Separation Sucks

Do you ever have one of those days were you have plans but get nothing done? I had one today. I was hoping to do a little Mothers Day shopping, grocery shopping and I had an idea for a photo contest picture that I wanted to go take.

I have had my Jeep for about a year now, I love it and have only had 2 minor issues with it. About a month after getting it I started noticing a "thumping" sound every time a certain spot on the front passenger tire would hit the pavement. I took it to the dealer to have them take a look. They took the tire off and there was a small piece of rubber that was inside the tire from the manufacturing process that fell out when they took it off the rim, they assumed that was making the noise. I did not hear the noise after that. Then this past winter I was driving home from work when I realized that nothing on my dashboard was registering (no speed, no compass direction, no fuel indicator, NOTHING). I again took it to the dealer and they replaced a connection in the ABS module and everything was fine.

Well, about a month ago I started noticing another noise from the tires. This time it was on the driver's side, but I could not determine if it the was front or rear. I just assumed it was a similar issue as before and let it go. That my friends was probably not the best of ideas. The noise got worse and today I took a look at the tire again and noticed 2 spots that were flat and 1 spot that had a hole in the outer layer. Here are a couple photos of the 2 spots.

This I decided was not good (I know I am quite the car expert!) so off I went to the dealer again. They said it looked like a tread separation but that I should take it to Goodyear since the tire would likely be fixed under warranty. My local Goodyear confirmed that it did appear to be a tread separation and that it should be a warranty replacement. Of course the local Goodyear locations do not stock the tire that my Jeep has and it needed to be ordered. Thankfully they are stocked at a local Goodyear warehouse and they can get a new tire within a day. Goodyear suggested not driving anymore than absolutely necessary before getting it fixed, due to the "very serious" risk of a blow out. The good news is they were able to get the tire ordered tonight and it will be at the shop by 10:30am tomorrow, in time for my 12:30pm appointment.

The bad news of course will all of this is I did not get my Mom a Mothers Day gift (Mom if you are reading this, it will be late sorry) and I was not able to get over to take the great photo that I had planned as well as running the needed errands. Oh well, the Twins are hosting the Chicago White Sox tonight so now I have an excuse to watch the game.