In about 1990 even Ray Magliozzi said while blowouts are dangerous the rear tire blowout is worse than the front . So you are wrong again.
The risk of rear tire blowout is less than that of front tire blowout.
https://www.memselec.com/Which-is-More-Dangerous-Front-Tire-Burst-or-Rear-Tire-Burst-id8674963.html
Agrees w/ my own experience anyway.
I’ve always found it harder to control a vehicle when a rear blows vs a front.
Tester
I guess I’ve had one blowout at 30 mph when I ran over something big. Never did find it. No problem, change tire and go buy a new one.
I see results of (presumably) tire blow outs when driving across northern Nevada on I80 sometimes. Speed limit 75-80 mph, so common speeds probably close to 90. Cars seen off the side of the road 50-100 yards away from the freeway, occupants standing around wondering what to do.
Tester
I have had a fair number of blowouts, both car and truck. In my experience rear blowouts are harder to control but all my blowouts were on rear drive cars. There is a sharp drop and swerve esp. at 50-55 mph. * read studiesyears ago that said thosem speeds were the most dangerous because at higher speeds the centrifugal fprce of the wheel and tire helps the car pinting in the sasme direction sort of like a gyroscope. I can confirm that myself. I had a 55 mph rear blowout on a 56 Desoto and a 100+ front blowout on the same car. The front blowout , the car stayed much straighter and I let the car coast down to about 40 before heading over to the4 shoulder before hitting the brake.
The truck blowouts are not instructive because they all had dual rear wheels.
Though we have drifted from cost, I will add my two cents.
Never have had a blowout, but I had a tire puncture at 75 MPH, L rear on a Ford Ranger, causing the tire to go flat, no problem guiding the truck to the shoulder.
When I was 17, I was driving (with my parents as passengers) on the Garden State Parkway when I realized that one of the '63 Plymouth’s rear tires had gone flat. I remembered what I had read about possible loss of control at high speed, so I drifted over to the shoulder, and applied the brake very lightly, taking quite a distance to bring the car to a stop. In retrospect, I probably could have braked a bit harder, but as a very new driver I didn’t have much practical experience, so I played it as safe as possible.
My parents were very impressed by my ability to react safely, and they were grateful when I took over the job of changing the tire. The next day, I took the tire (Goodyear Power Cushion) to our mechanic for a plug/patch. In addition, he sent it out for vulcanizing as it had been a big puncture, and that tire became the spare.
I’m with you on the $27.99 being on the high side. Someone remembered $2 in the’60’s"and challenged “do the math.” I didn’t - but an online inflation calculator suggested it is equivalent to about $18 or so.
Repair costs are high enough that it makes repairing a tire on the last third of so of its useful life an economic quandary. I appreciated Discount Tire though I recognize it is a clear marketing ploy. But if they can afford to do that as a service in hopes fo future business, $27.99 is pretty steep!
But - patching a sidewall. Nah…
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I have to say that I just don’t like driving on a tire that has been repaired. But for some of us it’s not just one tire but you have to buy four. I think I was down to about 5/32 last year and had a repair, so I just decided to replace them all with winter coming. To me it’s not like saving money or spending more but more like a
accelerating an unavoidable expense.
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I’ve posted this photo before, but with the way this discussion is going, I think it will serve as an example to all…
It was mounted on the rear of my 2001 Dodge Ram, it was when the truck was about 3-years old and it had about 15,000 miles on it. I was driving in the city and I noticed a “thump” from the back and I pulled over and found a blister in the tread. Since I was only a block or two from a tire dealer, I pulled in and had them change it out with my spare.
We tossed the tire in the back of the truck and I do not know where our heads where, but neither of us thought to let the air out.
Several hours later, after I got home, with the truck in the garage, the tire blew and when I say it “blew,” it EXPLODED and even my neighbor came over…
As you can see, it was a catastrophic blow out…
Now, imagine that the blister had occurred on the sidewall and it gave no indication by thumping and if I was out on the highway…
I do not mess with sidewall damage (Period!!!).
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Back when I was younger and less mature, I had a nail in a rear tire of my Camaro, I didn’t have any plugs or a portable compressor with me so I stopped at a tire shop where the old curmudgeon told me that I needed a new tire despite having 4/32nds tread, yes it was low but I could go thru a new set of tires on this ride in a month so just fix it.
Well the man took a bit of a tone with me so I peeled out of there and did a brake stand and ran them tires down until the tires were bald. I rolled back in and yelled out at him “NOW I NEED A NEW TIRE YOU OLDHAM YOU”. We later became friendly and he ran that garage until 1990 or so.
lol … good story, but wondering why you didn’t just go to a different shop to get your flat tire repaired? & what does OLDHAM mean?
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At the time I thought he was from the Oldham family, turns our he was a Cerny.
That really makes a lot of sense . So your temper and unreasonable thinking cost you more than just one tire .
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Nah!
That’s what you did back then when you were young and had a car, and thought you
knew everything than the old guy with grease under his fingernails.
Tester
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That was the less mature and quite frankly, a rather unstable Rick. I assure everyone that I have grown into a stable and well adjusted Senior Citizen.
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A tire shop said warranty is only good for tread, not for sidewall failure. True or blow off?
You should have some paper work that describes the warranty . It also depends on what the side wall damage is .
You should have started a new thread as this one was about repair cost .
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