[Non SE-R] What is wrong with this tire?

[Mark Holden]

Word from Volvo is toasted wheel bearing (odd, because
I couldn't detect any play at all in the wheel), combined
with alignment problems (I've been trying to get her to
have the car aligned for more than a year...)

> Any chance that this particular tire was run practically
> flat, then taken off and put in the trunk as the spare,
> and since then was changed again and put back on the car?
> Anyone do any favors for your wife and rotated the tires
> including the spare?

Actually, kind of.  After much thinking back, we realized that this tire had
at one point been on the rear passenger side, then moved to the driver front
by idiots who decided her tires needed to be rotated during a routine
maintenance appointment.  This despite the fact that the two fronts had just
been replaced and by rotation them the put the new tires on the back of the
car...

Once we put that together, it turns out that that tire had gone flat and
been repaired.  She didn't drive the car with it flat, but it may have been
somewhat low beforehand.  I need to ask her what shop was willing to patch a
tire in that condition, so I never go there.

I suspect that the damaged tire combined with the alignment issues put
unusual loads on the wheel bearing, and that's when she noticed the problem
and nrought it to my attention.

Oh, and she's not my wife.  Yet. :)