B737-700
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Software and Automation; Procedure; Aircraft; Human Factors; MEL
When I got to Aircraft X; it had a writeup for (paraphrasing) '#4 tire worn'. We were scheduled to take aircraft from ZZZ to ZZZ1 to ZZZ2 to ZZZ to ZZZ3. On our second pass through ZZZ with about five minutes to push the Ops Agent informed us of a Maintenance lock on the Release. About that same time we got an ACARS message from Dispatch saying the same thing and that it was something about a tire change. I called Dispatch and the guy answering the phone said he had tried to call Maintenance and no one answered so he would try again and let me know. I called back seven minutes later and asked to be transferred to Maintenance Control to talk to them directly. Maintenance Control said the tire was allowed only three cycles and the aircraft was 'dead' until it was changed; that it was supposed to be done the first time we went through ZZZ but somehow it didn't happen. This is five minutes before push with no one in sight to change the tire. Five minutes or so after scheduled push; a crew came out to change the tire. The guy that changed the tire took the logbook and came back about 45 minutes later with it saying we were good to go.(As an aside; I informed Maintenance Control the aircraft was coming back to ZZZ for the night and could they change it then. Maintenance said it was only good for three (3) cycles. In 15 years I've never seen a tire written up that wasn't changed immediately and the first I've ever heard that a 'worn' tire is good for only three cycles. This information would have allowed us as a crew to be more proactive to get the tire changed the first time we went through ZZZ or at least set up for the next pass through. This could have prevented over an hour delay.I looked at the logbook and saw in the lower right corner 'MTO W/O Closed' with the 'YES' circled. I didn't look for any narrative in the pink Maintenance part. That is my bad but I took MTO W/O Closed to mean the work was done. We did the 'Before Start Originating' checklist and departed without incident. I noticed a missed call and a text from the succeeding Captain about the logbook having a problem. Being out of the aircraft and in the hotel room by then; I have no way of knowing what the problem was for the logbook but apparently the Captain had to call Contract Maintenance to verify the #4 tire was changed and enter it in the logbook. The long and short of it is I may have flown an aircraft with an open writeup because of improper documentation and my ignorance in seeing that.
Captain reported maintenance overlooking a required tire change which caused a significant delay later in the day.