tire flat spot

[drlats]

Hey guys, first time posting. Sorry if this is posted elsewhere but I can't seem to find it. I have a 98 Saturn SL2 and have been getting horrible gas mileage lately. I checked and I have a pretty significant flat spot on my driver side rear tire. My question is how much of an impact does a flat spot make?

[darcane]

A flat spot? Like you locked up the brakes and it wore one spot down? Not much, if any, affect on mpgs. If it's real bad, you should probably get it replaced for safety reasons.

Now, if it's run out of air and is flat, that's another story altogether.

[drlats]

The tire went flat over a weekend and caused a flat spot on the inner aspect of the tire.

[CapriRacer]

If the tire went flat, and it has been reinflated, how do you know there is a flat spot?

Plus, what caused the tire to go flat?

[drlats]

Nevermind...I'm just going to get a new tire and save on frustration. To answer your question a nail made it go flat and has since been patched. You can feel an obvious flat spot when rotating a tire and running your hand over the tire. The human hand is quite sensitive when it comes to measuring very small imperfections. This one is a very large imperfection. Sorry for wasting everyones time.