Tire Sidewall Irregularities - keywords alignment blister front pressure rear rotate sidewall suspension wear wheel

This PI was superseded to update model years. Please discard PIT4261.

The following diagnosis might be helpful if the vehicle exhibits the symptom(s) described in this PI.

Slight sidewall indentations are a common characteristic of radial tire construction. These indentations are more noticeable on larger size tires having a larger side wall height. Radial tire body construction includes individual cords that run parallel to each other from bead to bead (down the sidewall, across the tread and up the other sidewall). These cords will overlap at points on the circumference of the tire. When the tire is mounted and inflated, it is free to naturally expand. The overlapped areas may create slight indentations, undulations, or protrusions since the stretching capacity of the overlapped area is slightly different than the rest of tire sidewall area.

The following two photo's show examples of tires with a sidewall indentation

This is a visual condition that will not affect durability, reliability or performance of the tires. Tire replacement to address this condition is not recommended and will lead to customer dissatisfaction as the replacement tires will likely have the same or similar condition.

Note:  Indentations are not to be confused with sidewall bulges. An (outward) sidewall bulge indicates a spread or broken cord(s). Tires with a (outward) sidewall bulge should be replaced.

Please follow this diagnostic or repair process thoroughly and complete each step. If the condition exhibited is resolved without completing every step, the remaining steps do not need to be performed.