. You can go for weeks of happy boredom and then there's that one day on the freeway where you find yourself driving right over car parts from an earlier accident. That bolt going under your right tire and making that noise really can't be good.

It never is.

But I arrived at my destination, stared at the tire and didn't see a flat. But I'm suspicious of these things. For I have flat tire karma. Have had it all my driving life. So I knew it was only a matter of time.

That was Wednesday. Had the car smogged on Saturday. No problems. No hint from the smog technician that anything looked funny. I waited.

Then last night. I was going to a concert and about 30 minutes before it was time to leave I went to the garage and stared at that tire. Definitely going flat. Tire gauge = 19. I got out a flashlight and looked that tire over. No puncture or nail that I could see. I filled it up with air, went to the concert and got home safely. This morning the air pressure was down by 4 psi from yesterday.

Forward to this afternoon at Subaru. First inspection they couldn't see a puncture either. The tech even sounded hopeful like maybe it was me.

Really, I know better so I smiled and said I didn't mind waiting for the tech to take the tire off the wheel and look inside for damage.

And there it was. A nice inside burst from where that bolt had managed to bounce up inside the tire of a car that was cruising 70 down the freeway. Totally damaged tire.

Damn, that flat tire karma gets a kick out of tormenting me.

4 new tires now. And a new rear brake light since it turns out one was burnt out. Smog check missed that too. I can only hope that the next two years are tire safe years for me. Let the new ones burn some tread!