Part worn tyre, worst bulge

I was called out to a customer today who had part worn tyres fitted to his car two days ago costing £20 each, by the next day he had noticed a slight bulge in one tyre, then by the next day the bulge had grown to the size in this photo overnight. It almost looks like a second tyre underneath the main tyre.

I then checked the other part worn tyres on the car and found problems with all of them....

2nd tyre had a 20mm split within the tread (Mot failure - dangerous)

3rd tyre had a screw still stuck in the shoulder (Mot failure as well as being unrepairable and dangerous)

4th tyre was legal but had problems in that it had 6mm of tread on the outside edge and 2mm on the inside edge. Also all 4 tyres did not have 'Part worn' printed on the sidewall which is illegal.

This is one of the reasons that we at Hometyre, often tell people NOT TO BUY PART WORN TYRES.

Last month a Trading standards officer visited two part worn dealers, accompanied by a tyre expert and 45 tyres that were for sale were chosen at random to be given a visual check (This check will not show any structural faults only obvious faults seen by eye). They commented that the results were both disappointing and frightening. None of the tyres had the 'Part worn' marking on them, making them illegal, although not a safety issue. Of the 45 tyres checked 20 were found to be dangerous, with the following faults:

4 still had objects penetrating the tyre.

4 had temporary repairs using string in the hole.

3 had patches over holes, but not the correct patch plugs as recommended by British standards.

3 had side wall damage with cuts still evident.

2 had structural damage that was visible.

1 was kinked and had a distorted bead.

1 the inner liner had seperated from the tread

1 had heavy cracks within the tread.

1 was still punctured.

The tyre expert commented that "These were serious faults that could have resulted in accidents or fatalities"

Part worn SPECIALISTS (And I use the term 'specialsts' loosely) will often tell their customers that they source their tyres from Germany, as the Germans have different laws to the UK ... I have heard two suggested laws

1. The Germans must change all their tyres if one has a puncture, so the other good tyres are thrown away!

2. When selling a car that has been used as a demonstrator, a garage must first change all the tyres, and put new ones on, then throw away the other good tyres.

This is utter rubbish, the Germans do not throw away perfectly good tyres, if anything they look after their safety more than us in the UK, they will insist on good quality tyres, will try to have all four tyres on a vehicle of the same make and tread pattern and they will often change tyres before they reach the legal limit.

The truth is that most part worn tyres come from tyres that are scrapped in the UK. Tyre dealers remove dangerous tyres that should not be repaired, and send them to recycling centres, these places sort out the ones they think they can 'fix' and sell them to part worn dealers. Some tyres come from cars that have been in accidents, there is no way of knowing what internal damage has occurred to that tyre.

Would you still buy part worn tyres if they were called 'Part safe tyres'? My customer was lucky, he saw the bulge, and decided that 'New' tyres were the way to go. How many other people are driving around on dangerous tyres? Why risk your life, buy new tyres, at least you can be assured of the quality you are getting.

Photo below was a cracked part worn tyre fitted to a car to help it pass its MOT!