KuNGF00Chris

Well one of my worst fears happened. I had a blowout on my rear passenger side tire and had a nasty wreck. It appears that the tire blew out on the sidewall. I purchased the car a little over 3 months ago from CarMax. The assured me the tires were new when I purchased it. Well, I had taken the front tires off a few times since purchase to tighten the front controller arm I think it was, because I had the suspension clunk noise. Another time to change out some burnt out parking lamp bulbs. Never noticed anything strange with the tires, they seemed perfect. I have also been one to always check the tire pressure at least twice a week. This is my wife's car or was, and I always wanted to make sure it was in working condition for her. Well, I guess pictures will do the talking better, so here are some pics of the wreck and the tire that caused the problem.





























sorry the pics are in no particular order. But the one tire that is now on the front passenger side is actually from the passenger rear. The tow truck driver moved it up there after he rolled the car over off the roof. Since he couldn't tow it with a flat in the rear easily he thought it wise to move it up front I suppose. Anyways, it happened after the turn. We were going straight and then it blew and I instantly started to skid, and not realizing that the tire blew, I counter steered a tad bit and caused the car to spin more and then we collided with one tree, which caused us to spin around and then flip, we did one full rotation in the air and then came down on the top on the driver side and took out another tree, rolled another time on the ground into the third tree and that is where we came to a stop on the roof on top of the last tree. As you can see with the tire, it is worn down from the center to inside and the outside is looks perfectly fine. So, not sure if I should take this a step farther or not. Basically I just wanted to post some pics of the crash cause everyone likes to see that, and also to see if anyone has herd of anything like this happening before from a tire blowout, and if there was something I could do outside of just having the insurance company pay off the car. It does make me mad to a certain point, but at the same time my uncle and I did walk away from this with only a few scratches and bruises. BTW, we were on a road with the speed limit of 45 and were exiting a corner at around 50-55mph. I was by no means hot tailing it anywhere, I was driving home from my mom's house is all.

If you guys want larger resolution pictures download this zip file I have thrown together. http://www.satelliteradioserver.com/350z.zip

Look forward to hearing your thoughts guys,

-- Chris

BTW, sorry if this doesn’t make sense I had to write it quickly between projects at work. I will get on later to clear up anything confusing.

Ztalker

sorry, but those tires look like they were overdue for replacements 10k miles ago.

KuNGF00Chris

As stated above, this is the only tire that looks like that. The other three ( NOT PICTURED ABOVE ) are pefectly fine for 3 months of average driving. If you were to download the zip file you would notice the other three tires don't show any wear to the degree the one pictured in the post does. Not sure how you can assume all the tires are overdue when the blown one is the only one pictured above.

Also, we haven't even put 6k miles on the car. Like I had said before, carmax claimed the tires were new when we purchased the car 3 months ago.

-- Chris

davidv

iTrader: (2)

WOW! You are not considering filing a suit against CarMax or the tire manufacturer.

KuNGF00Chris

I had thought about it, just not sure on what course of action to take. If this is something that is going to be drawn out for 18 months or so and I won't be able to get the car paid off from insurance, which would cause me to have to keep making payments on my car. We are not in the position to afford something like that and be down one car. So I am kinda not sure what we are going to do right now, or if it would really be worth what I would get out of a settlement, unless I got a free car or something, which I would seriously doubt. But then I could be totally off base, has anyone on here had and suit agianst someone for something of this nature?

-- Chris

davidv

iTrader: (2)

A legal suit against CarMax and settling your insurance claim are not related.
File an insurance claim.
Consult a lawyer about filing a suit against CarMax.

mberthia

iTrader: (5)

Looks like both rear tires were worn. The driver side rear also looks to have the same wear as the one moved to the frt pass. They must have only changed the frt tires. It's hard to believe that they sold you a car with bald rear tires - big mistake.

You stated that you removed the front wheels a few times to torque the front controller arm and did not see a problem with the tires. The problem was unfortunately with the rear tires...

KuNGF00Chris

yeah it sux. The real crappy thing is, the accident happened on a Friday eve. I had already purchased oil and filter and had planned on rotating the tires and changing the oil on the car Saturday. Would have caught that then. I will be calling a local lawyer in my area that was recomended to my by a friend to see if I even have a case or not. We will see. If anything, I did get the car covered fully by insurance. I was actually able to get enough back to pay the insurance deductable and the car off and have around $500 left to pocket. Just sucks that it was at the cost of our car and almost my uncle's and my life. At least I am here to tell the story though, could be a lot worse.

-- Chris

BRONZEE

Can't help much as our laws are different in NZ, but glad to hear that you are okay, even if the Zed is a right off.

davidv

iTrader: (2)

You can file a suit against anyone for any reason.. This will be a tough one:

a. You must prove that CarMax sold you a vehicle knowing that the tires were dangerous.
b. The tires caused the accident.

CarMax has deep pockets. Before the matter ever gets to court, you will have run out of money before CarMax.

phenix

Looks like the tire was overinflated? What PSI were you running?

davidv

iTrader: (2)

Well that looks like the end of this thread. Why do members ask for advise then drop the topic?

KuNGF00Chris

hmmm, didn't think this was alive anymore. Wasn’t getting emails about this. Well, I don't recall off the top of my head what PSI I was running. What ever the PSI rating on the tire was. I have an air compressor with tools and such, so I checked the pressure on a regular basis. Anyways, I have decided to not go after anyone for this. It is just one of those 1 in a million things and I guess I was the 1. At the end of the day, the car was covered and then some, and I am still alive and we have another car for now. Come Feb. I will be getting my wife another car. She has her eye on a G35 now it looks like, which I think I will like as well. Thanks guys for all the feedback and comments.

Catcha Later.

-- Chris

jtabraham

iTrader: (46)

there's a difference between the PSI rating on the tire and what is recommended by the car manufacturer. The PSI rating on the tire is the MAX tire pressure, or what the the maximum PSI that the tire can safely handle. Usually the pressure you should be filling it to is susbstantially lower than this rating, and is dictated by Nissan (it can be found on a sticker in the driver's side door jam). If you filled it to the rating found on the side wall, that means you over-inflated it for the conditions it was being used for.

davidv

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the follow-up. Members do pay attention to threads such as this one and are concerned.