Tire Blow Out....

[Rick-n-Miami]

Well, starting off to be a not-so-good New Years weekend. Among other things, I was heading northbound on Florida's Turnpike enroute to a little Tower Shoppes car meet when my driver's side rear tire blew out. I must of hit something in the road (although I did not see a thing before or after).

When it blew, I heard and felt the explosion and car jolted to the side a bit, but it was strange because I didn't hear or feel much of anything afterwards. I knew something was wrong, but it wasn't the expected flat tire "flapping" or anything of the sort. I was doing about 70-75mph and was able to get over to the right shoulder OK.

When I got out, I saw this:

http://www.gideonart.com/mm/tiredamage_12292006.jpg


Looks like something sliced into the sidewall and made a nice little hole large enough to put your fist through. Also, made a nice dent into the rim (a widened rim at that).

I will say that the tire held up quite well with no air pressure. It stayed solid under the rim and kept the car usable long enough to get out of harms way without damaging the rim.

So now, I'll rip off the tire in the morning and see what damage was done to the rim itself and see if it can be repaired or not...

yay....

[GAMike]

That rots Rick........ Sorry to hear that, but thank God it hit on the rear and not on the front could have been a mess.

Since your wheel was widened, you may want to look into getting it professionally examined under one of those laser scopes that can look at the integrity of the welds to see how they held up.

Hopfully the tire shielded the rim from any more damage than what you showed us. Good luck and keep us posted.

Best regards,

[Bluerauder]

I was doing about 70-75mph and was able to get over to the right shoulder OK.

Looks like something sliced into the sidewall and made a nice little hole large enough to put your fist through. Also, made a nice dent into the rim (a widened rim at that). ...

Glad that you are OK, Rick and that you were able to keep control of the MM. :up: Sure looks like it was a pretty large piece of debris that you hit to do that amount of damage to the tire and the wheel. :(

Seems something that large would have been easy to spot, maybe not if it was low profile .... Any chance something came off your car? :dunno:

[ghost03]

Was it the same tire you plugged at Johns house a few weeks ago? Im sorry you had to deal with that BS but at least you were able to pull over safely and not damage the car in any way...

[MM2004]

That definiately sucks Rick. :(

Glad you handled the car down to a complete stop without incident. :coolman:

The exact same thing happened to me in my 01 GM years back.

Scary situation, and please keep us posted.

Mike.

[RoyLPita]

Rick, keep us posted, please.

[Hotrauder]

That is ugly, Rick. Glad you got it down under control. Flat Rears can be a bear at speed as you may know. I am impressed with how well the Nitto handles sans air. I once hit a 4" long peice of 1.5" angle iron and it ended up inside the rear tire. It doesn't take much if you hit it wrong. Good luck. Dennis

[Cobra25]

It's good to hear that you didn't get hurt which is the the most important thing. You handeled it very well. Good to see you got home fine Rick.

[merc]

Was it the same tire you plugged at Johns house a few weeks ago? Im sorry you had to deal with that BS but at least you were able to pull over safely and not damage the car in any way...

Can you put a plug on Z rated tires ? Glad you are ok.

[the_pack_rat]

That sucks - but as most have already said ......

I'm glad to see the injuries were limited to the tire & wheel.

I thought such an occurrence was gonna take my life when I was @ 8 yrs old.

A rainy Friday afternoon siting in the back of my father's car going around a curve on the highway - the RR tire blew out & we did a 180 slamming into a guardrail facing on-coming traffic. I could have rolled down the window & stuck my tongue out & touched the guardrail with it after was all said & done.

Physical injury tally :

Me - my father - his friend ?.

ZERO - none of us were wearing seat belts either ... I got thrown around the back seat like a barbie doll.

The Olds ?.

After jumping a curb & bouncing off the guardrail .....

Miraculously(ok more like EERILY) ...

(2) blown tires - 2 bent wheels - 2 missing wheel covers & absolutely NO body damage other than chipped paint ...... not even a crease or so much as a ding that I recall.

When people refer to cars & they say "they don't make em' like they used to" ..... they really mean it.

I really thought we were goners as that car was spinning around & I saw that guardrail coming at us.

If only drunken Teddy had slammed his 67 Delmont 88 into a guardrail instead of dunking it in the Chappaquiddick ... Mary Jo Kopechne might have been as lucky as we were.

[JMan]

Oh Rick, I'm so sorry! I hate to see anything happen to your beauty. At least there's no other damage and after a minor monetary set back, you'll be as good as new! I hate debris on the roadways!!!:mad2:

Happy New Years,

J

[Rick-n-Miami]

I'm going to take the tire off today and inspect the rim closer to see if it can be repaired. I have another set of widened rims with new drag radials on them, so I'm going to see if I can get those to fit properly today while I get the other set worked on.

I'll keep everyone posted.

[MarauderTJA]

Tires and wheels can be replaced. Glad to hear that you and the car handled it well. Could have been worse Rick.

[jabird56]

Glad your OK and the tire performed in that extreme environment. A little duct tape and it'll be as good as new.....:)

Your safe, that's what counts!

[Rick-n-Miami]

I went out an inspected the car in daylight and the good news is that there isn't any obvious damage to the car (other than the rim).

However, while standing behind the car, I did get a little laugh out of the situation. These donut's look funny next to the big Nitto's. I wonder what two of these in the rear would do down the track? :)

http://www.gideonart.com/mm/donut.jpg

[Merc-O-matic]

Rick, Glad to hear you are OK and no damage to the car.
Get some new rubber for the the NEW YEAR!

"Happy New Year"

[RoyLPita]

I went out an inspected the car in daylight and the good news is that there isn't any obvious damage to the car (other than the rim).

However, while standing behind the car, I did get a little laugh out of the situation. These donut's look funny next to the big Nitto's. I wonder what two of these in the rear would do down the track? :)


You can forget about going down at all. I had a set of 14" misc 4cyl tires and wheels on a 1990 LX 5.0 Notch w/5spd. With one blip of the throttle, I had it sideways in no time.

[94_302]

Glad your ok and that only the rim was damaged. Your right the spare out back does look funny next to the nitto.

[Rick-n-Miami]

Good news is I think the rim is repairable. Doesn't seem to be out of balance/bent, etc. Time will tell when the repair guy takes a look at it next week.

I took the other set of widened rims I have (mounted with the drag radials) and they fit fine now. So, the car is operational again. Drives fine, so no damage to anything.

[StevenJ]

Rick, that rim definitely looks repairable. I did a number on mine a while back and it had far more scratches, etc. Well could have been worse but nothing too bad happened. Nice to know that there was no damage and you are doing good.

Oh, you will have to send that rim to a machine shop. Try Wheels America. They did a decent job on mine.

http://www.fixrim.com/

The one I went to is in Miami.

[Smokie]

Rick the main thing is nothing bad happened to you, Happy New Year my friend.:beer:

[ckadiddle]

Hew track rule:
Supercharged guys must run donut spares on both back wheels to give the rest of us a fighting chance to keep up.
:)

[BigCars4Ever]

Rick, Just a word of advice. Don't use the donought spare for more than 50 mile cause it's not good for the limited slip since it's nowhere near the same diameter.

[RoyLPita]

I pointed that out to Rick when he declined to borrow my "spare rear" tire.

At least we are on the same wavelength on this subject.

[Rick-n-Miami]

I know that. I used the donut for all of 20 feet :)

[SID210SA]

First of all....glad you are OKay. I didnt have a blow out but I did get a flat on the front passenger side. The steering wheel started to vibrate a little and that was the only hint that anything was wrong.....I got a nail in the tire on the center of the tread and it went flat....apperantly it was flat for a little while for when I finally stopped the side wall was chewed thru....so the tire was ruined....but no loss of control or steering issues. I had on the factory tires on so it may not just be the tire that is good and strong but could also have to do with the stance and weight dist. of the Marauder....just my :twocents:

[ckadiddle]

First of all....glad you are OKay. I didnt have a blow out but I did get a flat on the front passenger side. The steering wheel started to vibrate a little and that was the only hint that anything was wrong.....I got a nail in the tire on the center of the tread and it went flat....apperantly it was flat for a little while for when I finally stopped the side wall was chewed thru....so the tire was ruined....but no loss of control or steering issues. I had on the factory tires on so it may not just be the tire that is good and strong but could also have to do with the stance and weight dist. of the Marauder....just my :twocents:

WIDER is BETTER! :D