Tire Blowout

DRW1000 · #1 10-16-2004, 10:19 AM

Well I ignored the warning signs for too long. I meant to get new tires for the front of my car but always put it off until "Next week".

Yesterday I had a front tire blow on me while I was travelling at 110 KM/Hour. Fortunately I was able to get to the curb lane and onto the shoulder without incident. There was a transport in the curb lane who I think figured out what was going on and eased up to allow me to get in front of him and off the highway.

I hope someone can learn from my incident "Don't put off until tommorrow what you can do today"

Anyway I am going to get a new pair of tires. Since I have factory alluminum rims I was wondering if it is possible to request that all of the wieghts be placed on the inside of the rim (vehicle side). I always heard people say that they instructed the installer to do this and of course not to chew up the outside but I am unsure if they balance from inside to outside too.

Thanks

ModMech · #2 10-16-2004, 10:48 AM

Yes, you can balance on the inside only. In fact, you can use "stick on" weights on the inner "falt" of the rim (as opposed to the lip) near the centerline or even off-set as needed. Most decent quality new tires require very little balancing, so this rarely poses any problem.

12Ounce · #3 10-16-2004, 11:05 AM

DRW
Glad there were no complications to the blow-out. But I'm curious, could low inflation pressure, possibly caused by small leak, have played into the blow-out ... or had the tire worn beyond the indicators?

I currently have tires that have over 100k miles on them --- have not quite yet reached the indicators, but I'm concerned about them planing in rain or winter slush.

wiswind · #4 10-16-2004, 03:19 PM

12Ounce,
Are those Michelin tires?.....I have Michelin tires....over 60K miles on them....not to tread indicators yet....but they have serious loss of traction on wet roads. I was upset about it until I thought about it and realized that I have so many miles on them and any tire is going to show it's age after 60K miles.... Still felt funny replacing them with so much tread on them.

I bought a pair of Michelin "Harmony" tires... And plan to buy another pair before snow sets in. I think that they are a great tire for the Windstar.

I read the reviews that people wrote on www.tirerack.com and it seemed that the reviewers who drove Minivans and other larger vehicles seemed to like the "Harmony" better than the higher rated Michelin tire. And the Harmony seems to have a more agressive tread for snow. Anyhow....they do ride very nice...and seem to grip the road very well so far. They were $102(US) per tire mounted, ballanced, etc.

I think that this is a very timely time for us northerners to give our tires a good look.

DRW1000 · #5 10-16-2004, 04:41 PM

Being from Toronto (In the great white north) we appreciate tires that work well in the snow and of course we get our share of rain, sleet and hot weather too.

We put the Harmonys (all 4) on my wife's Venture and I agree they seem to be a very good tire.

12 Ounce
Now that I look at the tire I see that it was worn on the outsides and still has soem tread in the middle. Evidence of low pressure. I also found a nail in the tire that must have contributed to a small leak and I did air air a couple of weeks ago.

12Ounce · #6 10-16-2004, 05:17 PM

Wiswind
Yes, they are regular "X" Michelins. And I have had one occasion of hydroplaning whilst crossing a flooded intersection and was forced to do some emergency braking. By the way, I live in the lower RH corner... land of wind and rain. Those "Harmonys" sound interesting ... don't believe I've seen them yet, but will investigate.

DRW
Low pressure will take its toll ... it's taken me a while to learn, but I am finally now very diligent on keeping air in tires. I'm surprised that the "X's" wear perfectly flat using 40 psi...not the Ford recommended pressure.

DRW1000 · #7 10-16-2004, 05:32 PM

12 Ounce,

I learned my lesson..................very cheaply too. It could have been much worse.

rodeo02 · #8 10-17-2004, 11:23 AM

DRW1000- It's good to hear you made it out of that one okay! I had to replace the front two factory generals on my 2001 LX @ 36000 miles. They rumbled horribly, started to form bubbles on the sidewalls & had lousy (Buffalo NY) traction. The rear two will need changing shortly. These general brand tires would have probably lasted longer, but it appears that the previous owner didn't rotate them much. Just out of curiosity DRW- does your windstar have the *low tire pressure* warning system? My 2001 has it & I have NO idea how this system works, or if it works at all!

Joel

DRW1000 · #9 10-20-2004, 07:40 PM

Joel,

No my Star does not have that feature.

So you are my neighbour in Buffalo eh? Well we will get our tires tested for the next few months .......lol

12Ounce · #10 03-26-2005, 09:41 PM

I finally (today) have new Michelin Hydroedges on my Winnie. Ordered them during a sales promotion back in mid-January. Michelin had a production problem... tires were back-ordered. I've been sweating it ... reached a couple of the wear indicators on the old X's .... well over 110 kmiles.

The Hydroedges ride much better than the X's. ...are warrantied for 90 kmiles.

A couple interesting things about Costco:
. They inflate tires with nitrogen.
. Their warranty covers no tire wear ... only covers road hazards for the warranty period.

Dakota00 · #11 03-26-2005, 10:35 PM

I've been putting off changing the tires on the Windstar. It only has 51,000kms and these Factory Uniroyal's tires can't grip for crap

BTW, DRW1000 I live just north of you in Woodbridge.

DRW1000 · #12 03-27-2005, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dakota00

I've been putting off changing the tires on the Windstar. It only has 51,000kms and these Factory Uniroyal's tires can't grip for crap

BTW, DRW1000 I live just north of you in Woodbridge.

Actually Dakota I live in Mississauga (but who would have heard of that). I work in TO and in fact I drive through Woodbridge every morning on my way to work. Nice town that Woodbridge. I remember when it was just the "hill" at Islington and 7. In fact that hill is where I learned ho to use a clutch. I used the parking brake, gas pedal and clutch to avoid rolling back until I finally figured it out.
I remember the Canadian tire looked like 1/2 of a correcgated storm sewer pipe. (I don' know if you go back that far but this would have been in the 70's).

Dakota00 · #13 03-27-2005, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRW1000

Actually Dakota I live in Mississauga (but who would have heard of that). I work in TO and in fact I drive through Woodbridge every morning on my way to work. Nice town that Woodbridge. I remember when it was just the "hill" at Islington and 7. In fact that hill is where I learned ho to use a clutch. I used the parking brake, gas pedal and clutch to avoid rolling back until I finally figured it out.
I remember the Canadian tire looked like 1/2 of a correcgated storm sewer pipe. (I don' know if you go back that far but this would have been in the 70's).

Funny thing I work in Mississauga at Mclaughlin/Derry Rd

That hill has it's share of deadly accidents and in the winter it's a nightmare. Great place to learn stick. LOL!!!
I moved to Woodbridge in the mid-80's and live more near Weston rd & Hwy 7 Oh and I don't go back that far, I was born in 1979.

Anthony

garync1 · #14 03-27-2005, 10:27 AM

I would aviod the stick on weights they tend to come off easier than the rim tap kind, they can put them on the inside as well. If you ever want to hold off on replacement of tires because of any reason.Just make sure you keep the best ones on the front. When your front tires go in a blow out it can be hard to handle and very dangerous. Any time you can see the cords of the tire you are riding on the breaker, that is the ply part of the tire the next thing under that is the inner liner.I have seen this many times and people dont think that they are only 1mm from the tire blowing.Depending on the tire they can be less than that. Just a note. gary

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