How to remove flat spots.

Joined
Sep 10, 2005
Messages
1,861
Location
Erie, PA
Got a set of goodyear police snows that the car sat in a parking lot for a year. Drove it 300 miles home, another 600 miles mixed driving, and some good highway runs. I cannot seem to get the flat spots out of them (all 4) and do not want the tread to wear abnormal. I pumped them up to 50 psi for a week without resolution.

Anyone know how to fix this.......... Is there such machine that can roll the tire smooth again?
 
I would inflate to maximum sidewall pressure stated, leave in the sun 5+ hours on a warmer day...if possible have the flat areas not contact the ground, and cross my fingers. Then release the excess air pressure and drive.
 
my thought would be wait till it gets real warm like in the summer months then drive it …the flat spots just my be there to stay
 
Bummer. These are only gunna be used in the winter. Car goes away for storage in the summer with insurance dropped so the vics can come out.
 
Verify that you indeed have flat spots by jacking the car up and rotating each tire. Any flat spot should be immediately noticeable.
 
@CapriRacer do you have any thoughts on this situation?
Yeah, I do.

What is probably driving this is the nylon cap plies in the tires. In order to get rid of the flat spots, the temperature of the tires has to be raised above the "Glass Transition Temperature" of the nylon.

Explanation: Unlike what we have been taught in school, matter is much more complex than just "Solid/Liquid/Gas". Some materials change structure - and nylon is one of them. It's called the Glass Transition Temperature, where the nylon changes structure - and it is driven by temperature. Unfortunately, the temperature where this occurs is only slightly elevated over ambient and tires can reach that temperature fairly easily.

So the fix is to elevate the temperatures, then allow the tires to cool while maintaining the desired shape. That might mean lowering the inflation pressures and operating the tires for a length of time (say 30 minutes), then immediately jacking the car off the ground so the tires are suspended. I can think of a number of ways to do this - like one end at a time.

Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is still not very warm yet, so this might have to wait a few months - and it will take a bit of experimentation to get it right because if the temperatures get too high, the tire could be damaged beyond fixing!

And just a word of warning, I have never seen this done and don't know if it will work, but I think that is the only thing left that stands a chance of working.
 
A good friend stores his mint (20,000 miles) 1991 300 ZX twin turbo on “Flatstoppers”. Very low ramps with a curved upper surface that matches the circumference of the tires. No flat spots.

My suggestion - A good drive in summer to get them hot, park them on the flatstoppers. Then keep the car on the flatstoppers.

 
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