Mark was telling me a story today about his weekend rendezvous with the tire fix-it guy and how he found an unbeatable deal at grocery store of all places.  So, as the tale goes, he wakes up early Sunday morning with plans to go to church, (not sure if I'm believing his story so far) and when he goes into the garage he is welcomed by the dreaded flat tire.  He tells me that he busts out the ole' bike pump and begins to kill himself filling the tire with enough air to get to the gas station.  Once he gets the tire filled to 32 psi, Mark takes his Acura MDX to the nearest "tire joint" which we will keep nameless.  After a 1.5 hour wait, the tire guy explains that the screw causing the leak is too close to the tread which means the tire needs to be replaced.  Mark receives  a quote of $260 for a Michelin tire; after composing himself, Mark calls his favorite warehouse shopping club, Costco, for a quick price comparison.  Costco quotes $198 installed and so Mark waves goodbye to the nameless tire guy.

 

Costco proceeds to tell Mark that because his MDX is 4WD, it is important to make sure all four tires have similar tread depths.  Because the other three tires were practically balled, this meant that Mark was replacing all four.  The reason this is recommend is because having one tire with much more traction than the others can cause some steering difficulty, pulling, abnormal tire wear, and even a potential of the 4WD to not properly work as designed.  In the end, Mark bought 4 new tires this weekend.

 

Additionally, it was recommended that he replace the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) valve.  It was explained that whenever a tire is replaced that has this type of valve stem, it is important that the valve is replaced.  In most all cases, when we have new tires installed, the valve stem is also replaced simply because of wear.  Vehicles equipped with TPMS have valves that cost anywhere from $15-$30 and should be replaced.  It is also thought that the actual TPMS sensor should be replaced when new tires are installed, even if the sensor is working properly.  That is because TPMS sensors have a life of about 5 years and in order to replace the sensor, the tire must be removed from the rim.  If a tire is being replaced prior to sensor failure, it only makes sense to replace the sensor so that shortly down the road you are not removing the tire again to replace when it goes bad.

 

In the end, Mark loves Costco, learned something about his Acura's Tire Pressure Monitoring System, and bought a brand new set of Michelin tires (which are my personal favorite).