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Car tire blew

rouar

fixer
Admin
Joined
Mar 18, 2001
Messages
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Location
Nashua NH
So last night my friend gave me a ride back to Somerville in his family's '04 MB C240. We're on the Pike in the fast lane (going 75, no more) and suddenly hear a loud rumbling so he quickly pulls over on the left side. Cop came by and escorted us to the right side of the highway.

Any idea why a tire might do this? The car has 11K miles but for the past 2K or so has never been driven on the highway. It's ripped completely around the tire except maybe six inches.

Funny how in the very first week my AAA membership runs out, there are two circumstances where I could use it. (We can change a tire lol but it was dark and just more convenient for them to.)
 

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Time to roll the fenders!:laugh:

My first guess would be improper inflation, do you know the last time the pressure was checked?
 
considering how fast you were going, it could have just been the fact that the tire lost air quickly and the distance it was driven on was enough to cut thru the sidewall.
 
Punk! Elky's probably right. Check the tread or edges of the tread for somthing that might have caused the tire to deflate rapidly.
 
It appears the tire was outa tread..notice the edges, they are completely bald and for 11K miles, thats kinda weird..that will happen if there in tread :shrug:
 
they do look kinda thin, but the pics don't really show the tread depth well.

it doesnt take much to chew thru the sidewall of a tire. especially at 75 mph
 
Maybe a bubble in the tire. That can always happen, especially with the warm/cold weather we've been having. Rubber expands and contracts enough especially while driving it could cause the tire to just develop weak spots. I have a bubble in one of my tires that definitely wasn't there a few weeks ago.
 
Thanks for the ideas guys. We'll check the tire pressure on the other tires before he brings it back to Worcester. Probably bring it to the dealer and demand all four be replaced (regardless how the other three are). It is his grandmother's car and he's actually quite glad it happened to us and not her.

Ryan - drifting is next to impossible in this car, that suspension is probably the floatiest I've ever ridden in! Now that I think about it he did chirp the tires a tiny bit when coming out of an intersection (which reminded me the car is RWD) so that tire may have just been low.
 
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I say fill it back up and check for leaks.....

you can throw something at me now.

It does almost look like it was low, kind hard to tell in pics but the outter treads looks like it might have more wear on it.
 
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