" Tire 'belts' breaking wouldn't really show outwardly on a tire for
quite
some time. Eventually, (one would think) all the belts would snap in
that
general area and you'd start to see bulges in the sidewall as well as
the
tread. That should be noticed by the tire folks."
Actually, when a tire in a belt goes out, it doesnt break unless
something cuts it from one end to the other. What it would do is called
"belt separation" where the steel belt comes apart from the inner liner
of the tire, actually lifting the belt and the tread off the carcass of
the tire. You know when this happens! The tread distorts very bad and
the vehicle normally shakes bad at higher speeds, and cause the vehicle
to "wobble" at slow speeds. A belt going out on a tire never affects
the sidewall since there are no belts in the sidewall. The sidewall has
the body plies, or carcass of the tire, which is normally made of nylon
or polyester, the inner liner, and the outer protective rubber. If the
sidewall is hit hard enough, it will cause an outward bulge, called an
impact break. A defective tire will bulge where the radial or bias
plies are spliced together if the splice comes apart. If you see a spot
on your tire sidewall where it indents a little, this is called a
sidewall undulation, and it is ok. It is caused by the extra strength
at a body ply splice, and since there are essentially twice the strength
there because of the overlap, the air pressure cant push out the
sidewall as far, causing the indentation.
Patrick
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