Dammit NOT AGAIN!!

[Astroman]

Well Friday March 20th I was on my way solo to Portland OR to go see a concert. About 43 miles from my destination into a 5 hour drive while in the left lane with traffic all around me my front left tire blew and the steel belted tread snapped and whipped the front left of the car pretty bad.

My bumper is totalled, the fender is damaged not sure if beyond repair, the door and rocker panel are dented, the back of the headlight was ripped out so I have no blinker or HID headlight on the front left. The tire blew going at least 70mph and I'm thankful to be OK and the car didn't get any more damage. I was able to limp to my concert after a tow where the tow truck driver helped me change the tire and zip tie my front end so I could drive. Stayed the night at my step sisters house then the next day Andy (Thirty-Nine) helped me patch it up better and loaned me a spare winter tire. Upon getting home I disposed of the 4 crap snow tires and put my summer wheels back on but am waiting for two more from discount tire.

The mighty yaris took it's damage but didn't try to throw me into the dividing wall or the other lane so I'm very thankful.

I'm now on the lookout for a new front bumper and would like the Canadian RS bumper as I like the OEM plastic better than the aftermarket. The aftermarket cracked to easy and never fit right. Anyone have any leads? I'm a few hours from B.C.

:cry:

[CrankyOldMan]

Damn, sorry to see that. Glad you're OK!

[NYC-SE]

You have my sympathies.

[sheekeebut]

Noooooooo!

[malibuguy]

Damn that sucks man. But at least your alright

[ilikerice]

Don't get your cousin to repaint again...

Glad you're Ok, keep up posted

[sheekeebut]

You know, that last pic actually looks pretty good. Tough, like

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/cinetology/files/2013/02/dannytrejo1.jpg

[SilverBack]

Holy shit that's quite bit of damage for only a blowout...

Glad you were able to keep it under control and it wasn't any worse.

[IllusionX]

Glad you are ok.

Question like that.. How old were your tires? Fab dates are written on the side wall.

[3rdSEman]

Astro, I noticed you have used the word "crap" tires... were these retread/recap winter tires ?
It looks to me as such when I see the tread portion having separated from the body of the tire... I didn't know they still existed today taking in account that the market is saturated with various offshore brands.

[bronsin]

Yikes thats a lot of dammage! Glad you are OK!:bow:

Do you have TPI instrumentation?:iono:

[Astroman]

Best I could gather from the 3 digit date code was late 1999 at best. Picked them up in unused condition stored in a cool dry windowless basement about 4 years ago for $50. They weren't recapped tires and the only name was wintertrax and country of origin was Korea. Heading today to get an estimate from the highest shop in town and going to have the guy who did my roof do the repairs and then got a couple recommendations for the custom paint. Thank goodness i put a rider on my insurance to cover the custom work.

[Astroman]

[QUOTE=bronsin;759067]Yikes thats a lot of dammage! Glad you are OK!:bow:

I don't as mine is a 2007. About 3 or 4 minutes before it blew I noticed a thumping vibration and was heading for the next exit. Missed it by a half mile. :cry:

[ern-diz]

Ugh, bummer. Sorry about the damage. Glad you're alright.

[IllusionX]

Best I could gather from the 3 digit date code was late 1999 at best. Picked them up in unused condition stored in a cool dry windowless basement about 4 years ago for $50. They weren't recapped tires and the only name was wintertrax and country of origin was Korea. Heading today to get an estimate from the highest shop in town and going to have the guy who did my roof do the repairs and then got a couple recommendations for the custom paint. Thank goodness i put a rider on my insurance to cover the custom work.


Holy crap, you trust 16 years old tires! I believe anything made before 2000 didn't have anything coherent as date code. So you can guess they are at least 15 years old.

I am at a point where I wouldn't get used tires anymore unless they have were made less than 2 years ago.

I'm still wary about getting new tires that are over a year old since I drive so little, I wouldn't want them to dry rot before I get at least 5-6 years out of them.

[bronsin]

Assuming theres no manufacturing defect tire failure is unusual. Maintaining something like the correct tire pressure goes a long way to keeping this from happening. Also when the car is up on the ramps for an oil change I check the condition of the tires and the CV joint boots (if over 100k)

"Dry rot" and "manufacture date" have little to do with tire failure in my experience. (which is considerable)

Driving sanely also helps!

[IllusionX]

Driving sanely have nothing to do with the condition of the tires.
Anyways, this kind of blowouts always happen at highway speed.

[bronsin]

:smile:Driving sanely have nothing to do with the condition of the tires.
Anyways, this kind of blowouts always happen at highway speed.

Right. I meant if you get a blowout and youre weaving in and out of traffic, its going to be worse thsan if you are just driving along.

I ride motorcycles and if anything happens, you get hurt/die so Im very careful.

[nookandcrannycar]

Don't get your cousin to repaint again...

Glad you're Ok, keep up posted

^^^^^ This.

[nookandcrannycar]

Best I could gather from the 3 digit date code was late 1999 at best. Picked them up in unused condition stored in a cool dry windowless basement about 4 years ago for $50. They weren't recapped tires and the only name was wintertrax and country of origin was Korea. Heading today to get an estimate from the highest shop in town and going to have the guy who did my roof do the repairs and then got a couple recommendations for the custom paint. Thank goodness i put a rider on my insurance to cover the custom work.

:thumbsup:

[IllusionX]

:smile:



Right. I meant if you get a blowout and youre weaving in and out of traffic, its going to be worse thsan if you are just driving along.



I ride motorcycles and if anything happens, you get hurt/die so Im very careful.


I was referring to driving sanely or not will still have a big chance of a blowout/thread separation with really old tires...

[Astroman]

I had not even thought of checking the date code when I purchased them, and the shop that mounted and balanced was a little hole in the wall place. I know discount tire or les schwab would have looked at the date and refused to mount them. They had no visible defects, and I just had both front axles and front brakes done last month and other than use wear looked fine. Needless to say I'll be checking the date code or just getting new from now on for any tires.

I'll probably not drive the yaris on snowy days anymore and were getting less and less snow each year. For the two real snow days we had this past winter I'll just take my wife's rarely driven '95 Nissan Pathfinder 4x4 and that will be getting new tires in the next couple of months.

As for the front bumper it looks like I may have secured 1 of the 3 (mine was one of them) that Garm imported from Thailand about 5 years go when a member in California PM'd me so now just need to get shipping squared away and my kit will match. I found a painter in town who'll do the custom paint on the bumper and fender and I'll have him finish the last side skirt as well. Seems like after the repair work is done she'll finally be fixed right and have the full kit on and the kit ordeal started back in 2009. Then the supercharger is next :burnrubber:

[Astroman]

:smile:

Right. I meant if you get a blowout and youre weaving in and out of traffic, its going to be worse thsan if you are just driving along.

I ride motorcycles and if anything happens, you get hurt/die so Im very careful.

Luckily I was on a straight of way when it happened. I'm sure if I was carving corners it would be a different story!

[Astroman]

FINALLY got an insurance adjuster to look at the car, $4,100 including just over $1,700 for the custom paint.

SOOO glad for comp insurance plus the extra $20/mo for the rider to cover the custom paint and parts! Should get the check by Monday, then ordering parts! Thinking about getting some projector headlights.

[beaker]

Holy crap, you trust 16 years old tires! I believe anything made before 2000 didn't have anything coherent as date code. So you can guess they are at least 15 years old.

I am at a point where I wouldn't get used tires anymore unless they have were made less than 2 years ago.

I'm still wary about getting new tires that are over a year old since I drive so little, I wouldn't want them to dry rot before I get at least 5-6 years out of them.

5 years is the max age that a tire manufacturer will cover a warrantable condition on a tire. Most tire dealers rotate their inventory faster than that, but if not, tires older than that generally get scrapped, not sold.

Personally, I would never run a retread on any passenger car, especially one that has plastic bumpers.

[kimona]

^^^They still sell retreads for passenger cars?! I thought that was something discontinued years ago.

[Astroman]

They haven't sold retreads here since 2002. Mine were not retreads, just hella old.

[bronsin]

^^^They still sell retreads for passenger cars?! I thought that was something discontinued years ago.

I think most truck tires are retreads which is why you see tire carcasis on the road from time to time!

If they can do it for trucks then cars are less problematic.

[IllusionX]

I think most truck tires are retreads which is why you see tire carcasis on the road from time to time!



If they can do it for trucks then cars are less problematic.


The retread process on a truck tire is much different than simply cutting into the rubber for new deeper threads. Because of the price of a truck tire, they actually re-mould new rubber on top of the used carcasses.

Anyways, I would really think twice before getting old new tires older than 5 years old.

[bronsin]

Anyways, I would really think twice before getting old new tires older than 5 years old.



If you are replacing tires 5 years or older I will take them. Lets work something out!:headbang:

[ezhacker1]

There was an episode of Dirty Jobs where they showed the retreading process.