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Tire blowout question

D

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
So this one's a bit past my pay grade. Family member purchased this car, supposedly new tires (looks that way from tread depth). Random blowout while driving on the highway. Given that it blew out on both sides, I'm almost inclined to say overpressurization, but I've *never* seen anything like this. Thoughts?
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Answer - The tire most likely did not "blow out" and instead lost air to the point where it went flat. Had the driver paid attention at that point they could have pulled over and perhaps had a reusable tire.

The damage you see in the pics is what a tire will look like if you continue to drive on a flat tire. The damage pattern probalbly aligns to the construction\design of the tire.
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Very possible, it sounded very sudden from the description given, but it's possible it started smaller and was driven on far longer than it should have been.
 
Was it mounted with the Radials the "wrong way"? I think that there are certain tires that are only supposed to be mounted "one way".
 
VirtualLarry said:
Was it mounted with the Radials the "wrong way"? I think that there are certain tires that are only supposed to be mounted "one way".
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Unknown. I wouldn't expect explosive results though, even from an incorrectly mounted unidirectional tire, especially only a day or so after purchase.
 
It is most likely that the rim was pitted and they did an inadequate job of applying sealant so it lost pressure too fast to notice ahead of complete failure, OR the driver is oblivious to the handling of a vehicle so didn't notice how bad it was until it was too late.
 
It's not likely to have been over-inflation. Any tire that loses air pressure at highway speeds is going to look like that in short order. The damage is caused from the no longer pressurized sidewall flopping around violently while spinning at over 600 RPM with ~1000 lbs of weight sitting on it. I think it would be above even most car expert's pay grade to be able to definitively determine the cause from examining that tire.

Edit: Date code looks like 2019, so not exactly new, but not old enough to be of concern either.
 
Not a blowout, but running a flat too long, as others like pauldun170 have said. Maybe it got a nail or some other random piece of metal. That might still be in there.
 
Awesome, thanks for the reasoned responses. She stated that she had to travel a short bit to get off the highway (I don't think it had an adequate shoulder) so that probably did the damage we're seeing. Sealant failure leading to lost pressure sounds reasonable to me!
 
[DHT]Osiris said:
Awesome, thanks for the reasoned responses. She stated that she had to travel a short bit to get off the highway (I don't think it had an adequate shoulder) so that probably did the damage we're seeing. Sealant failure leading to lost pressure sounds reasonable to me!
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Road trash has a way of piercing tires. I got one that was irregularly shaped but it still pierced the tire. Pressure would drop rapidly in 15-20 minutes. It wasn't the only time. Once a screw did it, and another time, a nail. I bought a plug kit from Harbor Freight and the tool bent itself but I was able to get it plugged, and then I promptly returned that shitty tool. . I posted a thread about it here. https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/harbor-freight-tire-plug-kit-is-a-fail.2591350/#post-40453212
 
It's been a very long time since I got a flat from road debris, but if I were in an area where that was common, I'd just get the tire package with insurance against that, especially if you have an AWD/4WD and that insurance covers getting all new matching diameter tires, though it usually doesn't.
 
^ Nevermind, I just had too many browser tabs open at once and posted thinking this was another, different topic, lol. Edited to fix that. The post in question was from a different topic.
 
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Torn Mind said:
Road trash has a way of piercing tires. I got one that was irregularly shaped but it still pierced the tire. Pressure would drop rapidly in 15-20 minutes. It wasn't the only time. Once a screw did it, and another time, a nail. I bought a plug kit from Harbor Freight and the tool bent itself but I was able to get it plugged, and then I promptly returned that shitty tool. . I posted a thread about it here. https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/harbor-freight-tire-plug-kit-is-a-fail.2591350/#post-40453212
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Harbor Freight is renowned for their single-use (or almost single-use) tools. Yet sometimes I have had good enough luck with their junk. It's a crapshoot.
 
crashtech said:
Harbor Freight is renowned for their single-use (or almost single-use) tools. Yet sometimes I have had good enough luck with their junk. It's a crapshoot.
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Hit-or-miss indeed. One of their old Pittsburgh screwdrivers was actually a "perfect fit" for taking apart laptops for me. But I doubt such performance is replicable.

But even a Walmart Slime plug kit and tool held up when I had to do the plug repair years prior; I don't know where I misplaced it.
 
mindless1 said:
It is most likely that the rim was pitted and they did an inadequate job of applying sealant so it lost pressure too fast to notice ahead of complete failure, OR the driver is oblivious to the handling of a vehicle so didn't notice how bad it was until it was too late.
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Please help an old man who has never seen rim sealant put on a tire/wheel combination when the tire's being installed. Could you point out an example of that sealant....I've literally never seen it used on any tire I've had installed. Guess I'm lucky?
 
Meghan54 said:
Please help an old man who has never seen rim sealant put on a tire/wheel combination when the tire's being installed. Could you point out an example of that sealant....I've literally never seen it used on any tire I've had installed. Guess I'm lucky?
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It's also possible that the tire was defective or punctured by road debris, or curbed and the sidewall blew out, or sharks with frikin lasers attached to their heads . 😉

 
I think that's a combination of driving on a flat AND the tire itself being dryrotted. If the vehicle is parked and cycles through enough hot/cold days in the elements, it can really do a number of the rubber. Not all tires are create equal too. You should consider replacing your tires every 6 years according to the folks I've talked to. I actually got 11 out of the ones on my truck that only had 33k miles on them, but the rubber was cracking enough in places that I put up the $600 to replace them. Rubber gets old.

I actually had that happen to my pontoon trailer tire YESTERDAY. The tire was underinflated....which is more likely the cause for a blowout...but additionally, the tires were over 10 years old, so they likely are due for replacement anyhow considering the 2+ ton weight of the trailer + boat.

I was pretty lucky because I had just pulled the boat out and was still on the ramp when it blew out. I just backed up and launched the boat again to get the weight off the trailer. There was a guy there that saw me having trouble and gave me a wheel and tire he had in his truck that fit my trailer. I was then able to swap it out in the parking lot.

I then hopped in my boat and drove it back to my boathouse to fetch my 6 gallon pancake air compressor/tank. I drove 8 miles round trip on the lake to get the compressor/tank and topped off the tires....then got the boat out of there and on the trailer. It worked out. I'm going to be replacing those tires this Fall, from the looks of it...just to put new rubber on there.
 
Man, around these parts we replace trailer tires at 5-6 years too. It's only thing if you're hauling around town but on a lonesome highway...not worth the risk.
 
I had a blowout about two weeks ago at 65-70 mph, was on a curve at night so I drove another 1/10 mile or so. My tire looked nothing like that but then again some people's definition of driving "a bit" may be substantially different from mine.

BTW my view on road hazard insurance (at least what Tire Rack sells) is that it is far less than what you think it is. I got a plug done a year or so ago-they paid only $25 (maximum coverage). They will cover only the damaged tire, even though you must replace at least two. And the documentation they require is really obsessive-you have to put them on notice before you get the tire replaced or repaired, for example.

Not-so-fun-fact: Apparently you can no longer buy new donut spares. This is crazy in my view. After driving since the early 70s with maybe 1-2 flats before the donut was eliminated, I've had two puncture flats and one blowout in my new car(Nov 2020 purchase) where all I have is a can of sealant.
 
Thump553 said:
I had a blowout about two weeks ago at 65-70 mph, was on a curve at night so I drove another 1/10 mile or so. My tire looked nothing like that but then again some people's definition of driving "a bit" may be substantially different from mine.

BTW my view on road hazard insurance (at least what Tire Rack sells) is that it is far less than what you think it is. I got a plug done a year or so ago-they paid only $25 (maximum coverage). They will cover only the damaged tire, even though you must replace at least two. And the documentation they require is really obsessive-you have to put them on notice before you get the tire replaced or repaired, for example.

Not-so-fun-fact: Apparently you can no longer buy new donut spares. This is crazy in my view. After driving since the early 70s with maybe 1-2 flats before the donut was eliminated, I've had two puncture flats and one blowout in my new car(Nov 2020 purchase) where all I have is a can of sealant.
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My 2021 VW came with a spare. Most Honda's come with a spare.
 
Any idea where to buy donut spares for a 2020 Prius Prime, fifteen inch wheel. Tirerack doesn't sell them, ebay has very few donuts for any car and at sky-high prices, none at Amazon. Would like new if at all possible versus something a decade old with dryrot.
 
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