Picked up during the car’s service on Saturday a nick and developing bulge in the NSF tyre.
The set only has 5500 miles and I wasn’t planning to replace with Bridgestones… 
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Oh dear Ian.
Well, I’m thinking the cheapest way out, if you can even call it that, is to keep the axles “even”, replace 2 and pop them on the rear , then keep the good part worn as a full time spare.
I’ve always had a matching set on my 5’s and want to keep that, so it’s 2 Bridgestone or 4 something else…
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The term “bug air” (as they say in France!) comes to mind.
Do you remember doing anything that may have caused it, or are the garage who did the service covering their tracks? Can’t imagine you getting damage like that without scuffing the wheel in normal driving.
Looks to me like pothole damage, had a bulge like that on my Audi S3 when only a year old. It was a deepish pothole with very sharp edges, no damage to wheel or suspension. When shown the damage I remembered exactly where it had happened.
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Good point PhilC1.
IanH, does anybody else drive the car (if you can’t remember doing it)?
Ian, I wonder if someone from the garage took the car out for a “test drive”. Did you happen to note the mileage when you left the car with them and what it was when you collected it? I must admit I do ever since the time someone told me they’d seen me doing 100+mph down the A12 when in fact I was at work and the car (Pug 205 1.9l GTI) was in for a service.
Yeh. I once had an MG ZR160 which I took to Halfords to have the wheels balanced on their dynamic balancing machine. When I went to pick it up it wasn’t there. I was told it was being taken for a test drive (why, surely thats the point of having dynamic wheel balancing done on the car?). Minutes later I saw and heard my car being driven at high speed (in a 30 mph limit) with the engine hitting the rev limiter before being parked in the customer car park area by a yoof! Halfords said the wheels had been balanced and the wheel vibration fixed, but it wasn’t. Turned out to be warped brake discs. Needless to say I had a word with the manager and never went back.
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You can tell it’s not a fresh cut, I don’t have a particular recollection of doing it to be honest, with the amount of pot holes around these days it’s not unsurprising. If I think there’s been a rattle I’ll tend to look at the wheel for kerbing rather than the tyre.
A few years ago I hit a pothole in our last NC didn’t cut into the outside wall but a week or so later a bulge appeared on the tyre wall so I think it possibly damaged the braiding inside the tyre. So dam annoying and expensive,especially if they are good tyres with plenty of tread left on them.
Hard to believe I know, but second hand tyres seem to sell quite well on eBay.
So if it was me, I’d put four new on (assuming I was not keen on Bridgestones) and sell the three good tyres on ebay.
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that’s obviously dangerous. A good idea to replace two if you intend to change mwke or model of tyre.
Black Circle do good prices or at least provide a benchmark.
I can recommend Michelin Pilot Sport.
Exactly as I did. My ND was on Bridgestones and the fronts were down to 2mm while the rears had about 5mm left. Fitted a new set of Kumho PS71s on a Black Circles, Black Friday deal and sold the part worn pair of Bridgestones on eBay. Fitting bay were perfectly happy as they only had to pay to dispose of two instead of four. I got to have a chat with a fellow MX-5 owner who came to collect the part worn tyres.