Damaged tire bead & my dilemma

As you can see in the picture, there is some ugly damage to the bead of one of my General Grabber AT2 tires. The tire is about 2 years old with about 5000 miles on it.



I didn't notice the problem until TPMS light came on, shortly followed by an ugly thumping noise. The thumping noise was caused by a bulge that developed and was rubbing on the A arm.

The tires were purchased from Tire Rack and mounted by Les Schwab -- on three separate occasions to swap wheels.

Looking at the damage, it appears to me the most likely cause is the bead was damaged during mounting/dismounting. All things being equal, usually the simplest answer is the best??

It was Les Schwab employee's opinion that the tires were old before I got them and the bead was in bad shape to start with. That's not likely considering the tires were on backorder when I bought them. I've called the shop manager expressing my opinion that it appears the bead was damaged by them. He asked if he could call me back -- I've not heard back from him.

So in the meantime, I thought it might be good to gather some third-party opinions. The tires were always inflated to recommended pressure and driven on pavement and gravel, no gnarly off-roading with aired down tires.

Am I off-base here? Should I suck it up and just buy another tire and drop it? Or is it worth pursuing Les Schwab to take responsibility for a mounting/installation problem?

 

Have you checked the dates on the tire?
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

Of all things, that website is a tire-rack website. Did they sell you an old tire?
Just a thought....

You've only had the tires for 2 years and had them dismounted & mounted 3 times? I'm gonna guess.... someone damaged the bead while mounting/dismounting. You might want to inspect the other 3 tires/wheels for signs of damage.

 

Thanks for the link, and the opinion. I'll check out the age of the tire when I get home tonight.

The other tires were pulled off and inspected, and luckily, were in good shape.

 

looks like belt seperation, then the pressure got low and tpms went on?

 

This is why I prefer to buy my tires and wheels from the same joint that performs the mounting and all subsequent rotation and balancing. Saving a couple extra bucks for internet tires isn't worth the hassle/ finger pointing blame game if/when something goes wrong.

You can bloviate at the Les Schwab manager all you want, but what are you gonna do when he says no?

 

You make a valid point. Had the tires I wanted been available locally, I would have bought them locally. In this case, it wasn't really an issue of money.

If they won't take responsibility, I'll buy another tire.

 

They couldn't order them at a reasonable price? Yeah, I've seen that too - one particular shop's only connection to order the tire I wanted was through a wholesaler was not price competitive by A LOT - like an extra hundred bucks per tire...

 

Nope. It's pretty much Toyo or nothing at Les Schwab. Reminds me of Henry Ford: "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black."

 

America's Tire/Discount Tire seems to be able to get pretty much any tire, they do a good job of mounting/road force balancing, and they price match.

I know. That doesn't help you for crap right now. Sorry.

 

Thanks. There is a Discount Tire about 1 1/2 hours from here. In this case it probably would have been worth drive.