I just did an archive search on this subject and all I can say I wish I had done that when I bought the 4 new Cooper AT 235/85 R16 tyres for my troopie late last year.
Yes folks, I got caught by the tyre sticker time bomb.
In my case it took about 17,000km before the first went off. Unfortunately it was halfway across the Nullarbor. The tube and rust band got near shredded as the tyre ran down - I was towing a heavy boat trailer and could not pull up in a hurry. The tyre looked OK outside but later inspection showed bad abrasions inside and it was considered unroadworthy.
Anyway, I did not know about that stickerbomb then and fixed the tyre with a new tube and rustband at
Norseman and continued on
home to
Perth. Always wondered why the tyre went flat in the first place as we could find nothing that had bpunctured it.
The next timebomb went off overnight in my driveway some time later, again no obvious
puncture visible on the outside.
Went to the Tyrepower place I bought them from and had them take the tyre off the rim under my observation. The sticker culprint was very obvious this time, a perfectly good tube but for a rubbed through rectagular area.
Had them
check all the other tyres there and then as I got suspicious. Yes, they all had stickers inside. The tyrefitter *knew* about the sticker problem.
I asked the manager wether there was a refund on the tyre that got damaged out there in the Nullarbor. No, was the answer and I got some story about dirt getting into split rims etc. etc.
Not happy with that I contacted the Australian distributors of cooper tyres. The manager was all ears and said he'd look into it.
The outcome was that I got a 72% credit on a new tyre, the damaged tyre having had 28% of its 60,000km guarantee used up when the problem occured.
Today I picked up a brand new Cooper Discoverer AT for $ 69.-. I'm happy with this result, I wanted an extra spare tyre anyway.
Too bad that not all tyre fitters own up to a known problem, as the posts in the archive suggest.
As an aside, I took the new tyre
home as it was delivered to the tyreplace. Had a good look inside and there were 5! little stickers inside. I managed to peel one off but the others stuck too b....y
well. Eventually they were hand sanded off with a piece of belt sander belt - not an easy job. The tyre people used an air powered grinding tool for this job.
I wiped all the glue off with turps and hope this fixed it.
The placard on the tyre's outside said only to use 'approved' tyre mounting liquid.
Anybody know what this stuff is?
Also, would putting a little talkum powder inside the casing before fitting the tube help prevent chafe?
Klaus