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[crazypumpkin]

Woke up to my front drivers side tire being completely flat. I think I'm done trying to patch it. It was already a $20 used tire. I'm sure I've already spend more than that between "patching" it and trying to keep air in it. I know my front tires are the more important ones

Comments

[stemware]

Depends on the size of the tire. How worn are your normal tires? This time of year particularly you should have matching tires all around, or at the very least matching tires on the front. If you choose to only buy one new tire, swap them to the rear because it's really important in snow and rain to have matching tires. Even on dry pavement, your front wheel drive car may pull sideways if they aren't matching and could result in various alignment issues.

$30 - $40 plus $5 for mounting and installation for an economy car tire in the DC area.

[jennnej]

**EDIT - sorry, stemware, I didn't mean to reply to your comment specifically, I must have clicked the wrong link. *blush*

For the past 2 years, at my annual car inspection, I've had to get tires replaced. On both occasions, I bought 2 new ones and put them on the front (I have front-wheel drive). I would recommend getting 2, because like the above comment, it would make the car more balanced.

Up here, I think I paid $75-$80 for the 2 tires, and then my dad and I just put them on by ourselves.

[jennifleur]

It may seem less expensive to just buy one tire but you'll probably wind up paying for it down the road in alignment issues and irregular wear which can lead to blow outs etc. The potential for danger is greater with just one new tire. I'd get two new one's if I were you. Depending on the type of car you have and the required tires you could probably pick up a set for less than $150.

[cowbert]

You have several problems. First, putting a different tread pattern on one side compared to the other will change vehicle handling for the worse. That said, if you can manage to get the same model/brand tire (i.e. with the same tread pattern) as your other tire, good shops will shave down that new tire for you so that tread depth is matched.

In the case where you buy a new *pair*, most shops will only put new ones on the rear, regardless of drive wheel configuration, because that's what tire manufacturers recommend (the assumption is that the majority of drivers do not know how to properly respond when the rear end slides out; it is more intuitive for typical drivers to recover from induced understeer from front wheel slippage in a Front WD car; and in a Front WD car, drivers obtain more feedback through the steering wheel and allows for earlier throttle removal when encountering slicker conditions; ).