Questions and Answers
Fixing Cupped Tires???
Q. My wife and I just bought a used car five days ago, its a 2000 Mercury Sable. It has 21,000 miles on it and before we would sign the papers we mentioned that the car vibrated at 65 mph and that we wanted that fixed and they agreed.
Problem is that we had an appointment yesterday to have them look at it and the mechanic felt the tires and said that they were cupped on all four tires. Well the mechanic said that they can't be fixed and that I should go back to the salesman and have them be replaced, so I told him and he went to the manager and the salesman came back and said that the tires could be fixed, because he worked at Tires Plus for 10 years and knows that they can be fixed.
What we are wondering is who do we believe? Why should a car with that few miles have tires in that shape, and if cupped tires can be fixed what do they do fix them and what are the down sides to having "fixed" cupped tires? I read in a few articles that cupped tires can be from bad balancing or bad struts but this car has low miles. Suggestions?
Thanks,
RobertA. Well Robert, I've been fixing cars for over 30 years, man and boy. I've worked in muffler shops, tire stores (including a Tires Plus store), dealerships and gas stations and I'm here to tell you, there is no way to fix a cupped tire.
In plain language he's giving you a BS story because he doesn't want to replace the tires. That cuts into the dealers profit and the salesmans commission. So if he can get away without buying them, he will. I hope you got the agreement to repair the vibration in writing. If it's going to take a new set of tires to repair the vibration, then they are legally obligated to replace them.
You are right in that cupped tires are most often caused by bad shocks and struts and a car with this few miles should not have this problem. Since it is a 2000 model it is still under the factory warranty, the best thing to do is to take it to Ford and have them locate and repair the problem. If the problem is not fixed, the new tires will wear the same as the old ones.
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