Damage to car tyre

[LMH]

Hi

I have copied this from another forum I go on (with the posters permission).

He was wondering if anyone could possibily suggest what might have caused the damage sustained to the tyre.

The tyre has done 5000 miles and he was travelling at 70mph when it happened. Weather conditions were good and dry.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Lisa

 

[Angus1]

Any sudden deflation when travelling at 70mph would have caused this, as by the time you stop from that speed the tyre ( and sometimes the rim) will be totalled.

Unless a foreign body can be found in the tyre (I could be non P.C here!) I would suggest the problem has been caused by under inflation. I see all too regularly people driving on tyres so devoid of pressure it MUST affect the cars behaviour, yet they continue on, oblivious. By the time they do something about it, the structural damage is done, and any failure will likely be catastrophic.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Lisa

I fully concur with Angus on this one. It is not possible to tell what has caused the deflation, but an under inflated tyre is very vulnerable to sidewall damage.

What ever we say is pure speculation but perhaps the tyre had been under inflated some time in its past, and even though the tyre may have been fully inflated the stress of the high speed journey simply caused the failure.

 

[Steve L]

Hi Lisa.

John and Angus are quite right you may never realy get to the bottom of what caused it to blow.

However on looking at your photo, I notice that the tyre was on the back left side of your car. One possability is that some time previously you may of caught a kerb stone and subsequently a smanll knick could of occurred in the side wall of the tyre. Then when you are travelling at speed the inertia and heat build up could of caused the split to grow and blow out. You mention the road conditions being good and dry, the dry bit could of also added the little extra heat generation to set it off.

I had a simlar situation yesterday. I had to swerve to avoid some pratt on a motor bike doing such speed that he could not stay on his own side of the road. In doing so, I kerbed my left front wheel on a moderately step'd grass verge. I heard a noise like a stone hitting the underside of the car. I stopped to investigate and a good job too, as there was now a huge blister in the side wall of the tyre as big as a tennis ball.

Of coarse boy wonder on the motor bike was no where to be seen, and probably a good job for him anyway!!

If you have three other tyres of all the same age/make on the car it might be worth doing a quick visual check each day for a month or two just incase there is a manufacturing fault present. It's highly un-likely but it would pay to be vidulant. It shouldn't take more than 5 mins to do and might save you money and also be a safety factor too.

Steve L.

 

[Royston]

Hi Lisa,

Doing my weekly tyre pressure checks i noticed that the front near side was 2 psi less less than the off side front, looked around tyhe tyre could not see anything unusual, put it down to the various speed bumps around here where you have to spot on to clear both wheels from the bumps, designed to enable the busses to clear them.

Had my car mot and serviced last week, when I went to collect

the garage foreman told me that they had to fit a new tyre on the front nearside,as a nail had penertrated the inside area of the tyre tread just before the wall of the tyre, it was hidden by the tread cover but what brought there attention to it was slight bulge in the wall tyre.

He did mention that alloy wheels are a lot harder for sealing than steel wheels , as corrosion on the part where the tyre seals to wheel can be pitted.

Royston

 

[LMH]

Hi

Thanks for your replies and thoughts on this. I will copy what you have posted and email it to him.

Thanks again.

Lisa