Check your Tyre Pressures

[jan_tekin]

Yesterday I had a blow out which I believe most probably happened because the pressure was too low.
Its been going down recently and I've been meaning to get it sorted but its something I've never got around to sorting. The vreds have pretty stiff side walls so it never looked low to the eye even when there was around 15 - 20 psi.
With the high temperatures recently and low pressure they said the heat could of built up in the sidewalls causing the tyre to fail.




As you can see no amount a tyre-weld was going to get me going so had to get my car recovered to a local tyre shop. Unfortunately with my recent insurance renewal with a different insurer meant I had no cover so £120 later and two hours of my life wasted waiting for the Rac as they couldn't decide who to send I finally made it to a tyre shop.

I'm now on the look out for a space saver and jack as I don't fancy a repeat of yesterday. Also I need two new rear tyres as the only tyre I could get hold of is a brand called Sunny which I'm not comfortable with and my remaining rear is down to the wear indicators.

Might look at the new Vredestein Ultrac Vorti instead of the Sessenta as I fancy a change as they seem to have good reviews.

 

[dlp]

Sorry to hear that but thanks for the reminder, I do try and check my pressure regularly but do sometimes forget!...spacesaver seems the way to go...is it right that you need one from an e46 that will fit?....there are so many!...

 

[Bing]

Oooo nasty - main thing is you're ok, and I guess the wheels is fine too. Could've happened in the rain yesterday which would have been a lot worse

I have found it really hard checking my pressures lately as even doing them 'cold' they are still warm, and I have no idea how to vary the pressures accordingly :?

 

[Toe-side]

Expensive and frustrating day! It doesn't happen very often but when it does what a pain.

 

[Jembo]

That's nasty - had a puncture the other week & is one of the things I tend to check visually before I drive off, every couple of weeks with a gauge & first thing in the morning EVERY time I go on a hoon

 

[jan_tekin]

I was travelling quite fast at the time, no warning light came on but I assume because the pressure been going down slowly. It didn't trigger the flat tyre light, all I felt was some vibrations and when I stopped a strong smell of burnt rubber.

The biggest upset was the time and money lost.

 

[Quadracer]

It's sad that it happened and wasted your time but at the end of the day you knew there was a problem. I also noted that you were not happy to drive with a cheap make tyre but were perfectly happy to drive around knowing that the pressure was low in one tyre not only putting yourself at risk but the risk of others.
People sharp shout me down if mentioning speeding but a car not road worthy with a slow puncture gets sympathy. I don't quite get it

 

[Maniac]

Having ruined two run flats (cost me £600 to replace) due to low pressures caused by cracked alloys I now check my tyre pressures on every 50+ mile journey and every few weeks.

 

[Quadracer]

Having ruined two run flats (cost me £600 to replace) due to low pressures caused by cracked alloys I now check my tyre pressures on every 50+ mile journey and every few weeks.

Tyre pressures should be checked not just for safety but will save money in the long term including fuel economy.

 

[AndyBeech]

It's sad that it happened and wasted your time but at the end of the day you knew there was a problem. I also noted that you were not happy to drive with a cheap make tyre but were perfectly happy to drive around knowing that the pressure was low in one tyre not only putting yourself at risk but the risk of others.
People sharp shout me down if mentioning speeding but a car not road worthy with a slow puncture gets sympathy. I don't quite get it

+1. You could have sorted it but didn't get round to it, when its one of the only four blobs of rubber holding you to the road it should be your top priority. Lesson learned I presume

 

[jan_tekin]

I'm not looking for sympeathy, I don't want people to make the same mistake as me. I didnt think an under inflated tyre could case this and the only reason I when with the cheep tyre was because they only had runflats at £250/300 a corner which I don't want to go back to. Just wanted to get the car back home which it is now. I don't plan on using it now till I order some new tyres which ill get sorted this week.

 

[Quadracer]

I'm not looking for sympeathy, I don't want people to make the same mistake as me. I didnt think an under inflated tyre could case this and the only reason I when with the cheep tyre was because they only had runflats at £250/300 a corner which I don't want to go back to. Just wanted to get the car back home which it is now. I don't plan on using it now till I order some new tyres which ill get sorted this week.

The first problem with an under inflated tyre is the unbalance of the car. Even a couple of Psi can make a difference. Then as you found out as the tyre is flexing it will get hot quicker and the sidewall which was probably weakened with the low pressure will give. I'm really pleased that you have learnt how important tyre pressures are without any great loss. My gripe wasn't really at you but more to those that condemn me speeding but haven't picked up on safety issues.

 

[jan_tekin]

No it's some thing I'm going to check more often now knowing what can happen. Going to but my self a digital pressure gauge so I can check them more regularly and be able spot slow punchers before anything like this happens again

 

[johnnnnnnyy]

I didnt think an under inflated tyre could case this and the only reason I when with the cheep tyre was because they only had runflats at £250/300 a corner which I don't want to go back to. Just wanted to get the car back home which it is now. I don't plan on using it now till I order some new tyres which ill get sorted this week.

This is where you are wrong. I've just bought my car, the previous owner told me about a slow puncture and to keep an eye on it. I've now changed wheels and tyres, but though the original tyre looked fine from the outside, you could clearly see wear to the wall of the inside where it had be running at low pressure. It was very worrying how much it had been weakened and would have blown out very soon.

Looking at your picture from underneath it looks like the wall of the tyre has gone?

 

[IK.]

Having ruined two run flats (cost me £600 to replace) due to low pressures caused by cracked alloys I now check my tyre pressures on every 50+ mile journey and every few weeks.

That would mean checking mine every single day!!!

Personally I don't check mine as much as I should, but tend to check them every few weeks.

 

[Quadracer]

I was stopped and warned about my speed a few weeks back on the A1(M) and during the warning I was told that the Police are trained to drive fast and that their tyre pressures were checked before each shift. When I realised that I wasn't getting a ticket I asked " as a matter of interest what tyre pressures do you run for high speed pursuits". Guess what, he didn't know because a guy at the station checks them. I said "you trust this guy has done it properly, I have a pressure gauge in my boot if you want to check" I kept the conversation humorous and light hearted and ended up checking the pressures on both my car and the squad car. Both were correct and we went on our ways. One thing he did say was in the early hours with not much traffic keep it under 95mph and they wouldn't bother drivers for speeding. I didn't listen of course

 

[Anonymous]

Do you not get a warning come up on the dash when your tyre pressure has changed?

 

[Hadies]

Do you not get a warning come up on the dash when your tyre pressure has changed?

I did when I got a puncture recently.

 

[alastairb25]

Yeh I had similar issue with run flats, I want shot of them, hard ride, tram lining, cant obviously tell if they are flat, cost a fortune etc, who ever thought it was a good ide

 

[Dogmatic6]

You don't get a tyre pressure warning if its a slow puncture.

Before I got the M I had a 3.0si with runflats. Un-known to me I drove a 40 mile round trip 5 days a week with a completely flat rear tyre!! don't know why I didn't notice but the only difference was the traction control was kicking in more often..lol
Scary to think I drove on that tyre for 3 months. Thing is BMW took the tyre off and said it looked ok apart from the puncture. Obviously I got a new one and started to check my pressures more often.