Silent Blowout?

[TromboneAl]

Lena was driving today, 100 feet from our house, we noticed that the road noise was loud. 100 feet later, and LEAF (Leaf Erikson) told us there was a tire pressure problem. We stop and see that we were driving on the rim. There was a four inch gash in the sidewall.

I think we would have noticed if it had been flat in the garage. Do you think it blew out without making a big bang?

Good thing I'd bought a spare tire (the toy type). The LEAF comes only with some gunk and an inflator. That would not have worked.

All fixed now.

 

[braumeister]

Good for you, Al. I'm entirely on your side. I want my spare tire, and I don't care if not having that extra weight gives me an extra 0.01 mpg.

 

[Bamaman]

My daughter cut down a tire on our Explorer. $200
A week later, my wife cut down the new tire on the interstate. Another $200.

It's the price of driving. Sometimes things happen and sometimes things in the road cannot be seen.

What I don't like is the new ultra high performance car tire--40-45% sidewalls. Hit a railroad track or pothole to fast, and the tire AND the rim are damaged. I'm now trying to buy vehicles with taller tires that last longer than 25K miles.

 

[imoldernu]

Off topic, but I couldn't resist.
Now a days we'd call road service, even though I still have the spare and tools, but you drug me back to when I was a kid... and first learned about flats.

Back around 1943 or '44, when a person couldn't buy a rubber tire for love nor money as tires were rationed, ... but weren't available anyway. Dad's 1938 Oldsmobile had the original tires and the original tubes. the tires were worn so that there was no tread at all, and the tubes averaged about 5 patches each. It was when synthetic rubber was beginning to be used, but even with that, hard to find new tires or tubes. I learned how to use the jack, take off the tire rim, then the tire, then to burn (vulcanize) the tube patch. Dad alway had old pieces of tubing to cut and put in between the tire and the tube as "extra" protection. Wedge the tire back on the rim, pump it up by hand, and bolt it to the car. Maybe an exaggeration, but it seems like at least one flat a week.

On one trip up to New Hampshire from our Rhode Island home, I think we had three or four flats, and took one day of our vacation by the sides of the roads just fixin'. Thanks for the memories.

 

[Texas Proud]

I was driving an older car without the air pressure monitor and everything was fine and then I turned a corner and it felt like the tire was low... I happened to be about 1/4 mile from the tire store so I just drove in...


Seems that a sawzall blade decided to enter my tire... a nice gash that might have been able to be fixed BUT because I ran the tire with no air the rims destroyed the tire... lots a rubber crumbs inside the tire...


Are you sure it was a blow out and not a cut? Blow outs are pretty rare except for some trailer tires...


Edit to add... yes it is a cost of driving... I just spent $1400 because a deer decided to run into the side of the car when DW was driving... at least she did not hit it head on...

 

[aja8888]

Sidewall could have been previously cut, but not through the sidewall, and the subsequent driving and flexing made it fail completely.

 

[Clone]

When I read the title I was unfortunately reminded of the days when we had babies in the house...

 

[REWahoo]

Al, how old was the tire, and how old are the other tires on your Leaf? Age can cause tires to fail in a manner similar to what you describe. I don't trust tires over 6 years old, no matter how much tread they have remaining or how good they look.

You probably already know this, but the photo below shows how to determine the date your tires were manufactured by reading the last four numbers following "DOT" on the sidewall. (The 16th week of 2012 in the example)

 

[Ronstar]

What a coincidence. On a 2 hr long drive to Sedona yesterday, the dashboard display showed one tire to lose 6 pounds during the drive. Put air in the tire, went hiking, ate dinner, then drove home during which the tire lost 2 lbs. And lost another 7 overnight. I went to Discount Tire when they opened this morning, and got 4 new tires. 2012 Acura with 66000 miles on the original tires. It was time. At least I didn’t have to change a flat.

 

[Ronstar]

I don't trust tires over 6 years old, no matter how much tread they have remaining or how good they look.

Tire guys say the same thing. We had a car in Arizona that we drove about 1000 miles a year. The Arizona heat destroyed those tires in 6 years. They were shredding when I had them replaced.

 

[MRG]

Good for you, Al. I'm entirely on your side. I want my spare tire, and I don't care if not having that extra weight gives me an extra 0.01 mpg.

Careful. Last time I tried to get the spare out of my GM pickup the safety device ate my finger and the FD, EMT had to save me. My pride was injured more than anything except I really was trapped. If someone didn't rescue me I would have lost a big hunk of my middle finger. [emoji22]

 

[TromboneAl]

Al, how old was the tire, and how old are the other tires on your Leaf? Age can cause tires to fail in a manner similar to what you describe. I don't trust tires over 6 years old, no matter how much tread they have remaining or how good they look.

There are some puzzles here.

We bought the car in May of 2016, and it had only 500 miles on it. We now have 35K miles on it.

We drop it off at Les Schwabb's and go to Starbucks. We go back, and they had repaired it. I didn't think that would have been possible. I look at the tire, and it's a different brand than the other three. I hadn't bought a new tire for this car. Had it come with the car originally and I hadn't noticed that they were different? Maybe the dealer we'd bought it from had put a used tire on. One of life's mysteries.

I told them I wanted a new tire and I bought one and they put it on.

 

[jazz4cash]

Hmm. A gash in the sidewall is an unlikely result of a road hazard. My guess would be the sidewall damage was caused by the rim after the air escaped. The root cause for the leak is probably something else (e.g. not a blow out).

I experienced a flat on a car with the pressure monitor system. It alerted me to a problem while driving >55 mph and I saw the tire pressure dropping so I got off the highway and tried to limp home but did not make it. The TPMS saved me from having a flat on the interstate.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

There are some puzzles here.

We bought the car in May of 2016, and it had only 500 miles on it. We now have 35K miles on it.

We drop it off at Les Schwabb's and go to Starbucks. We go back, and they had repaired it. I didn't think that would have been possible. I look at the tire, and it's a different brand than the other three. I hadn't bought a new tire for this car. Had it come with the car originally and I hadn't noticed that they were different? Maybe the dealer we'd bought it from had put a used tire on. One of life's mysteries.

I told them I wanted a new tire and I bought one and they put it on.

How much wear difference between the new tire and the other three? If there is a significant difference in tread, it isn't good to replace only one.

 

[Scrapr]

Hmm. A gash in the sidewall is an unlikely result of a road hazard. My guess would be the sidewall damage was caused by the rim after the air escaped. The root cause for the leak is probably something else (e.g. not a blow out)..

This happens sometimes where the rim cuts the sidewall. Sometimes our drivers won't bump tires in the morning. Low tire, run under load, tire "squashes" down, flat tire. Esp when cornering

If you look at the sidewall there will be a cut up close to the rim side like a big half moon. About an inch from the rim

 

[TromboneAl]

Hmm. A gash in the sidewall is an unlikely result of a road hazard. My guess would be the sidewall damage was caused by the rim after the air escaped. The root cause for the leak is probably something else (e.g. not a blow out).

Ah, yes. That makes sense.

 

[TromboneAl]

How much wear difference between the new tire and the other three? If there is a significant difference in tread, it isn't good to replace only one.

Depths are 3, 3.5, 4, and 6 mm. Maybe I'll replace the 3 mm and make the two tires on the front are the same.

 

[JoeWras]

I learned how to use the jack, take off the tire rim, then the tire, then to burn (vulcanize) the tube patch. Dad alway had old pieces of tubing to cut and put in between the tire and the tube as "extra" protection. Wedge the tire back on the rim, pump it up by hand, and bolt it to the car. Maybe an exaggeration, but it seems like at least one flat a week.

imoldernu: this is proof you really are older than us!

 

[Texas Proud]

There are some puzzles here.

We bought the car in May of 2016, and it had only 500 miles on it. We now have 35K miles on it.

We drop it off at Les Schwabb's and go to Starbucks. We go back, and they had repaired it. I didn't think that would have been possible. I look at the tire, and it's a different brand than the other three. I hadn't bought a new tire for this car. Had it come with the car originally and I hadn't noticed that they were different? Maybe the dealer we'd bought it from had put a used tire on. One of life's mysteries.

I told them I wanted a new tire and I bought one and they put it on.

Surprised you got one... from all that I have read you are supposed to buy two new tires so they are the same size... and always have the same brand on the same axle....


Remember, there can be differences in the circumference of a tire with the same ratio... some have deeper tread than others...

 

[Texas Proud]

I am fine with tires up to 10 years, but rarely get there...


I will be buying a new donut tire for my car that is 9 years old soon... it has never touched the ground but the age is the problem...

 

[Spock]

...

I think we would have noticed if it had been flat in the garage. Do you think it blew out without making a big bang?

Big bangs are just in the movies. I had a front tire go out "suddenly"... the only indication I had was a thrumping noise that was growing louder... I was looking around thinking a UH-1 helicopter was doing a low fly over. The car didn't even pull to one side. The factory tires on the car a little on the low-profile/sporty side. I pulled over the tire was completely flat and the sidewall chewed from the rim wear.

 

[street]

Hard to really tell what had happened good thing is, you weren't driving 80 down the freeway.

After saying that, I will tell you that the experts say to buy all 4 new instead of one new and the other 3 have 35K on them. On small cars the tires will last a lot longer but IMO I would change all 4 at the same time with that many miles on them. If they had 10K maybe I wouldn't then. Just my honest opinion everyone has their own way of thinking on this type of deal.

Glad no one got hurt. I had an Aunt get killed from a bad tire that where almost new less then 2000k on them. It blow and she was killed and had two young boys at home.

 

[chilkoot]

This thread started me wondering about something...

My car was designed with two different size fires, one size in front. another in the rear. As a result they aren’t rotated. So does this mean they are just destined to wear unevenly or are they somehow engineered to avoid this? ...and if so, why aren’t all tires made this way?

 

[Ronstar]

This thread started me wondering about something...

My car was designed with two different size fires, one size in front. another in the rear. As a result they aren’t rotated. So does this mean they are just destined to wear unevenly or are they somehow engineered to avoid this? ...and if so, why aren’t all tires made this way?

With different sizes front and back - tires can be rotated side to side. But if the tires are directional, then they need to be taken off the rims and remounted on the rim on the other side, making sure that the rotation remains the same.

So even though directional tires do wear unevenly, it is considered not worth the expense to rotate by having to remove the tires from the rims and remount on the other side of the car.

 

[Texas Proud]

Big bangs are just in the movies. I had a front tire go out "suddenly"... the only indication I had was a thrumping noise that was growing louder... I was looking around thinking a UH-1 helicopter was doing a low fly over. The car didn't even pull to one side. The factory tires on the car a little on the low-profile/sporty side. I pulled over the tire was completely flat and the sidewall chewed from the rim wear.

Not true... we have had a number of blowouts on our boat trailer and you could easily hear them up front...


Finally bought tires that were rated higher than recommended and (knock on wood) so far no problems...