I have a 1993 Mazda Miata with about 86,000 miles on it. About 10 days ago I bought two new Bridgestone tires for the front from Sears, and had an alignment because the car had been pulling to the right. It drives fine now, but the right front wheel goes whump whump and the noise speeds up as I accelerate. There’s also a slight burned rubber smell. I haven’t taken it back to Sears yet because I don’t want to be conned into doing something unnecessary. I’ve read some of your columns and am I right in guessing it’s probably due to a tire defect or a mis-alignment?
Sometimes even Bridgestone builds a faulty tire. I think you have one with a very premature broken belt or tread separation. It is also possible that now that you have nice new tires on the front, you are hearing a bad tire on the back that was previoulsy muffled by one a bad front tire with a broken belt or tread separation. Take it back to Sears ASAP. They will let you know what’s up.
First problem: Sears.
C’mon. SEARS? Your driving a car (a Miata), not a washing machine. If you don’t understand this I’m probably wasting my time, but here goes:
Second problem: If you’re only buying two tires, the new ones should ALWAYS go on the rear. REALLY! Even Sears should know that.
Third problem: Burned rubber smell? This is NEVER good, and should not occur just because you had two new tires mounted (even if they were mounted incorrectly, as they were).
Take it back.
They screwed something (perhaps more than one thing) up and they should fix it.
A bad tire is a possibility. Good luck getting them to admit it.