My sisters tire blew out

[Jon K]

Hey guys - my sisters tire blew out, thankfully at low speed - she drives I95 at higher speed and thank goodness it happened at low.

It looks to me as if the tire pressure was real low - both the inside and outside sidewall is worn. The lettering of "Kumho" is plainly gone. The steel belts wore thru on the inside and blew out but luckily the wheel is fine. This is a Kumho Ecsta 712 255/40/17 mounted on a Rondell #58 17x10 rim.

I personally think it was low tire pressure, but what do you guys think? She's since been told and learned to check her tire pressure and paying more attention to and respecting the car.

[SnakeyesTx]

This looks a lot like the tire was flat before the drive and the sidewall was being ridden on by the bead. A couple years ago I drove to school, and went all the way home and noticed that I had these weird black lines from my driveway and out on the street. The lines clearly showed me backing out, then taking off. Found out I drove the 3 miles (60 mph+ on the backroad for most of that trip) to school and BACK on a flat tire and the sidewall took the whole trip. Rim was perfectly fine. Scared the hell outta me once I realized what happened.

[tim s]

tim s.

[SC David]

That is really odd wear. Almost looks like she was riding along a low curb for a mile at speed.

[genphreak]

That is really odd wear. Almost looks like she was riding along a low curb for a mile at speed.

If she drove a little way after the blowout, that wear could have happened following it... I know it seems unbelievable, but some people don't notice such things, not that your Sis is likely to do so of course... just a possibility.

[nizmainiac]

a slow puncture would cause that, but it looks to me like the tyre hasn't been run flat for very long, i've seen them alot worse than that in my time

[BMW 5 SERIES]

It happens to me also. I drove a 350 km distance with my tire in low pressure. Because of the low profiles I didn’t understand the luck of pressure and there were several times during my journey that I reach speeds up to 240 Km/h. I don’t even want to imagine what will happen if the tire blow in such speeds. After that in order to be more certain about the tire pressures I install a devise that gives me the tires pressure and temperature on a monitor.

[nizmainiac]

thats a good idea, where did you get your pressure monitor system from?

[BMW 5 SERIES]

I bought the system two years ago from a local dealer in Greece were I live. The system consists from 5 wireless valve senders and one control unit which displays continuously when engine running the pressure and the temperature of all four tires plus the spare wheel.

[nizmainiac]

do you have to put the wheels back in the same place ? ie you cant swop them around? the renault lagunas are the same , if you do swap them about it confuses the computer