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-   -   2 tyres of my MG Hector burst on the Samriddhi Expressway (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/264098-2-tyres-my-mg-hector-burst-samriddhi-expressway.html)

I have never imagined to be stranded with two flat tyres simultaneously. While I share the details, I also need opinions from experts hence dividing my post into following sections: -

1. Incident details
2. Three tyre bursts in last three months / 3000 KM's
3. Which new tyres?
4. Current status
5. Relevant pictures & footage

1. Incident details: -

I was thinking about writing a travelogue of my Varanasi trip from Pune while driving down early morning towards Pune during my return journey from Varanasi this Sunday 26 Mar on Samriddhi expressway and is jolted by loud burst noise.

It was 5:30 AM we were nearing Karanja (Lad) exit & rear right tyre explodes with TPMS giving warning of flat tyre. Fortunately, I had slowed down from 115 KM/hr to around 80 KM/hr and have moved to middle lane as my son asked for a loo break and the signages were indicating an exit hence had slowed down.

As soon as the tyre explodes & TPMS gives warning, a huge sense of disbelief & frustration comes in my mind immediately, given the fact that very recently we already had a tyre blow out while returning from Amritsar in January after new year vacation.

It was dawn with low visibility. I slowed down & moved to third lane and slowly near the edge of expressway and continue to drive very slowly further ahead for safe place to stop the vehicle as Karanja exit was only 100-150 meters away. Due to exit, it gave an additional exit lane to expressway, and I stopped my car as much inside the lane as possible with hazard lights on so that it doesn't comes in between the primary 3 lanes of this high-speed route while sufficiently being visible at same time.

I step out, check the tyre, its deflated. Get back into car thinking again the whole exercise of RSA and loss of couple of hours.

It must be around 5:35 AM, I tap on I-Call on central screen and receive call from MG support immediately on the unit. The lady asks for the issue, I inform her about flat tyre while looking at TPMS screen on driver MID & as I speak TPMS gives low pressure warning on front left tyre as well. I am horrified as two tyres in parallel are giving low pressure warning within minutes of each other & my home is good 600 KMs away. I inform the support executive and she inform me that way of handling the issue will change between one flat tyre and > 1 flat tyre so she wants me to confirm if it is 1 or 2 flat tyres. I ask her to wait as I have tyre inflator in my car & wanted to check how much low pressure it is in front tyre. I quickly get down, grab the tyre inflator from dicky, plug it and its 22 PSI. It was 34 PSI as cold tyre before I started the journey, also had glanced through the TPMS for the tyre pressure & temperature while entering the expressway. All looked normal at that point however now after 150+ KM's it was altogether different story.

I could also hear hissing sound when I was checking the pressure of the front left tyre indicating air gushing out of tyre rapidly through some hole.

I return back to the ongoing call with MG support center, she confirms the location she has received from vehicle, my registered phone number and informs that I will get call from RSA team soon.

Within 5 minutes I get call from RSA team, they confirm the situation & I check with them if technicians can fix puncture (if it is fixable) of front left tyre when they arrive so that I drive down with car to Pune (with rear one replaced with spare). They inform that puncture fixing is not done by technicians as they don't carry those tools, they can just replace flat tyre with spare tyre in car. They informed that car needs to be towed to nearest MG service center as it has two flat tyres and it will be MG Nagpur. I inform them that my base location is Pune, and I will prefer if it can be towed to Pune. Executive informed that in MG Shield RSA is free of cost till nearest service center which is 200 KMs in Nagpur while Pune is 600 KM's. And if I want to take it to Pune then I will have to bear the cost of balance 400 KM's (200 KM charge will be borne by MG) to and fro for the flatbed which is normally Rs 50/KM (depends on vendor) excluding tolls. It came roughly to Rs. 40K which didn't make any financial sense. RSA executive also mentioned to me to not to worry and vehicle will be taken care properly in Nagpur as it would have been taken care in Pune so I should not spend money- on towing vehicle to Pune.

Now my next query to him was what about us? Do they provide or facilitate taxi for folks onboard the vehicle. He said "Yes" and its free of cost to your destination (except tolls). I was surprised and reconfirmed that it will be till Pune, he confirmed again & asked me if he should take RSA taxi request as well. I confirmed to him immediately and it brought down my stress level substantially.

He further confirmed if there is sufficient space in front of my vehicle for the flatbed truck to arrive, move around & for its ramps. Obviously, that was not a problem at the place we were stranded.

So now we had two requests placed with RSA which they were working on: -

1. Flatbed for Hector for MG Nagpur
2. Taxi for us to Pune.

All this happened till 6 AM. And between 6 to 7 AM I got multiple calls from two teams (one of flatbed & other for taxi) about the status of request, vendors for exact location on WhatsApp etc.

By 7 AM I received confirmation that flatbed is on its way and will reach us before 9:15 AM. Taxi confirmation was still pending however I informed the taxi team to ensure taxi also reaches us before 9:15 AM as I don't want to be in situation standing with complete luggage & family on high-speed expressway under the board mentioning "No standing, No stopping..".

While all this was happening, I spent time in checking the tyres & started searching for puncture guys in Karanja. I found a number on google whose location was 5 KM from me. I called him however he flatly refused as two wheelers are not allowed on expressway. I also got the front tyre on jack to check from where the air was leaking, inflated it through tyre inflator & found approx 1 inch cut in middle of the tyre from where the hissing sound of air escape was coming. I called the puncture guy and asked him if he can fix this just in case if he is able to come, he said it can be fixed but then he would recommend the tyre to be used as spare tyre. It will be not fit for regular usage. This feedback closed this alternate approach, and it made sense to MG to investigate.

In the meantime, I get update that Taxi is also identified around 70Kms from our location and will reach us by 9 AM which was a relief.

I started getting calls from both drivers from 8:30 AM onwards as they were approaching our location and both of them arrived by 9 AM. Hector was loaded on flatbed. Vehicle job card was prepared and handed over to me by the vendor and he took the car keys.

We sat in taxi and both vehicles started in opposite direction with flatbed taking Karanja exit to return to Nagpur and we are going straight on Samriddhi towards Pune via Shirdi. Not a happy moment for enthusiast and for family who love their car.

I got confirmation around 3 PM that vehicle has been delivered to MG Nagpur & us also reached Pune by evening.

Overall MG RSA gave us a superb service, very polite, prompt and on their toes to get us help at this remote location.

2. Three tyre bursts of my Hector over the span of 3000 KM's: -

As you would have noticed in my previous post, earlier this year in January while returning from Amritsar, my car suffered tyre burst of rear left tyre. The tyre had a big cut from center of tread and reason provided was that it must have had some impact. I also didn't delve much into it and considered as one-off case. This happened when car had done 27000 KM's.

Varanasi trip was very next long-distance trip we took last week in March. I drove all the way up to Varanasi from Pune (~1500KMs) via Shirdi - Samriddhi expressway - Nagpur - Jabalpur - Rewa. Our return route was also same and after about ~800KMs into return journey two tyre bursts happened with one again with loud bang with cut towards outer tread of tyre and other one having 1 inch cut with air gushing out. Car had run 30000 KMs by now. All these tyres are OEM Goodyear Efficient Grip 215/55 R18.

My car also went through 4th service recently in March and no concern was raised by service center for tyres. They had decent tread remaining and overall, no cuts etc apart from normal wear of tread.

I have few queries and seek answers from experts in forum: -

1. While tyres which come with car has only 1 year warranty, the one's available in retail market have unconditional warranty for 2 or 3 years but only till 50% tread wear. Does it mean failure chances of tyre increase after 50% tread wear and we should change the tyres after 50% tread wear?

2. Does being low profile tyres make them susceptible to tyre bursts? Does filling them with Nitrogen helps?

3. Does tyre brand also plays a role here? I never had any puncture in these tyres apart from these tyre burst incidents.

4. Should MG investigate as three tyres from same car have burst / deflated during high-speed runs but within prescribed speed limits of roads? I have already brought this in notice of MG Nagpur service advisors and have sought help from MG Pune as well. MG Nagpur did tell me that burst happened due to impact which I challenged as I have dashcam footage which clearly shows no impact.

5. Now the fourth one remains waiting for its chance to burst :D . Jokes apart I plan to replace it during this maintenance itself along with impacted two tyres. I assume you will also recommend the same.

3. Which new tyres?

This is very important question for me in current situation. I don't have any faith left in Goodyear. Following other options are available for size 215/55 R18: -

1. Continental UltraContact UC6

https://www.continental-tires.com/in...ID=03117940000

2. Apollo Apterra Cross

https://www.apollotyres.com/en-in/st...-cross-launch/

3. JK Tyre UX Royale

couldn't find direct link to it but its available in market.

In above list Continental is OEM supplier as well to MG and is available with dealership. Others will have to be sourced from local market.

Please help with your experience or feedback about them.

4. Current status: -

MG Nagpur has provided following feedback: -

1. Both tyres need to be replaced.
2. Rear alloy wheel has damage though not visible, but it is not usable as per them. It needs to be replaced.
3. Front alloy wheel also has damage but not as much as rear one. They prefer it to be replaced as well.
4. They have recommended to go for insurance claim as tyres are out of warranty & my insurance does have rim & tyre cover.

They have filed the claim today, most likely car will be surveyed tomorrow.

5. Relevant pictures & footage: -

https://youtu.be/3cwAxA5ewk0

Dashcam footage, unfortunately sound was off however burst happened around time 5:30:18 in video.



Tyre burst in January while returning from Amritsar, rear left tyre.



Tyre burst on last Sunday while returning from Varanasi, rear right tyre.



Around 1 inch cut in front right tyre through which air was escaping.

https://youtube.com/shorts/i9l_LJ7kDJ4?feature=share

Video of puncture and air escape hissing sound





Hector loaded on flatbed.

I will keep this thread updated as things progress. As of now fingers crossed.

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Road Safety section. Thanks for sharing!

Glad you are okay, man :thumbs up. Tyre bursts can be dangerous & catch out the best of drivers.

@ Others: If you haven't already, please do read my article on Tyre Bursts.

I recently drove for 100 kms on this stretch. More details here-

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ml#post5486699

We had initially planned to cover the entire stretch but later decided against it. While the primary reason that we did only 100 kms was the feeling that we have already experienced this arrow straight expressway for 100 kms and the next 400 kms shall be the same, but to be very honest, incidences of tyre bursts that I had read on the forum were always there at the back of my mind and this also prompted me to support the idea of cutting our trip short. I was relieved that we need not drive on this stretch anymore even though I did enjoy the actual drive, a strange feeling for sure.

Are there any specific reasons why these tyre burst incidences are so much prevalent on this stretch? I mean we have had similar quality roads in the North for the past 5-6 years and I do not remember reading about frequent tyre bursts on these stretches.

Even before I scrolled down the post, I was telling myself that the tyres have got to be Goodyears. I know there are probably hundreds of members who’ve done thousands of kms without issue but I have had the worst experience with the brand’s OEM tyres on my Grand i10. Extremely prone to punctures and led to constant paranoia while driving. It wasn’t my driving style either because after switching to MRFs I have literally not had a single puncture after 40 k kms of driving in comparison to the almost weekly occurrence with the Goodyears. My recent preowned car came with Goodyears as well and that’s the first thing I’ll change when feasible. Strongly recommend you do the same. Glad you all are safe.

In the first video you shared, just before the tyre burst at 18 seconds, at 17 seconds i see a very weird small patch on the road on the headlight throw. Did the tyre burst post that or on that patch? Maybe I'm overthinking.

This highway goes through regions which are known to have insane high temperature during summers. Does driving constantly on these huge stretches at high speed with high road temperature causing the bursts?

A couple of months ago, me and a friend did a Mumbai-Delhi and back drive in his Ciaz in a span of 3 days. Every 4-5 hours of running my friend recommended to stop at a fuel pump and inflate/deflate the tyres to 32psi. It was mostly deflation. I never did this on any of my cars before. Is this a good practice especially for long running?

This is what happens with low profile tires on Indian roads with big cars. I have lost 4 tires over the past 6 months between my Hexa and Compass, all the while running on nitrogen at optimum pressures. And these were all new and high quality tires, not more than 10k km done. All of them sidewall failures.

Sometimes, there is nothing you can do. It’s just the run of luck. Indian road conditions are what they are. They can throw surprises, even on the fanciest new expressways. But fact is that the root cause is the large rim size + low profile rubber combination that all manufacturers are peddling nowadays.

For you, I will strongly suggest that you upsize from 215/55R18 to 225/55R18, which is Jeep Compass stock size. That extra bit of sidewall will go a long way in ensuring such a thing does not happen again. In an ideal world, something like 225/60R17 would have been an even more robust solution but that will require changing the alloys.

Took delivery for my XUV700 AWD last week. Did some lightweight off-roading (cakewalk for Thar and other 4x4 owners, please don't :) at me ). Came back and noticed this (see attachment). ODO at the time was 206 kms.

OE Tyres? Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance.

:confused: replacing them would cost a bomb!

Thanks GTO, yes we were lucky that this incident didn't lead to any scary & ugly situation. However repeated tyre bursts are a concern now hence seeking inputs from fellow BHPian's.

Iyencar, I agree with you. My Punto also had Goodyears as OEM & gave me lot of trouble till the time I changed to Yokos. In Hector's case, they were running perfect till 27K KMs without any single puncture. However post that I have experienced 3 bursts in next 3000 KMs. I plan to switch from them.

Prasad, that patch is very small depression across the road through which the car went through, burst happened during this time only. Its has kind of negligible depth and is wavey depression which doesn't cause impact.

Burst happened early morning at 5:30 AM so I doubt outside temperature played role here, however our taxi driver was also monitoring the tyre pressure all through pit stops using manual air pressure gauge on Samriddhi Expressway & subsequently reduced the tyre pressure in one tyre in which it had shot up substantially.

I plan to keep close eye on TPMS all through such highways now-onwards.

Thank you Shreyans for your inputs and guidance. Your feedback confirms my doubt about low profile tyre being the root cause. I will consider upsizing tyres to 225/55R18.

@FiatDiesel, glad that you and your family are safe and car also survived the situation without any damage (except for the rims).

There is another post in TBHP about the accidents on Samruddhi E-way . Quoting the stats from there:
Tyre punctures and bursts combined attribute to 27% cases.
Is there something inherently wrong with the design of the roads? Or is it because of cement roads that tend to heat up tyres more?

Looks like Samruddhi Mahamarg is a happening place for tyre bursts:

https://www.msn.com/en-in/autos/news...3923ccad&ei=15


My suspicion about the main cause would be the concrete surface, combined with the hot summers in central India. Concrete surfaces heat up much more. It could be safer to drive on it in the early mornings, or after sunset.

Probably yes. We've always had the same problem on the Yamuna Expressway in peak summers. A lot of accidents due to tyre bursts.

I can think of 2 causative reasons, both working together, for so many tyres bursting on the Samruddhi Highway.

1. Most new cars as well as many performance oriented people purchasing new tyres, tend to go for softer compound stickier tyres. This aids in better grip and road manners. A side effect of this is more rolling friction between the tyre and the road surface. This friction causes higher heat build up, and heat is one of the reasons for tyre burst due to excessive wear and tear.

2. The Samruddhi expressway is a brand new all concrete highway. All concrete surfaces are rough when they are first constructed, no matter the methodology used to construct it. There is no road roller which flattens the top layer.

This rough surface causes more friction when the vehicle is travelling, the roughness causes excessive physical wear and tear on the rubber, and along with summer month approaching with its high temperatures, the combined effect on the tyres causes even a small imperfection to be magnified, and consequently, tyre failure by bursting.

So is this a permanent issue for this highway and is it doomed to become a car destroyer? Not really. Over a period of time, the road surface will smoothen out, and rubber will get deposited in the grooves of the concrete creating a sort of carpet of rubber (greatly exaggerated for explanation) and the tyre burst issues will lessen.

But people need to remember that tyre failure needs to be avoided by proper air pressure, regular condition checks and most importantly check on speeds.

I would bank more on the low profile which caused this over the other slightly lesser significant but also valid reasons.

Why I think so ?
Educated guesses:
- Assuming that your TPMS would've also warned against a unusually high pressure or a pressure mismatch greater than X psi between tyres.
- There would've been other cars plying on the road without further failures and probably worse tyres.
- Having read posts on the forum earlier about 18 inch low profile tyres not suitable for Indian road conditions relatively smaller potholes, bumps causing tyre bursts.

That small patch wasn't the cause but probably the trigger which caused the tyre to stretch unevenly and fail ?
All things considered but this still seems a bit weird for the tyre to fail. Goodyear is anyway not in my list and will stay out post this.

Hope you get your car soon, choose a better tyre and preferably all four.

I too share the same view. A classic example was the 2018 facelifted Ford EcoSport S, the top-of-the-line variant. This car originally came with 205/50 R17 Bridgestone Ecopia tyres as OE. Almost all cars developed tyre issues and eventually Ford stopped using the low-profile ones, and replaced them with 16-inch wheels. We have a thread here:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-...-r17-size.html

Please DO NOT check or adjust tire pressures on a hot tire!

All recommended pressures (in the user manual or the label on the car) are for cold inflation, and a hotter tire naturally reaches a higher pressure while running. By deflating a hot tire to cold recommended pressure, you're 'under-inflating' the tire, a safety hazard.