Tyres

After suffering a punctured tyre on my BMW 125i the dealer told me to go to a Bridgestone dealer to have it repaired, as they were the only ones who could do it, but they told me it couldn't be repaired. When I asked about fitting conventional tyres they told it wasn't possible. That can't be right?

Three days after taking delivery of a new Mitsubishi ASX I had a puncture. My local Dunlop dealer cannot repair it and after enquires it was found that these tyres, Dunlop SP Sport, are not available in Australia. I have contacted Mitsubishi, but they don't seem interested. I would rather not have one odd tyre on my new car. I can't believe Mitsubishi are selling new cars without having the tyres available. Can you help?

I recently purchased a 1998 Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 fitted with Roadstone N7000 225/40ZR18 tyres front and back on 18-inch MB sports rims and marked max 50 psi. I don't know what the correct tyre pressures should be for my casual weekend cruising. The tyre importer advised me to run the tyres at five psi under maximum, which seems pretty high to me, and with the same pressures front and rear. What tyre pressures you would suggest?

Like reader Daniel Taylor who complained his Hyundai Santa Fe was wearing out tyres we have a Santa Fe that had the same problem. After finally convincing the dealer that I was not a "stupid woman", and just short of shipping my vehicle to Hyundai the dealer decided to fit an aftermarket adjuster kit. This has fixed my problem and after 18 months my tyres are not scrubbing.

Regarding the Hyundai Santa Fe owner whose car was wearing tyres, we had a customer in recently with the same concern on an R-series Santa Fe. Repeated checks with our wheel aligner, and also a specialist tyre place, failed to find any abnormalities. I was all within spec, but after a thorough investigation and tests we found the rear toe required adjustment. Specifically, the left-hand rear had too much positive toe, and once corrected the vehicle drove well. We have advised Hyundai of the outcome?

I understand the need to have good tyres, but I am skeptical of the advice given by tyre retailers. I need tyres for my 1990 Mitsubishi Magna and I would like to know which tyre to choose?

My dealer advised me at the 15,000 km service on my 2009 Holden Captiva LX that I needed to replace all four tyres due to excessive wear. The dealer flatly refused my request to check the car on their wheel alignment machine, going so far to say to me "that's the way the car comes from the factory, so it must be right". It seems Holden and its dealers are in denial about this problem with the Captiva; there is so much documented evidence of this fault out there they must know of it.

After having a tyre replaced recently on my Holden Vectra I decided to check how tight the wheel studs were. Using the tube wrench that came with the car I could not loosen them. I was able to loosen four of the five studs after I slipped a three-foot piece of tube over the wrench to give me more leverage, with this I managed to loosen 4 of the 5 studs, but there was no way I could loosen the fifth whatever I did. The tyre company explained that they are regulated to only torque the studs to 140 Nm and assured me that they cannot over-torque the studs. When I then asked them to loosen the fifth stud they could not move it either - using their own wheel wrench. He said it appeared that the stud had fused to the alloy wheel. Can I smear a little Vaseline or grease between the stud and the wheel to stop them fusing?

For no reason at all at around 3000 km my 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe started pulling heavily to the left. I have never hit any large potholes, mounted any curbs, or driven off road. I initially took it to an independent tyre specialist who said I was getting severe tyre wear due to this imbalance. He felt that being such a new car, a balance/alignment would not help, but rather it could be a suspension or steering problem and I should take it back to the dealer. After three visits to the Hyundai dealer, they tell me that there is nothing wrong with the car and that this is a safety mechanism to stop a tired driver drifting into oncoming traffic. I have my doubts. What are your thoughts?

I have gone from 14x5.5-inch rims with 195/Rx14 tyres on my 2002 Toyota Hilux Extra cab to 15x7-inch rims and I'd like to know what tyres to fit to keep my speedo correct. Some dealers are saying 60 others 65. My preferred tyre size is a 235 profile, if not then a 215. What can you suggest?