Yep, these are the front tires to my little Kia. My mechanics looked at these and said to me,
“And you didn’t FEEL anything? You couldn’t tell anything was wrong?”
Well, no, I didn't. No, I couldn't.
The car was new to me last fall. When the snow started
falling, I had only two snow tires on it (these very tires) and a small front
wheel car with mismatched tires does not respond as well as a small front wheel
drive car with matching tires. It was so squirrelly; I parked it for a couple
of months and drove my van. This winter was way too terrifying to be driving a
squirrely car with mismatched tires.
When we put two more snow tires on, and I resumed driving
the Kia, there wasn’t much in the way of roads without slush, snow, ice,
potholes, and other things that make driving kind of erratic. The only clues I
had that something was wrong are 1) my fan belt squeals especially when it is
wet out 2) every now and again, it felt like I had standard steering. I really
thought the car handled fine, and that the matched tires make a huge
difference.
My friendly mechanics and husband pondered over the “Dukes
Of Hazard” jump I had done and the wear on the regular tires that are now back
on the car, and came to the conclusion that maybe there was damage before I did
that crazy jump. The jump certainly accelerated the damage. Both ball joints
are now replaced and I have new brake pads.
I can’t get over how well this all turned out and how badly
it could have gone. Thank God these tires didn’t blow out at 60 miles per hour
during rush hour! The car didn’t swerve out of control when the one did blow,
and I was able to pull off the road in a location that was safe and easy to
describe to AAA.
My guardian angel needs a vacation.
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