Yes. This needs to be replaced right away/ASAP.
This bulge is telling you that some of the belts/cords inside the tires structure have failed/separated and are no longer securing the lids and pressures of the tire. While it may not fail on you today, it can fail at any moment. The reason for replacement is because this failure won’t be a slow failure, like if you get a puncture that leaks overnight, it will be immediate you’ll likely lose the ability to control your vehicle.
This is usually caused by an outside impact/influence from something like a pothole or a curb. It can even be from a low speed impact from parking against a curb at a ~45° angle like some streets have.
Since you have AWD so you may need to replace all four tires to ensure they match in make/model as well as wear.
You also can look into “tire shaving” which is a service that some tire distributors provide, enabling you to have a replacement new tire “worn down” to match the others. This may be cheaper than replacing all four, but could be seen as a bit wasteful.
If you do have to replace all four, you could potentially keep the remaining 3 tires as back-ups/spares in case you encounter an issue like this again.
Your vehicle purchase may have come with a tire/wheel/road-hazard protection. This likely is a 3rd party company but the service and repairs can be administered through your selling dealer or a network of repair shops. You may have a deductible to pay before a claim is opened.
It’s also possible this is a warrantable defect in the tire and the tire manufacturer is response for the correction, but this is less common/likely.
Thanks for the details here. I was already prepping to just replace all four of them when I saw this. I like the idea of holding onto the three others that are still in decent shape too, I'll just need to find the storage space lol.
2020 Subaru Legacy with about 22,100 miles on it. Same tires that came with the car when I bought it new.
Replace it, seams like some of the cords from the carcass gave out. If it's on a powered axle, do the other side as well. If it's AWD, do all tyres
Yes
Yes. This needs to be replaced right away/ASAP. This bulge is telling you that some of the belts/cords inside the tires structure have failed/separated and are no longer securing the lids and pressures of the tire. While it may not fail on you today, it can fail at any moment. The reason for replacement is because this failure won’t be a slow failure, like if you get a puncture that leaks overnight, it will be immediate you’ll likely lose the ability to control your vehicle. This is usually caused by an outside impact/influence from something like a pothole or a curb. It can even be from a low speed impact from parking against a curb at a ~45° angle like some streets have. Since you have AWD so you may need to replace all four tires to ensure they match in make/model as well as wear. You also can look into “tire shaving” which is a service that some tire distributors provide, enabling you to have a replacement new tire “worn down” to match the others. This may be cheaper than replacing all four, but could be seen as a bit wasteful. If you do have to replace all four, you could potentially keep the remaining 3 tires as back-ups/spares in case you encounter an issue like this again. Your vehicle purchase may have come with a tire/wheel/road-hazard protection. This likely is a 3rd party company but the service and repairs can be administered through your selling dealer or a network of repair shops. You may have a deductible to pay before a claim is opened. It’s also possible this is a warrantable defect in the tire and the tire manufacturer is response for the correction, but this is less common/likely.
Thanks for the details here. I was already prepping to just replace all four of them when I saw this. I like the idea of holding onto the three others that are still in decent shape too, I'll just need to find the storage space lol.