Team-BHP - How to handle (and prevent) a Tyre Burst / Blowout

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 3607296)

I agree. They seem to completely disregards the advise of every car and tyre manufacturer that for high speed driving you would typically inflate your tyres by 5-8 psi over the normal cold air tyre pressure.

If anything low pressure leads to excessive heat generation, subsequent higher air pressure.
Jeroen

Regarding the second point, I feel it is the higher flexing of the tyre sidewall at low tyre pressures, which when repeated for every turn of the tyre particularly at higher speeds rips the tyre apart eventually, and not the heat related pressure build up.

Agree with the first point. I always maintain 5 psi more for the highway drives in my Xylo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mooza (Post 3612833)

It is a combination really, the higher flexing is actually what generates the heat. The heat subsequently weakens the integrity and structure of the tyre even more. Then BOOM!

Jeroen

A link on another thread just brought me here. Very useful information!

I read through the first three pages of practical advice and warnings. I am certainly guilty of not checking tire pressures weekly. I even remember being taught that one should visually check the tires before every journey!

My Polo reminds me that front tire pressures are getting low by noticable increase in weight on the steering, but after this happens, it does not get much worse as the pressure reduces even further with a slow puncture. Recently, I drove up the road to the petrol bunk, and was astonished to see the meter, for one tire, starting at zero! I had no idea, but I would have done if I had looked before driving.

Of course, a slow puncture is a different story to the possibly-catastrophic blowout, but, if I had taken a different route on a faster road it might easily have cost, at the very least, an alloy wheel

It turned out that the tire had two punctures, and, one being very close to the corner of the tire, was declared unsafe for repair. That's in accordance with the good advice given earlier in the thread.

I was neglectful. Luckily the price of that neglect was small, but it could have been much worse.

Last night, I was reminded by my family that I had suffered a tyre blowout once! It was so undramatic that I actually remember the damaged alloy rim (see a reference to this in my C220 ownership thread) more than the tyre blowout!

So, me & Dad are driving back from Goa. This was in 2007 or so. We're on the old Goa-Mumbai highway and about 2 hours away from Chiplun. Driving at about 100 - 120 kph, I suddenly hear a loud P-O-P and pull over. See the rear tyre (right one, IIRC) completely busted. Switched to the space saver spare and drove on. Stopped at a tyre shop close by and saw that the alloy wheel had a hole in it the size of a coin :Shockked:

The car didn't slide, there was no drama at all.....reason? ESP. The electronics kept the car in a straight line.

From my ownership thread, I see that the rim replacement cost 27K and was covered by insurance.

I have had at least two experiences of tyre burst - or what I call rapid deflation.
The first instance was in Philadelphia - when I had damaged the sidewall on my corolla's front right tyre (at about 35 mph, when cornerning). That time, I managed to control the car quite well, and managed to get the vehicle to a complete stop on the side of the road. Luckily AAA was not too far away, and they helped me get on my way quickly.

The second instance was outside Muzaffarnagar, UP where I got a nail in one of the front tyres (those days was running on inner tube) when driving at around 80 kph on a fully loaded car (5 people + a trunk full of luggage). It was because of the inertia, that the car behaved. The front sagged suddenly, and speed rapidly decreased. Luckily the puncture had happened in proximity to a petrol pump-so I could get off the road quickly and get help.
I guess the worst possible thing that one does when encountering sudden deflation is hit the brakes - but that can actually be counter productive and unsafe.

IIRC, I had tightened my grip on the steering - and that's about the only thing I did. This helped me to keep the car in a straight line. By the time realization had set in, the car had anyway slowed to a crawl speed.

My car & tyres are just about 1 month old and yesterday discovered a small (and not too deep) cut on the sidewall of the left front wheel. Is this a cause for concern? I don't know how it could have happened. Nothing happened while driving that I can remember. Will this be covered by warranty? I have to go and check with the dealer.

One of my colleagues was killed in an accident last week on Chennai bypass road. It was a 5 DAYS old Maruti Ritz driven by his friend. While she had belted up, he hadn't. The car had flipped over twice and landed upside down on the road divider. Reason : apparently, its tyre had burst !
Now how can a tyre of a car whose delivery was taken 5 days before burst? This was the conundrum. And the answer was shocking and was a simple foolish human error.... Apparently, anticipating long wait times at the yard, the dealer personnel pump in air in the tyres to a count of ~60 instead of the normal 30/32...and this is normal practise at all dealer yards, it seems..... And in this particular case they had done the same thing, but forgotten to deflate it to normal tyre pressure before delivery.... The result ? The poor unsuspecting girl is fighting for her life in hospital and her colleague is dead !!!
So please do add another pre-delivery check item to the list.......

That is a really sad situation. Condolences to the family of the deceased, and strength to the one who is in the hospital.

When we took delivery of our new i20 last Saturday, we got the tire pressure checked immediately at the Shell station.

And, not to our surprise, the tires were over inflated by huge extent! They were at 45 psi!

Thankfully, folks here had warned us that tires are always over-inflated at delivery, so we got it checked. I'm glad to say that this could have been us, had it not been for Team-Bhp!

Very sad incident. Looks like dealers do the PDI just for the sake of formality without actually checking anything. I clearly remember my Zen's case which was delivered some 13 years ago. The tires were inflated over 50 psi! In fact, I drove quite a few kms before noticing it!

Regards,
Saket.

Sad to hear this. I have seen this issue after car servicing as well. Once my Dzire tires were inflated to 45 psi on both the front tires. From then on I make sure that the air pressure is checked in front of me whether it is in service centers or local tire shops.

That's really a sad incident. May the departed soul rest in peace!!

PDI is just for namesake in our country. I remember all the new cars we have bought till now had their tyres inflated in excess of 45PSi.

Seems to be a norm which all dealers follow across India. Manufacturers should atleast make all dealers check these basic, yet important things before delivering new cars.

Regards

Sad Incident.

Can experts throw some light as to in any way the company or the dealership can be held accountable in any way. I guess they can't be because they can always claim as soon as the car goes out of their premises that the owner has filled air outside.
So yes we have to be careful in this regard too.

Very sad. My sincere condolences to the deceased and her family.
Like the above members, I had a similar experience when we bought our E class in March. Tyres were over inflated to 40 psi instead of the manufacturer recommended 32psi. This is not a one off incident, my friend had a similar history with his E class too.
To conclude even the luxury cars are not spared from the lack of PDI.