It happened. Flat tire. No spare. In middle of Nowhere.

I’d buy a spare and carry it with you.

That was te first purchase I made whenwe bought in April: found a salvaged 2015 and bought the spare .

Also bought a tire bag that I keep the spare in so that way the bad tire doesn’t soil the interior .

 

Like minds. First thing I bought was a spare. Albeit a compact spare.

 

If you don’t feel the tires are safe, buy a whole new set.

Ours came with Toyo’s and I’m not a big fan of them.

I also don’t think they’ll last much past 30-40 k miles.

So I’ll be getting Bridgestone Turanza Serenties to replace them as they wear well and are quiet.

Is this a rim issue more than a tire issue though?

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

While I sympathize with you for the trouble you had to endure, it will be an uphill battle persuading Toyota to take any responsibility on those flat tires. If you read the manual carefully, it clearly states that tire warranty comes from the tire manufacture not from Toyota. They may give you some goodwill discount on next service but don't expect them to pay for all 4 tires.

 

i'd start with 4 free. unlikely, but it's worth asking. if they say no, i'd hope for one. if they say no, i'd buy them myself.

how many miles on the two oldest?

 

You won’t get far with Toyota if you expect them to replace your tires. They don’t warranty them. You won’t get far with the tire company if you cannot show a defect. They won’t replace them just because you don’t like the tires, and flats are not uncommon on Interstates in the southwest.

Replace the tires with new if that provides you peace of mind, but also buy a spare and carry it with you.

When your TPMS light was illuminated, what were the actual pressures in the tires? I assume you carry your own gage and don't rely on gas station gages.

 

Carista tells you the tire pressure monitoring system numbers. I am sure others do too but I’m not familiar with those.

 

The way I see this is that the OP got two warnings that his tire was losing air and he ignored them and headed out on the road. Most likely he picked up a nail somewhere. It happened to me once and the Toyota dealer couldn't find it after I mentioned it to them. I took my tire off and planned to dip it in water to find the leak, but I was able to see the nail with the tire off. Took it to Costco for repair and it has been fine for over a year.

 

Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus, especially the version from Japan, are decent tires. Any tire can pick up a nail.

 

I would say that this is partially self-inflicted pain. When you checked your tires at home, they were all lower than recommended pressure, so it appears you are not attentive to tire pressures on a regular basis. Then you get the tire pressure light on the road, and you don't carry a decent tire gage with you. Since your tires had shown evidence of leakage (two were low and you topped them off), that should be a red flag that the air is going somewhere. You have a decent size leak to lose half the air pressure in a day. You did a quick visual inspection and found nothing - that's when you head to a tire shop to find the leak.

Then later you let air out of the tires, given that you have evidence of a leak. Probably the last thing you want to do. A tire running at highway speeds with 20 psi will quickly fail - reference the infamous Firestone 500 failure (and your own right rear tire).

These steps may have avoided this tire failure.

1. Keep your tires properly inflated at all times. Buy and use a quality tire pressure gage, and keep it in your car so you always use the same gage and the results are consistent.

2. When you have evidence of a leaky tire, go to a shop and find the leak and get it fixed.

3. Don't adjust pressures based on assumptions. Only adjust based on data (i.e. your high quality gage that you keep in the car). Don't adjust for temperature or altitude on a trip like this - set the pressure once and keep it there. Tires normally change pressure and when the conditions that cause the pressure change are no longer present, the tires return to the original temperature.

As you noted, since this trip is partially off the beaten path, carry a spare in the car (and make sure that is properly inflated). Also carry a block of wood to put underneath the jack, since the sand in the desert is not a great base for the tiny jack that comes with the car.

One of your concerns in your post was that the car isn't telling you the tire pressures, just providing a light. If the car had told you that which tire was low (which you can easily confirm with a gage), what would you have done differently?

Edit - something else odd. When you checked your tires, the front left was at 30 and the right rear was at 20. The right rear failed, but either the front had a leak as well that fixed itself, or your pressure measurements are not accurate or repeatable.

 

I'd say it's 99.999% that Toyota won't help. But until you try for yourself, there's still that 0.001% sliver of uncertainty.

Once they say "no," then just bite the bullet and get some decent tires. I really like my Yokohama Avid Ascend GTs, especially in the rain. (I know, you live in SoCal, but you've probably heard of the stuff. LOL!) I pitched the Toyos at about 25,000 miles because they were already too close to being worn out to be reliable on a 6,000 mile road trip that included the Colorado Rockies in May.

And, you're wise to get a spare. The Prime doesn't have tie-down rings, but it does have the holes for them behind the rear seats.

 

how many miles on the old tires?

 

I'm waiting for when the replacement tires catch a nail.

 

I had too many issues with the OEM eco rubber, finally gave in and replaced with Altimax RT43s from General. Haven't really noticed a mileage penalty with them, and it's a very easy tire to find anywhere if I have to replace it. The crappy Toyos... every time, special order.

 

One tire light might be a fluke. Two means you got a problem and (if you don't want to get stranded) need to get the tire looked at asap.

 

It was very likely from a goat head. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat%27s_head#/media/File:Acanthospermum_hispidum_seeds.jpg

I went to college in Prescott and have a spent a great deal of time there. Every tire on everything I owned there had the maximum level of durability available in the tires. I had a racing roadbike for a while and I had slime tubes and kevlar tube guards, it added enough weight as to negate the point of having a super light bike, but I didn't get flats. My mountain bikes were similarly equipped. A friend and I co-owned an ATV and a log skidder, the tubes were lined with tire and firehose. I had a 95 nissan altima at the time, there was a cheap all season tire I would get and replace pretty often.

Goat heads can easily cause a leak and with the temps on AZ/Socal pavement that leak can cause a flat quickly.

If you plant to spend a good deal of time in Prescott I would encourage you to get different tires and a spare. Spares can be found on Ebay for $60 or so. Eco tires just won't be reliable there, between the cacti, sharp rocks you might find on roads, UV and infrequent winter storms they won't perform like you would like.

 

wow, those look like bone spurs!