Bulge in Tire

I see the wife has a bulge in the front passenger tire of her Mazda5.
I year old tire with likely less than 8k miles on it.
Photo:

Pothole suspected. That guess is commensurate with the scuffing of rim in same area.

Is this unsafe to drive on?
Is this a warranty issue?

What say the hive?

Broken cord. Unsafe to drive on. Probably not a warranty issue unless you have a road hazard warranty. Sorry.

Bought 4-13-13. A few months short of a year!
Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum (KU27)
High Performance All Season
Size: 205/50R17

It's been a bad year for pothole-related tire and wheel damage around here. My father's had two tires blow at highway speed due to potholes - wheels bent, tires shredded. For the record, VW alloys are made of cheese, and a soft cheese at that (at least the 17" ones they spec on the Jetta TDI Sportwagon). I'm trying to convince him to go down to 16" steel rims to buy a little more sidewall height.

Woody wrote: Broken cord. Unsafe to drive on. Probably not a warranty issue unless you have a road hazard warranty. Sorry.

Everything in this statement. Tire manufacturers will not replace a tire like as a defect. Needs to be replaced.

Okay, re-order is done.
I bought the 4 through www.tirebuyer.com and now I got another, exact match for less than what the first ones cost. $110 per tire, total price with tax and delivered to retailer which is 1 mile away. Retailer will then collect $16 to mount/balance.
This is the 3rd order I have done through the website and I have been happy with the experiences.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
I knew all along what the answer was...I just wish it was different.

Nice! That's not the worst bulge I've seen in a side wall but it will just get worse until a blow out.

I remember one on this lady's car I thought was gonna pop just sitting in the parking lot. I couldn't wait to get the valve core out.

What you're seeing is delamination of the sidewall caused by a break in the inner wall, its only good for tire swings and shredding now.

We used to call them "bruises" from back in my tire company days. Definitely caused by curbing, pothole, etc. As noted, not safe to drive on as it does result in a structure failure.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: What you're seeing is delamination of the sidewall caused by a break in the inner wall, its only good for tire swings and shredding now.

That's is not true. It can still be used to scare the crap out of you at an unexpected time on the freeway. Ask how I know that.

I drove on a bulged tire for about 15,000 miles. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but we do crazy things when we're broke.

last time I bulged a tyre.. I did it to a brand new tyre on the way to get the car inspected. Hit a deep pothole in the rain. I think the Tyre had all of 100 miles on it too

Cuda wrote:

Kenny_McCormic wrote: What you're seeing is delamination of the sidewall caused by a break in the inner wall, its only good for tire swings and shredding now.

That's is not true. It can still be used to scare the crap out of you at an unexpected time on the freeway. Ask how I know that.

I bet it self shredded after scaring the crap out of you, so my point still stands.

I've been selling a ton of tires this year. Pothole season is just beginning and it's going to be vicious.

In reply to Gearheadotaku:

Its the worst I've EVER seen, an I've lived in run down parts of Michigan, rural and urban my whole life. This is the first time I've hurt a car with road conditions. I'm remapping all of my common routes to use as many state maintained roads as possible.

Woody wrote: Broken cord. Unsafe to drive on. Probably not a warranty issue unless you have a road hazard warranty. Sorry.

Yep. It's gonna blow. Sorry.

But Kudos for spotting it. Some folks would not notice, and have a high speed blowout when the tire heated up.

There are some pretty insane potholes around here... Looks like tomorrow i'm going to be doing a quick walk around on SWMBO's car...

At least it's on the outside. I did that to a tire once but it was on the inside. Tire went about 1000 miles before it blew out. At speed. When my wife was driving. I should have checked it after that big of a hit.

All of this makes me glad I went with a -2 sizing for my snows (205/65-15, down from 235/45-17). The big sidewalls aren't aesthetically pleasing, but they do seem to be absorbing the abuse pretty well thus far.

When you dismount the tire, look very closely for a cut on the inside of the tire. Cut=pothole, no cut maybe= warranty.

I"m betting on pothole damage.

I am most glad that I could get a matching tire and therefore avoid a mismatched set.
Discussion on the way out for dinner, my wife was telling me of the pothole on our main road that she hit (more than once) really hard.

Yes, I am glad I noticed it too.
They way we typically park in the drive has me looking right at her passenger tire when I get out of the car which was the situation when I noticed it.

02Pilot wrote: All of this makes me glad I went with a -2 sizing for my snows (205/65-15, down from 235/45-17). The big sidewalls aren't aesthetically pleasing, but they do seem to be absorbing the abuse pretty well thus far.

yeah, I like to get all the sidewall I can for winter.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: In reply to Gearheadotaku: Its the worst I've EVER seen, an I've lived in run down parts of Michigan, rural and urban my whole life. This is the first time I've hurt a car with road conditions.

They are -really- bad here in southern NJ too. Worst I have ever seen them. Some roads look more like a simulated lunar surface than pavement.

At least put it on the back until you can replace it.

bentwrench wrote: At least put it on the back until you can replace it.

That t'is my plan come daylight hours. She works 1.5 miles from the house and she will likely need to drive it one day, Monday, only.
I could put on the spare but I expect this bulge will last till then.
An interesting quandary: which is worse, a temp spare or a "temp" bulged tire?