So I was driving in the middle lane of a 3-lane highway at the speed limit behind a pickup truck. I see him swerve quickly to the right and then saw a huge *** 18 wheeler blown tire coming towards me. It's the ones you find usually on the breakdown lane. I was about to swerve in order to avoid it but there were cars on the side of me so I was forced to run it over. The lower middle part of the bumper and grill is cracked and the screws holding the plastic undercover came off. Bumper is also misaligned with the headlights. You can see the tire marks on my license plate. Went to a local repair shop that I trust and they told me the estimate was $1,200-$1,500 to fix. F&@#, just waxed the car too







Anyone have any advice on this? I'm going to see my insurance tomorrow morning.


P.S. Here's a happy pic

 

sorry to hear about it. Good you noticed cars next to you, the damage would of been worst and more expensive if you did change the lane.
Thanks for the "happy pic".
Glad you are OK.

 

stop riding folks bumpers...

just kidding...sorry about the bumper

I never follow too close

 

Haha, thanks for the replies. It was kind of weird. I follow the 3 second gap between cars while driving but the tire just flew towards my way.

 

Same thing happened to me this past winter but mine was quite i bit worse as my frt bumper is only 2 inches from the ground....sorry to hear this.

 

perfect time to upgrade the bumper. And the headlight misalignment is prob not much of an issue unless you broke a tab. Ive been in there a million times, and theres realy not much to break on the front end other than superficial parts... replace the bumper, all those parts beneath will most likely be fine unless there was a real impact, like car to car..

 

exact same thing happened to me driving to phoenix, put some stress cracks in my bumpers paint. good news is you get a new bumper with no chips in the paint.

 

Agreed. I've been looking for an aftermarket bumper anyways so might as well make a bad time turn good

 

Sorry to hear that OP . Had some **** like that happen to me the second day I took my Z out of storage in April, but luckily my left was open and I was like 5 cars back. Blown out tires in the middle of a highway, is an everyday occurrence here in NJ, especially on 287 and 80. Semi's FTMFL . Hopefully the down time does not cause the shakes

 

I feel like the first 2 pics are "where's waldo" I don't see anything..

but sorry to hear man

 

I hate when people "pace" on the highway. I get that BS a lot. Someone doing 90+ and then when they get beside me, they want to stay RIGHT THERE. WTF? I want the option to change lanes quickly if I need to. I find myself taking unnecessary exits and **** nowadays just to avoid the pacing idiots.

 

The two first pics were suppose to show the bumper misaligned with the headlights. Camera phone kinda sucks.

I feel ya about the people who "pace" on the highway. Just like in my situation where there was a car on each side and one behind me. It's like wtf, is this some kind of planned attack? Haha

 

i really dont see 12-1500 worth of damage. If your paying out of pocket you can pay a lot less

 

That's what I was thinking this morning. Did some research and found some nice aftermarket bumpers that I like. Most likely will do everything myself. After all, there's more heart to it when working with your own car. Plus, it would suck to have those surcharges from your insurance for the next 6-7 years.

 

Wow man... I lost a real Spoon front lip(honda civic) once due to a truck tire blow out, I definately feel the pain. If you can afford it... do it out of pocket.

 

I just lost a bumper due to the same thing a couple weeks ago.

What causes these semi tires to blow all the time? I mean it seems like they're all over the place. Is it just overwear?

 

I just ran over a plank of wood and some other object that I couldn't discern this morning on 128!! I hate commuting!!!!!

 

I also wonder what blows off these truck tires. All I know is that there are steel components inside that help make up the tire which double sucks.

 

wow, that really sucks. That happened to me like 3 years ago with a piece of metal on the highway....it came jolting side to side after it was run over and I didn't know to turn left or right it was all over the place. It hit me right where yours is (didn't break, just put a huge scratch that I covered with a lip) Then after me it got deflected on to a mercedes benz hood. Sucks...

Thanks for the happy pic...who is that?

 

I've been there as well when I had my RX8. Did you know that if you stop and grab the piece of tire, the DOT numbers can be traced back to the truck. The semi driver is responsible for removing those from the road when they blow. (said my Progressive insurance agent)