My daily beater ('88 Buick Park Ave) goes through a front passenger tire about every two weeks. The tire will develop a "tennis ball sized bubble" on the inboard side of the tread near the sidewall. Other than the tire issue the car drives fine. It doesn't pull to the right or left nor does it have an "excessive" amount of play in the steering wheel. The car also doesn't create a lot of bubbles on the tire. It is always just one.
I was originally going to buy a new strut thinking that the tire was bouncing off the ground constantly causing the premature wear. The only problem is that the car seems to drive fine (its hard to tell since the car rivals some of the boats I see on the Mississippi.) Now I was thinking that it maybe the tierod end. Could a bad tierod cause these problems?
This normally wouldn't be a problem for me but I don't really want to spend a lot of money on it since the repairs would probably exceed the value of the car. I am also going to be getting rid of it in the next few weeks but I still want to repair it so I can sell it. Has anyone seen or experienced this with their tires? What did you do to repair it? Sorry its kinda long.

 

When you say "goes through", you mean it developes the bubble in two weeks or the tred is worn away in two weeks? If the tred is worn away, its goingto be an alignment issue. Bushings/ball joins should be looked at. Has the car been up a curb in a pot hole lately? As for a "bubble", thats going to be from an impact. Theyre like a blood blister, the inside is torn but not the top layer. hope this helps

 

could the rim be damaged?

 

96,
It develops the bubble in two weeks. And how you described the "blood blister" is exactly what happens. I have jacked the car up before and tried moving the tire up and down and from side to side. I didn't notice any unusual movement.

Respect,
When I put a new tire on it the rim balances fine and doesn't leak air at all. There is also no discernable damage to it either.

I am trying to find out if anyone has had this problem before so I can hopefully get the right part the first time. The car is not worth taking to the shop or spending alot of noney and parts on. Plus I am buying a truck in the next week or so and I'll feel bad if I try to sell it before fixing it. So thanks for your replies so far and I am going to try to look at it some more tonight.

 

How many times has this happened? Im guessing youre using used tires, right? You might just be getting bad tires, or youre hitting something and not realizing it (like a pot hole or curb).

 

switch around the wheels and see if it still happens on that one corner. That'll quickly tell you if its that certain wheel or not.

 

possible, but a bent wheel should not cause an impact break (bubble)

 

This is the third tire on the car. I took the tire and rim down to a local tire shop and had them check it out. The rim is bent some but not enough to cause the problems I am seeing (at least that is what the tech said.) I went ahead and switched the front and back tires (even though I am pretty sure I have already done this) and I am going to see what happens from there. As for potholes or curbs, my drive to work is mostly highway so the roads are pretty smooth. And I avoid any and all road hazards. If it happens again I think I will just send the car to a salvage yard. I only bought it as a temporary solution anyway. Thanks 96's for your help.

 

hmm that's kindof weird, never heard of anything like that. And they did check all the alignment angles? And everything is good and tight....hmm. Let us know if you get it figured out---I want to know what it is.

 

I switched the front and rear tires and haven't had any problems yet. However, I haven't been driving the car that long due to me being out of town for work. I don't think I will ever know what is causing it. Next week I should be buying a truck and that car is either going to a junk yard or to someone who needs an engine pretty cheap.