A lump in the sidewall fails an MOT and makes the car illegal to drive, and that rule exists for a blunt reason. A tyre takes its strength from layers of cord under the rubber, not from the rubber itself. Drop into a pothole hard enough and the casing gets pinched between the road and the rim edge, and some of those cords snap. What is left holding that patch of sidewall out against the pressure inside is rubber on its own, which is why it swells.
So a bulge is not a bruise that will settle down. The damage has already happened, it cannot mend itself, and the failure when it comes is sudden rather than gradual, usually at the worst possible speed for it. The size of the lump tells you nothing useful either: a small one on a front tyre is worse news than a big one on a spare that never gets used. If you can see a bulge, the honest advice is not to drive the car at all, and to have the tyre changed where it stands.
"It still drives fine" is true of almost every dangerously damaged tyre we replace. We do that where the car is parked, in Twickenham Green, St Margarets or anywhere in between and fit the correct replacement on the spot if that is what it needs. Blocked drive in St Margarets? Open kerb in Whitton? Either works. Which street in Strawberry Hill, which way the car sits in St Margarets, and we are set.
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The advice with a bulge is not to drive on it, and around TW1 that is easier to give than to follow, because almost any sensible route out involves the A305 or London Road. Sitting in that traffic on a sidewall with broken cords is the precise situation to avoid. Leave the car where it is, whether that is a driveway or a side street off Richmond Road, and it gets changed there.
Spotted while washing the car in East Twickenham. It had been there long enough for the owner to assume it must be harmless. Cords gone, no argument to be had, replaced on the driveway that afternoon.
A hard bang through the steering and then nothing obvious. Two days later a swelling appeared low on the inner sidewall, where nobody normally looks. That delay is the classic pattern after a heavy impact.
A kerb strike had scraped the rim and left a rubbed patch on the sidewall. No swelling and no cords showing, so the tyre stayed on the car. The wheel was the only casualty of the day.
Yes. It is the one piece of tyre damage with no grey area whatsoever. The structure has already failed in that spot and only rubber is holding the shape, so it can burst without warning at speed. No repair for it exists.
Easily, and that is exactly what makes people relaxed about them. Plenty sit for a long while before they go. The cords do not knit back together in that time. It only means the failure has not happened yet.
One, in most cases. Impact damage is a single event on a single tyre and there is no reason to replace a sound neighbour. We would only suggest a pair where the tread depths on a steering axle have drifted a long way apart.
No, most do nothing whatsoever. It comes down to speed, the angle of the edge and how much air was in the tyre, because a soft tyre has less cushion between the road and the rim. A hard bang is worth two minutes of looking.
Then it goes back on and you have lost nothing but the visit. A fair share of these calls end with somebody being told their sidewall is only scuffed. That answer is worth having from a person who has actually looked at it.
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