[Rick Lee]

My wife's 2006 Mini has a low tire pressure warning light. The only time it has come on, all tires were fine and equal. Recently I noticed the left front getting low kind of often. It was down 18 psi when I checked Sat., filled it up and was down 10 psi after 100 miles later that night. Yesterday we looked at it closely and the lower sides are trashed. Looks like it was from driving too long with too low pressure.

Car is still under warranty. Mini says the low tire pressure warning light will only come on if one or two tires are low, not if all four are equally low. Well, that's the exact opposite of what has happened. At minimum, the left front tire needs to be replaced. Dealer wants $190 per, recommends both fronts and an alignment too. Discount Tire wants $110 per. Car is at the dealer now having the low tire pressure light looked at. If it's bad, do I have a case that they should replace that tire for free, since it got beyond repair as a result of the light's not coming on? I never drive the car, so I only recently started looking at the tires when my wife said something about it.

If the dealer won't do anything for us, we'll go to Discount Tire. But do we really need an alignment after replacing one or two front tires with 20k on the car? Also, can't a shop check with their alignment rack whether it's really necessary before doing the work?