In the early morning I got on my car to go the grocery store alone. I noticed the TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) warning light was illuminated. I got out from the car and checked the tire appearances. All four tires appeared fine, so I took off to the store.
After I came back home, I mentioned my husband about the light. He went to the garage with a flashlight and took a thorough look on each tire. He found a nail in the rear tire on the diver’s side. Sure enough the tire air pressure was low as 17 PSI, which was supposed to 30 PSI.
Back in 2002 in America, I experienced a flat tire caused by a nail for my old cars a couple of times. Every time when I took it to the local tire store, they fixed it for free of charge.
Without thinking anything more, I asked my family to go to the local tire store with me. I thought they would fix it for free. In case the nail went through, I didn’t mind to exchange the tire to a new one.
I should have known better.
The tire store worker told me since the nail went through the sidewall, it was not repairable. He naturally gave me a quotation for all four tires.
I was shocked with the number of the tires. I didn’t mind to buy one tire, but I didn’t expect to buy all four tires.
The worker insisted I was required to exchange all four tires. Since my husband does not like arguing with anybody, he was ready to pay for all four new tires. I didn’t fully trust what the tire store worker said. I wanted to get the second opinion.
I took my car to another tire store in town. There, the worker said the same thing that I needed to buy four new tires. The second store’s price was much higher than that of the first store.
There are some more tire stores in town. I called three more stores to get the quote for my four tires. After my efforts, I found out the first store was the winner. Their price was the lowest.
I was embarrassed to go back to the first store, but I had no other option. I went back to the first store and bought four new tires.
By the time we came back home, we were exhausted. If I had known better, I could have saved my family’s precious time and energy. I feel sorry for my family to drag them around here and there almost all day.
***
I still regret for what happened. My car did not have many mileage yet. It was still 36,000 mile. The tires had still enough tread left. If I had known better and took the appropriate action earlier, I could have saved my four tires.
I believe my TPMS warning light illuminated on December 14. On that day I didn’t check the tires thoroughly for any nails. When I added tire air, the warning light went off, so I kept driving my car. Possibly on the first day of the light illuminated, the nail was not deeply inserted. If I had noticed the nail on that day and brought my car to the store to fix it sooner, the tire could have be repaired.
Next time, I will be more careful when the light comes on. At least I learned from this experience.
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three wisdom 