I found out my front driver side tire has bubble on side wall. I replaced this tire(OEM:Goodyear) last year, has less than 10k miles. My question is, can I replace only one tire or it has to be both? Someone have told me that it needs to be replace both because both tires have to be in same tread life. Is this true?
I am thinking about ordering tire from either Tirerack or discountedtire.com.. Can I go with different brand for ONE Tire? Or I have to purchase Goodyear again for bubbled tire?? thank you

 

just replace it with whatever you can find, but make sure they're the same size. with 10k miles, you're not too far into the life of the tire anyway.

If you've got a road hazard guarantee or anything on it, you may be able to get it replaced under warranty or free. call your previous tire dealer about it.

 

I got those front tires at the Nissan dealer... I don't have Road Hazard Warranty..

 

Try getting the dealer to warranty it anyway. Maybe they will buy that's a manufacturing defect and not road hazard. The bubble on the sidewall is from a weak spot that could have a few different causes so this tactic might work.

There should be no worries about just replacing one tire.

 

Just like others mentioned go back to the dealership and see if they will honor a warranty on the tire for you. Never know until you try. Don't drive on the tire with the bubble for too long. It might blow out on you. Get it fixed soon for your own safety.

 

This happened to me just last week. You can only replace the bubbled tire, but make sure you get it rotated to the rear. This way your drivetrain wheels will have equal wear (which is most important).
-Cyrus

 

Just went through this. Wifes Goodyear on Accord. Brought it back to the place where we bought the tire and they said it was a defect and gave us a new tire for $20.00 (including mounting and balance) They pro-rate(charge only for what you used on the old tire) the tire when figuring how much to charge you for the new one.

So before you pay full price, try to get the dealer to give you a new tire for a pro-rated price. Also, since only 10K miles on the tire, the Accord rides fine with only the one new tire and we did not replace both.

 

I would recommend getting just one, because you don't want to toss the other with only 10k. I know how you feel my new 18" tire got punctured at 250 miles. The forum thought it was really funny and said to buy a new tire. We're just lucky that we're all rich so these things don't really matter--NOT

 

Just get one.