daisy chain 4 satan – steel belted radial mix

no, this is not a nineties record review…

(just so you know that first line made sense)

no, this was about an off car day. it’s amazing how many negative steps these days can take, although compared to how it COULD have been this wasn’t too bad. i got in to take off, and a block from the house a tire pressure light went off. by the time i came to the stop sign, all of the tire pressure lights had gone off. given the fact we were having a texas fall morning (i.e. it was thirty degrees colder than it had been the afternoon before when i drove home) this didn’t surprise me. ten degrees drop in ambient temperature equals a drop of one p.s.i. on tires with air versus nitrogen, so this all makes sense. i reset at the stop and took off, but one persisted. i decided to deal with it when i got to the gas station.

when i started to inflate it i saw it – the fucking nail head. so, i filled up with gas and headed to the tire spot where we pulled out a nail so long it both flattened the tire AND scraped the INSIDE of my fucking rim. then it was off to the car wash because i thought my girl deserved a spa day. but when they pulled her around they informed me, after finishing the tire and wheel treatment, that i had a flat tire. figuring, since i had just come from the tire spot, that the patch didn’t take i just said, “left side?”, and they nodded. but i walked out and it wasn’t the back tire, which had been patched, but the front tire…

…again.

this is the second time that tire has come up flat at the wash tub car wash. the fact it’s the left side, which is the side their system uses to pull the car, is no coincidence. the previous time this happened we tried to inflate it and it didn’t take. we even borrowed a jack from the oil change place next door, got the tire in the air so there was no pressure on it, and tried to inflate it (sometimes this really helps), but to no avail. so i had to roll on a flat tire the few miles to my tire spot where we pulled the wheel, filled it, checked for leaks, found NONE, and i drove on it just fine for several thousand miles, until this second fateful day at the wash tub in san marcos.

it should be noted there have been several visits in between these two without incident.

but here we were – same car, same wheel, same tire, same car wash, same problem. so i rolled BACK over to the tire spot, didn’t even bother jacking it up, and just hit it with the air. it popped the bead back in place even with all the weight of the car on it, and i set it to 35 psi and have driven on it just fine since, but i haven’t driven it back to the washtub in san marcos. thanks to the rainy season she’s only been washed once since then, but at the washtub in round rock which is anything but convenient.

so now i’m torn – i’ve been with them long enough that i get the $49.99 all you can wash package for only $29.99, but since i think i’m an idiot to trust the san marcos one with my car ever again it’s far from convenient. i’m wondering if i need to find a new one, or just stick with what i have but accept that a weekly trip up to round rock is now part of my world? this one might take a while to sort through the pros and cons…