I have just noticed a 'bulge' in the sidewall of one of my Dunlop WinterSport 16" tires. Going to the dealer tomorrow to have a look. Interested to hear if anyone else has had a similar problem and if MINI will cover the replacement.

 

Be careful, bulges in the sidewall can be dangerous as you never know when they'll go and you have an unexpected blowout. Are your WinterSports of the run-flat or non run-flat variety?

From my experience if tires have reasonable mileage and evidence of regular maintenance, sidewall bulges are defects covered under warranty.

 

In my experience, most of these are due to impact damage, and are NOT covered by manufacture's defect, but by road hazard coverage if you have it.

Alex

 

Yeah, you'd wanna get that checked ASAP. A bulge is usually the wiring frame in the tire that got busted, and can pop anytime. It's a rolling hazard. Good luck.

 

My last side-wall bulge experience was with my mother's car and a Michelin with a 60k mile warranty whereas at less than 15k miles we found the bulge. We didn't have road hazard protection but perhaps it was because we went to the same place that we bought the tire from and she just had the tires rotated/inspected at the same shop, that they simply replaced the tire and only charged a minimal pro-rated rate under the warranty.

I'm just thinking out-loud here if the reinforced sidewalls of RFTs would make a bulge like this significantly less likely to occur.