austin2012a7

I curbed my wheel, took a piece of rubber from the sidewall. New Pirelli P Zeros. Took it to Discount Tire, tire tech said damage is only cosmetic and to "bead protector." I'm posting these pics so others can see an example of cosmetic damage to sidewall, not requiring replacing tire.

Baloo588

Honestly I would replace the tire and get that rim refinished/straightened. I wouldn't risk my tire looking like that and expect the internal belt to be intact it has already been weakened inside that your eyes won't be able to detect. Don't risk it and replace it. You might get a blow out at high speed.

austin2012a7

Definitely considered it, and there's a lot to what you're saying. Amazingly, that scrape was going less than 5mph in a parking lot. I reasoned that the Discount Tire guy only does tires and it's in his interest to sell me a tire, so would not talk me out of a replacement if it was needed. Looking at other sources, tire is fine unless you can: 1)see the plies, or 2)bulges develop indicating structural damage. It's been a week, and I've been driving it gingerly for the first few days, and last two days at 80mph on highway, inspecting the tires after each drive (been stable). Car also feels the same. Apparently, tire guy said that thick rubber ring did its job in protecting the structural elements underneath, which was untouched.

tenspeed

It looks like a flesh wound. I would move the wheel to the right rear. That's the wheel that gets the most damage from parallel parking. If there's a choice of which tire is most likely to blow, I would prefer it to be on the rear.

I had a rear wheel blow out on the highway years ago and I heard it before I felt it.

mdkv5

I had very similar damage to a tire a few years ago (no rim damage though). it was fine for a month or so then it slowly started leaking air; eventually it got to a point where I had to check the pressure once every few days. At that stage I gave up and just replaced it.

2008A6

I think you'll be just fine.. When that's happened to me i've used black rubber cement from autoparts store and "fixed" it so that i dont notice it until its time to replace tires. In your case, since the flap of rubber tore completely off, it's a bit more tricky to patch up.
We all can relate to how annoying these mishaps are to the cars we love.

austin2012a7

It's been holding steady, and I've been monitoring the tire closely. It's very hot here in TX during the summer, so a good sign that it's performing well under sub-optimal conditions.

J_Win

That area of the tire is the lip protector, it's real thick there, so you may be ok, I'd move it to the rear before replacing. Depending how much thread is left. there are used tires on ebay you could find an exact match and replace it without buying a new tire too.