2 tire blowouts in one trip--looking for a cause

It could be as easy as a bad filler valve, though blowout is different than running on a tire without enough air pressure.

Everyone thank you for your input. Someone mentioned That this whole issue has to do with the fact about mounting and remounting instead of 2 sets of wheels. I would agree that remounting theoretically could possibly be harder on your tires, but I get my own vehicle switched out this way every year and havenā€™t had an issue. I really do think something else is going on because Iā€™m going to point out that she had a brand new tire that had only been mounted once blow within 350 miles where being put on. She had driven the vehicle less than 10 miles before she left on her trip. The common variable in all 3 instances were she drove 6 hours out of a 7 hour trip and both times within the last 45 miles or the last hour of driving is when the blowout occurred. That tells me it has to do with heat and degradation. The car has a new tire on it today and I am getting new sensors put in and it will be aligned. It was test drove to day before the sensorā€™s and the alignment but it feels fine. A dunk test was done and there is no air bubbles. I been told the rim has no corrosion no dense no cracks the bead is fine. The one thing I havenā€™t been told is about the valve stem though my daughter said they looked at it.

Iā€™ve attached a picture of this 2nd blow out if that would be helpful to anyone To identify the cause of the blow out. I asked about struts and was told they look fine as well. Right now Iā€™m quite hesitant to be told thereā€™s nothing wrong with the wheel and Iā€™m thinking that I will get a new tire put on and all of the sensorā€™s put in and an alignment and then bring the car to some tire specialist. It appears to me the only way to test this is to drive the vehicle continuously for 6 hours again. I do want to point out that on the blow out on the way home she was driving on a Winter road that had snowpack on it and was driving probably no faster than 45 or 50 miles an hour on the 2nd blow out she was driving on the inter state and she was driving 75 but again the common variable is the blowout happened 6 hours into a 7 hour drive. On the 2nd blow out she had filled up the tire 3 times with their and still had the blow out. She started the air fill up approximately halfway through the trip in time in my else and still was 45 miles short of her destination. Anyone have a suggestion of a tire specialist I can bring the vehicle to?27951

IMHOP that is not a blowout but a tire shredded by the rim due to lack of air pressure. The rim is probably shot. Go to a alvage yard get a new rim and be done with it.

I was told the rim is entirely fine there are no dents there are no cracks there is no corrosion

And Sorry. I am not a tire expert and keep saying blow out instead of a tire collapse or degradation Due to under inflation. Since I being told there is nothing wrong with the rim And that this is simply quincidence will or badd lock or something like that but that they do not see anything wrong with the wheel to cause this.

I thank you for your patience in dealing with the situation, and my posts, but after all this mystery I would replace the rim. I do not believe the frequent changes are a problem, and it has happened too often to be coincidence.

Was this by a real tire store or that shop at the used car lot you referenced before.
There is a serious problem if a tire has to be aired 3 times in 7 hours. Does she actually know how much the air pressure should be by the door plaque .
There are now 47 posts here and a good tire shop should have been able to solve this on the first visit.

It was a tire store who put on the tire that you see shredded there, this being the tire with only 350 miles on it. When I called the tire store today to ask what they remembered from putting on this tire, they told me they did not see any dents any corrosion or any cracks on the rim. They also told me that they always looked to see if there are any obstructions and since they put the tire on obviously there was none, this being a retrospective comment. The dealership, which by the way isnā€™t just a used car dealership, itā€™s just a small dealership, told me the same thing. We had already had the car towed to that place before I got on this forum so the car was sitting there. This dealership told me the same thing as the tire place. There is no corrosion there are no dents and there is no crack In the wheel. This means I now have 2 places, a tire store and a small dealership telling me the same thing, that there are no dents, there is no corrosion, and there is no crack in my wheel. The dealership told me as well that the bead is fine. The tire place did not look at that. I am considering telling them I want the rim replaced as well. Or I Can bring the car to a tire specialist downstate. Again it was tire spell a specialist at home that told us the same thing as this dealership but I donā€™t know what else to do. Obviously the tire is losing air and no one so far has been able to figure out why That is why I am very strongly considering just having a new wheel put on as well

Something is going on, hope you got the road hazard and a free tire, you have to do something, even if it is wrong. new rim and valve stem and throw the old one in the trunk for a spare. My best advice, sometimes you just have to cut bait and move on. After 3 times I would be done with the old stuff.

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Thank you. I think thatā€™s what Iā€™m going to do because Iā€™m not willing to have my daughter drive the car for 6 hours to be proving something right. Someone else told me about hazard insurance on a tire. I donā€™t think I got that and I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever remembered it being offered. I did call the tire place that put on this new tire and was basically told I would have to bring the car and the tire back to them and right now there are 400 miles between the car in that place so that isnā€™t going to happen. It sounds like Iā€™m not going to be getting a refund.

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I donā€™t think I was clear about the bouncing Iā€™m concerned about and you may not be able to see it if you are following directly behind her. To see what I am concerned about, you will need to be on a 4 lane highway and she will need to be in the left lane while you are just behind in the right lane. That might be difficult to find a 4 lane highway in the UP. I went to school up there in Hancock, the school is now known as FU (Finlandia U). IIRC the nearest 4 lane was in Wisconsin. But that was in 1968/69.

But what I am referring to, the rear wheel will bounce up and down rapidly and violently, but the body of the vehicle does not bounce, in fact it is pretty smooth. I donā€™t know if the driver feels it, but the tire really takes a pounding. It can be caused by either e very bad strut or more likely a torn upper strut mount.

But I have to agree with all the others here that it would be best if you have separate wheels for your summer and winter tires.

FYI, that tire in the picture was run flat for awhile. That is not unusual on the rear of a FWD car and can be difficult to notice if you are driving in a straight line. Iā€™ve seen it a lot.

Thank you about the detailed explanation about the struts. I will bring this up to the place looking at her car now. As far as driving it flat for a while that could be. I think what happened and I keep calling it a blow out so I might be using the wrong words but my daughter had been driving, she heard a big noise, the car pulled and lurched. She immediately started braking and going to the shoulder. She had been driving in the right lane when this happened and then she did have to drive it a ways until she could brake safely because she was driving the speed limit which was 75 (on an interstate). I donā€™t know if it went flat in that short amount of time period Or if my daughter drove the car completely flat for a while. I would hope she wouldnā€™t do that but who knows. She does recall hearing a noise and the car suddenly jerking and lurching.

If this was my daughter I would buy four new wheels ( donā€™t have to be expensive ) four new highly rated all season tires and have the tire pressure monitors installed . Then make sure she checks the oil level and tire pressure once a week . And get all that stuff out of the trunk.

That is all I have , I am out of here.

Thank you but out of curiosity why 4 new wheels instead Of replacing the one? Is there something about wheels where they need to be equal? Or are you saying because this car is a 2008 that it would just be smart because of the possible corrosion on all of them or the wear and tear? I am getting tire pressure monitor sensord installed, that is being done tomorrow. I have driven cars with snow tires and with very good all seasons and in my experience with as much snow as we get up here snow tires work better in our area when you drive a car. If she had an S UV or 4 wheel drive then I donā€™t think snow tires are needed.

By flat, I meant so low that the rim is almost on the ground. Less than 10 psi in the tire. It did probably blow out at that time and the abrasion was done after the blow out. Iā€™ve seen and had sudden blowouts from a fully inflated tire and even at speed, the blowout is in a small area.

When I see a blow out the goes around a significant part of the sidewall, that is from overheating.

As far as the the new wheels, you need four to have a complete second set. Your current wheels may be OK but you need to get them inspected by someone who truly understands wheels. I would look very carefully at the bead area to make sure the bead isnā€™t flayed out. Tire machines put a lot of pressure on the bead and Iā€™d be concerned that the horizontal part of the bead isnā€™t drooping down a little.

Take off the hub cap with the wheel on the car. Where the hub cap grips the rim should be parallel to the ground. If it seems to be bent in toward the center of the rim all the way around, it should be replaced.

Thank you. That does make sense to me and I would agree that it probably was a lot lower than she realized as the air was leaking out faster then she realized. I understand now why 4 new wheels. The dilemma will be where to store 4 tires in a college dorm which isnā€™t possible. Itā€™s much easier to put 2 unmounted tires in a trunk and 2 unmounted tires in a dorm room. Thank you very much for the detail about the bead because I donā€™t know if the dealership looked at it that closely. The tire place told me they didnā€™t recall looking at the bead and itā€™s not something they typically do when remounting. Again what Iā€™m looking for right now is to stop the right rear air leak which 2 places havenā€™t been able to tell me how thatā€™s happening. And I definitely can get that wheel replaced now and then get the other 3 replaced when she comes home at Christmas break and storing a tire isnā€™t an issue. The dealership already put on a replacement tire. They will be putting in the tire pressure monitor sensors tomorrow in completing the alignment. Then I think I will find a second tire specialist in the down state area and have them look at the wheel. Obviously I wonā€™t have the home based tire specialist do it since they didnā€™t notice anything. Is there any particular tire company that would be recommended?

Mounted or unmounted, they take up the same amount of space, but are heavier to carry. Why donā€™t you set her store the out of season tires at home?

Last year I had the season switching scheduled both times on her college break days and had to cancel because the snow came earlier and stayed later then what her breaks were. Someone else was going downstate and delivered her tires to her downstate so she could have them on to drive thru the predicted blizzard Thanksgiving week and she ended up driving back downstate with her snow tires on and getting them removed downstate because of predicted blizzards that happened during her college break in March up here. On my own car I get my snow tires put on 3rd week of October to 1st week of November because by then it is regularly below 35 and I donā€™t get my snow tires off until first of May/maybe late April. We get our 1st snow by mid October and it definitely snows in May and sometimes early June. That timeframe doesnā€™t coincide well with college break days when she could come home(Thanksgiving, Xmas, Spring Break in March). Conversely there is such a temperature difference between downstate and where we live that we have to think about snow tires being on and how hot it is when she is downstate.

I had a rear tire fail on my truck in a similar fashion to the photo above. Tread was ok, but the tire was 15 years old. Sun damaged, aged rubber on a drive wheel often fails like that.

Thanks for the photo. That helps sort out a few things.

First, that tire failed because it hit something. The key is the radial split in the sidewall. The circumferential rip is because the tire lost its air due to the radial split. Note that the tread is still attached to the sidewall for some of the circumference. Thatā€™s because that circumferential rip is mechanical in nature and the tire stopped ripping when the vehicle stopped.

So that brings us to the first tire. This thread is quite long now and itā€™s hard to sort out all the facts, but did your first post say you had a flat in August before all this took place? Were you running the same tire (snow tires) then?

Iā€™m inclined to think there is just bad luck going on here.