Tire damage

I had two tires on my car that had approx 11,000 on them, while going up 175 I had a blowout, I put on the spare and wass looking for a place to get it replaced, I went another ten miles but the other tire was making a terrible noise and not feeling normal, I started to pull over and the other tire blew, both on the inside right through the steel bands. The tow truck driver said the tires were improperly rotated, But I took them to a tire dealer and he said I had run over something in the road, I didn’t. the tires were checked for proper inflation before I left, have you any ideas on what caused this, I know that this type of tire used on trucks had been recalled ,the make is kumho tires I have always loved your articles, from a Senior Citizen fan

Chances are, you hit some unseen object in the road and badly damaged both tires at the same time…One held air a little longer, that’s all…

No, I did not run over anything that is what is so strange, it was late at night and not much traffic so I would have noticed

It’s really only a wild guess without actually looking at the tires. My wold guess is the same as Carryman’s.

Since you may have banged something pretty hard, you might want to get a 4 wheel alignment done and have them check for damage.

If it was late at night, you could have hit a couple of nails or a patch of broken glass without noticing those objects in the dark.

wouldn’t there have been some slivers of glass or nails embedded in the tire

The chances of two unrelated blowouts at the same time are incredibly small. Clearly you ran over something that damaged both tires, whether you want to believe it or not.

I thank you for all the information everyone has given me, Irene

the car was checked out 9 months ago and the only driving is around 5 miles 4 times a week since on subdivision roads, no accidents. the car is almost 8 years old with 35,000 miles on it, the brakes etc. were checked back then and I am sure if ther were any damage it would have been noticed when the tires were rotated

Do the tires look fine except that they are flat? Is there any uneven wear?

no wear and tear on the tires at all, the tires have a tear in them about 5 inches through the steel belt both on the inside,it looks like someone took a knife to the belt part, my car had been in the garage for three days before I took the trip, the side wall is okay

I’m going to guess these tires were on the front. And I’m going to guess your spare tire was a smaller “doughnut” tire.

Negative toe-in will rapidly wear tires on the inside edge. In laypersons terms, this is when the tires are not parallel, but rather, divergent along the path of travel.

Combined with excessive negative camber (when the vehicle’s tires lean out at the top) and the heat of highway speeds, an extreme amount of wear will occur.

When the first tire popped, you replaced it with a smaller tire.

This actually increased the negative camber of the other tire and hastened its failure.

You need a 4 wheel alignment. You should have gotten one immediately when you had your tires replaced.

Did the tires perchance look like this?

http://www.gunnysautotips.com/images/tire-steel.JPG

no they don’t look like the tire you showed me, no wear and tear on eiher tire, look about the same as the new ones except for the holes.I took them to firestone and they said I must have hit something in the road, I surely would have known I hit something if it caused that much damage

sonething else I forgot to mention, my brakes sometimes made a squealing noise or a grinding noise so last year I had an oil change and tire rotation and had the brakes checked, there wasn’t anything wrong with the brakes, It still happend just once in awhile, since these new tires have put on no squealing or grinding

something else. my brakes were squealing and grinding once in awhile, I took it for an oil change and tire rotation and had the brakes checked at the same time, everything was fine, since these new tires have been put on no squealing or grinding, what would cause that

Anything is conjecture, if, without evidence. You recently had the car in the shop for repairs? What if the lift, that they used to raise the car, wasn’t positioned properly, and when the lift went up, it contacted the tires and cut them?

On your replacement tires, you should have bought the tire insurance, just in case you should have another tire blowout.

I did not have the car in for repairs, it was an oil change and tire rotation and check brakes about a year ago if the tires were damaged by the lift don’t you think it would have shown up sooner, I only had about 35,000 miles on the car and it is almost 8 years old. the tires that blew were under three years old with approx 11,000 miles

What year/make/model car?

2002 hyundaim elantra

the person who towed the car said it happened because the tires were improperly rotated