Had a tire blow out on the freeway last night
06-11-2006, 10:19 PM
#1
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Had a tire blow out on the freeway last night
We had a bad blowout in my wife's Honda CRV on the way home from visiting family last night. These tires were purchased in December and had less than 2,000 miles on them, and I checked the pressures before the day trip - 90 miles before the tire blew. Seconds before the tire let go, the car developed a strong pull to the right. I was in the process of telling my wife that we were going to have to pull over and check the car out when the tire let go. I was thinking that the right front tire had a leak since that is the direction that the car began to pull. I was very surprised to find that the left tire was the one that went.
Given what little is left of the tire, I do not think we will ever really know what happened. I am at a loss to explain why the car began to pull the way it did. There was no vibration and no indication that anything was wrong until seconds before it happened. The car will be going to a body shop tomorrow to see what the extent of the damage is, but from what I can see on the outside the following will need some work:
wheel and tire (obviously)
bumper
headlight
fender
front door
rocker panel
hood
sideview mirror
windshield washer bottle
I can not see what is damaged under the hood because the hood release cable was cut by the flapping tire. There is also a slight coolant leak that appears to be coming from the overflow bottle, but I can not tell for sure.
That was fun...
Given what little is left of the tire, I do not think we will ever really know what happened. I am at a loss to explain why the car began to pull the way it did. There was no vibration and no indication that anything was wrong until seconds before it happened. The car will be going to a body shop tomorrow to see what the extent of the damage is, but from what I can see on the outside the following will need some work:
wheel and tire (obviously)
bumper
headlight
fender
front door
rocker panel
hood
sideview mirror
windshield washer bottle
I can not see what is damaged under the hood because the hood release cable was cut by the flapping tire. There is also a slight coolant leak that appears to be coming from the overflow bottle, but I can not tell for sure.
That was fun...
06-11-2006, 10:29 PM
#6
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This will be covered by insurance, I am not worried about that. I am still just trying to figure out what caused the car to pull right just before it blew a left front tire.
It was a bit of a wild ride when the tire let go at freeway speeds, trying to regain control of a front wheel drive car with a high center of gravity while more or less riding on a rim was real fun...
It was a bit of a wild ride when the tire let go at freeway speeds, trying to regain control of a front wheel drive car with a high center of gravity while more or less riding on a rim was real fun...
06-11-2006, 10:32 PM
#7
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Dan, that sounds like a belt snapped in the tire. The diameter will expand, which will speed up that side and push the car right. I lost one on a Kumho, and while it didn't blow out, it was an immediate nasty change and when I looked inside the tire, it was internally shredded after about 30 seconds of driving.
Glad you two are ok, and it was just some body damage. Easy enough to fix.
Glad you two are ok, and it was just some body damage. Easy enough to fix.
06-11-2006, 10:33 PM
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We had our 1 year old Lab in the car with us also. She slept through the blowout and the 40 minutes we waited on the side of the road for the tow truck. She did not sleep through me moving her from our car to the tow truck for the ride home. I am not sure what was worse, the blowout or carrying a 75 pound struggling dog from one car to another on the side of I-5...
06-11-2006, 10:37 PM
#10
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Originally Posted by sybir
Dan, that sounds like a belt snapped in the tire. The diameter will expand, which will speed up that side and push the car right. I lost one on a Kumho, and while it didn't blow out, it was an immediate nasty change and when I looked inside the tire, it was internally shredded after about 30 seconds of driving.
Glad you two are ok, and it was just some body damage. Easy enough to fix.
Glad you two are ok, and it was just some body damage. Easy enough to fix.
Luckily the Mustang is back on the road and ready for action thanks to the oil cooler and new clutch cable. Marie may be driving the STi for the next week or so. If anyone sees a woman in a silver STi that looks scared sh!tless to be driving said car, please don't point and laugh at her...
06-11-2006, 10:47 PM
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ouch. I've only had a tire blow on me once. I was in my stealth and earlier I had knicked a curb pretty hard while turning and later in the night I was driving home (65-70 mph) and it sounded like I was on the lane line so I moved over bit and still heard it so I pulled over and my tire was ****ed 
06-11-2006, 10:51 PM
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dude, its ok. you can just be honest that you were street drift racing and the massive heat from the mach 3 speeds caused the blow out. we wont make fun of you, too much anyways.
06-11-2006, 10:52 PM
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Originally Posted by TitanSTI
dude, its ok. you can just be honest that you were street race drifting and the massive heat from the mach 3 speeds caused the blow out. we wont make fun of you, too much anyways.
06-11-2006, 10:53 PM
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Originally Posted by TitanSTI
dude, its ok. you can just be honest that you were street drift racing and the massive heat from the mach 3 speeds caused the blow out. we wont make fun of you, too much anyways.