I’ve read from quite a few places online that other 2012 Honda Civic owners were having tires go flat, pop and shred while driving (Granted that this is probably the most common car issue that any one faces). The Honda is my wife’s car and is less then a year old. I helped her change her flat and checked the other tires ALL of which were dangerously low on air. Seems strange that so many of the same vehicles with low milage are reporting having the same issues. Like I said earlier, could be the commonality of the issue but seems a bit fishy.
I was wondering 2 things;
Are there any other 2012 Honda Civic drivers out there that have had similar issues?
Does any one out there use Firestone Affinity Tires? And if so what has been your experience with them?
All 2012 models sold in the U.S. are required by law to have a TPMS. The mandate was enacted after the Explorer/Firestone fiasco. I can only assume that the OP’s wife doesn;t pay attention to warning lights…or to tire pressure. Sooner or later perhaps we’ll find out that she doesn;t pay attemtion to her oil pressure warning light either.
My guess is that she can find her owner’s manual…but probably isn’t interested in reading it.
I can only echo what CSA and mountainbike stated, namely that the biggest problem seems to be the driver who is ignoring warning lights on her instrument panel.
And, I just have to comment on, "having tires go flat, pop and shred while driving. Granted that this is probably the most common car issue that any one faces…"
Huh? The most common problem???
In 47 years of driving, I have had…maybe…5 flat tires.
I have never had a tire “pop & shred while driving”.
But, then again, I check my tire pressure frequently and correct it as necessary, inspect the tread regularly, and rebalance and re-align as necessary.
Tires that shred while driving are almost surely those that have been driven for far too long with extremely low inflation pressure.
I think that I sense a pattern here, unfortunately.
Consumer’s Reports has recommendations for tires from time to time. Which ones last longest, etc. Which are the best ones for particular cars. Suggest you review this before your next tire purchase.
Dangerously low translates to rubbed out sidewalls which in turn means a blowout is a distinct possibility.
I would strongly suggest that a good tire gauge be purchased and the pressure checked on a regular basis (defined as several weeks) rather than blindly relying on a TPMS in the hope that everything will be fine.
You can buy the finest of tires and if allowed to operate under excessively low tire pressures they will fail also; often catastrophically at speed.
I do respectfully disagree that blown out tires are a common thing to occur. In my lengthy driving history I’ve had maybe a couple of blowouts at most and that was often due to road debris; much like the last one which was a piece of farm implement at night.
Affinity tires came standard on my 2009 Corolla. I didn’t have any serious problems, but the car had a funny vibration at around 60 MPH. The vibration went away when new I bought new tires.
Personally, I have not liked Firestone tires for over 30 years, based on how many defective tires they foisted on the public years ago. For those who are too young to remember, back in the '70s, their “500” model tires were very prone to failure, and after being forced by the gov’t to make good on those bad tires, Firestone replaced them with the equally-bad “721” model. Back in those days, it seems that they had a lot of badly-designed or badly-built tires.
But, that brand has been owned by Bridgestone for quite a few years at this point, and their quality is far better than it was years ago.
In any event, until the OP can present us with some evidence to the contrary, I have to believe that his “common” experience with tires “shredding while driving” is more related to driver/owner negligence than to any particular brand or model of tire.
To tag along with VDCdriver’s comment about Firestone 500 tires I might relate this incident.
Back in the late 70s I lived in OK City and one weekend my mother in law and sister in law came down to visit.
On the 100 mile trip back home while heading north on I-35 they heard a loud boom in the car and pulled over in a panic. The car was running fine and a quick visual showed nothing amiss.
Opening the trunk, they noticed that Firestone 500 tire that was the spare had blown out; scattering some shopping bags all over the place.
Better the one in the trunk rather than one of the 4 holding the car up. The next week she went and had a full new set of tires installed; and not Firestones.
Blowouts, as we used to call them, are actually extremely rare…on tires that are kept properly inflated. On tires that are not kept inflated, all bets are off.
Lots of bad thing shappen when one runs badly underinflated tires on the highway. The components of the tire sll try to move their own way uninhibited by the tire design and internal heat is generated and internal wear occurs. Parts that comprise the tire (like plys) can tear away from one another. Also, small bumps that normally would be no problem can pinch the wall of the tire against the rim.
Also, since the “rolling diameter” is substantially less that the cast diameter of the tire, the two will try to reconcile by tearing apart.
A blowout on a very low tire is a very real possibility.
Our 3 month old Camry had a nail in tire. I called dealer cuz low tire pressure light came on. He said check my tires for nails. Yup, found one. Has the cheap Bridgestone el400 tires. Car next to ours at dealer had Michelin tires. Same size, same wheels. Should have had dealer swap them. Bet if I would have bitched about it, they would have.
Stoveguyy–The tires are warrantied by the tire mfr, not by the car mfr, and as a result, neither the dealer or Toyota have any responsibility for your tire having been punctured by a nail. Hence, they would not have given you 4 new tires from another car.
And, that tire mfr’s warranty is only for defects in materials or workmanship–NOT for road hazards like nails.
Incidentally, no matter how good Michelin tires are, they can also be punctured by nails, just like your Bridgestone tires.
If these tires were truly dangerously low, then there’s probably internal damage to the tires. You should replace them for safety at this point. With the new tires, I’d suggest checking the pressure far more often.
How low were the tires, exactly? How long did it take for them to go from properly inflated to that low?
Have you had your TPMS system checked, as it’s apparently not working properly?
My 2011 Toyota Sienna came equipped with Firestone tires. I checked the inflation weekly and rotated the tires every 5000-10000 miles. These tires were down to the wear indicators at 35,000 miles. They wore evenly, but didn’t seem to last as long as I had expected. My previous minivan, a 2006 Chevrolet Uplander came with Goodyear tires. These tires were good to 60,000 miles.
I have not had good results with Firestone tires. My 1978 Oldsmobile came with the Firestone 721 radial tires. These tires had problems by 25,000 miles. The Firestone store did not want to make what I considered a reasonable adjustment for tread wear. I left the Firestone store and went to Quality Farm and Fleet and replaced all the tires with their Duralon brand and these tires were much better and cost less than what Firestone wanted to charge for the adjusted price on new tires.
I would recommend to the OP to buy new tires, check the inflation at least monthly and do the required rotation.
I assumed my tpms was malfunctioning and it was not possible I had nail in tire. Wrong. And the el400 tires are horrible in snow. We had Michelin tires on our previous car and snow/ice performance was MUCH better. And yes, both brands of tires had similar tread style and wear ratings.
I also prefer Michelin tires to Bridgestones, but–in truth–every tire mfr makes many tire models with varying prices and varying qualities. To ascribe particular qualities to all of a tire mfr’s models is…just not accurate.
Those tpms sensors are pretty accurate, generally speaking. You’ll get a warning light if one or more of the tires are 20% underinflated.
The batteries in the sensors realistically last about 5 years, at which point you may again get the warning light. But that shouldn’t be an issue for you just yet.