Tires: broken belt, cross country trip, alignment problem

Question
-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
I drive a four year old Olds Silhouette. Several months ago I replaced both front tires due to normal wear (55000 miles)

For the last few weeks I noticed a slight tendency to pull to the right especially a higher speeds. My repair shop looked at the problem yesterday and informed me that the right front tire had a broken belt. Since i am soon planning a cross country trip I need to decide how to handle this problem. The dealer had the following suggestions:

1. Move the front tires to the rear and the older tires(55000 miles) to the front to solve the steering problem

2. Replace the tire with the broken belt.

3. buy two new tires and put them in the front==moving the set containing the broken belt to the rear.

I don't expect you to decide the best option but I would like your opinion on the seriousness of driving long distances on a tire with a broken belt--I'm not familiar with this condition. I'm inclined to take option 3. since the two older tires may be reaching the end of their expected life--but then I still have the broken belt to think about for the 5000 miles of my trip.

Any comments?

Thanks for your help

Carl Meyers
Answer -
Hello, Carl
I have never heard of a broken belt. When tires pull to the right or left it is because one or both belts were layed off center. This will cause the tire to be bigger when inflated on one side than the other. Think of rolling a paper cup. The cup will track to the small end. It could also be your alignment. Did your last set of tires wear on one side more than the other ? If it is not an alignment problem, I would move the new tires to the back and buy some new ones for the front. The bad tire will still want to pull and will wear on one side, but it should not be a problem as long as you keep a close eye on it. I would really like to know what kind of tires you bought, and you may want to stay away from this brand in the future.

Hope this helps

Jack

I hope this helps

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP--I WILL TAKE YOUR ADICE--I JUST WANTED ANOTHER OPINION THAT THE BELT  WAS NOT LIKELY TO CAUSE SHORT TERM PROBLEMS.
THE TIRES ARE FIRESTONE-ANOTHER QUESTION--IF THEY OFFER TO REPLACE THE DEFECTIVE TIRE--IS THERE ANY PROBLEM WITH A SINGLE REPLACEMENT SINCE THE MATE IS PRETTY NEW AND ONLY HAS ABOUT 1000 MILES ON IT?

TJANKS AGAIN

CARL MEYERS

Answer
Carl,
I would carry it back and get a replacment. It would be highly unlikly you would get another bad one. You should still put the one with 1000 miles on the back. It is better to have both tires on the front matched because they seem to wear more than the back.

Good Luck
Jack