First the pics of the aftermath:









I still don't know what happened. I was driving last night around 9 pm to stay with my parents, in preparation for today's medical board exam. I'm going about 75 MPH on the freeway, and I start noticing the smell of burnt rubber. At first I thought that I passed a factory, but pretty soon the smell gets stronger. I start pulling towards the right shoulder, and as I do so, I hear the most God awful sounds coming from the car. Apparently that's when most of the tire disintegrated. I couldn't even stop, since at this point it's just Ray's forged aluminum going against asphalt/concrete. I somehow manage to avoid wiping out half the freeway as I start losing control, and I made it to a gas station.

I changed my tire with a spare. Ironically, I had just put one of my stock G35 18" rim/tire in the trunk that afternoon. And while I was driving, I was wondering if putting a 225/45/18 tire in the back would affect the VLSD if the other tire is a stock 245/45/18.

I was freaked out, pissed, and flat out shocked all at once. This homeless guy went up to me to ask for money while I was changing the tire, and I totally freaked and started going off on my disintegrated tire. He just backed off, and said, "Woah man, don't get mad!"

Hopefully I passed my exam today, but this was plain scary.

Has this ever happened to anyone with the stock Bridgestone Potenzas? The tire still had at least 70% tread left, and I just commute on the freeways in rush hour. I don't track this car, autocross, drag, etc.

There's all this burnt rubber stuck on my fenderwell, so I keep smelling that odor, and that keeps reminding me of last night. I think I have serious PTSD.

I'm going to write a letter to Bridgestone. I've had flat tires before, but I've never had a tire totally fall apart, and I didn't even hit anything!

Any idea of my rim can be saved?

 

holy crap! how many miles were on them?

as far as salvaging, it looks like the edge got chewed up, id also be worried that its no longer round and may be fatigued

whats ptld?

 

Holy crap!

Glad you came out alright bro. Keep us posted on what you find out caused this.

 

Did you regularly check the air pressure levels? I've had a tire blow from running too low of a pressure but it didn't completely fall apart like yours did (mine was a Falken ST-115). PTSD = Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

 

Perhaps too much pressure? Once you heat up your tires, your tire pressure increases.

 

That's what my dad was thinking: too much pressure.

I had the tires rotated left/right a few months ago at Discount Tires. Since they're direction, I had them take the tires off the rims and switch left/right. I hadn't checked the pressure since that time. I can only assume that they didn't put too much air in the tires at that point.

What's ideal PSI for these anyway? I need to check the pressures on my other tires.

And just in case anyone is wondering, my car's a 2003 G35 coupe, so it doesn't have TPS.

 

The recommended tire pressure is 35psi (cold). I believe this is stated in our manual as well. I usually follow the following scale:

Hot Weather:
33-35psi(cold)

Cold Weather:
36-38psi(cold)

Both will increase approx. 3-5psi once warmed up depending on weather & driving conditions.

 

Albert,
Good heavens ... thank God you're ok.

Judging from the brown charring your tire and wheel reached a relatively high temperature that can only be possible from rubbing something. I would pull your spare tire off and look carefully inside the wheel well for possible contact point. You'll likely find distinct rubber residue and/or polished surface at the culprit spot.

Once again ... sorry to hear.

 

Clint,

I think the brown stuff might be material that the tire people put on when they mounted the tire.

There's a lot of rubber residue on the suspension arm. But I've had that wheel off several times to work on my brakes, and yesterday was the first and only time I saw all that rubber there. I think once the tire started falling apart, the flailing parts were hitting the suspension.

I appreciate the input though. Hopefully I can figure out what happened. In the meantime, I'm going to put my original Michelin fronts back on this Saturday.

 

That sucks bro. Glad you're ok. The wheel can probably salvaged. Look at http://fixrim.com/loc.htm Good luck and let us know how it turned out.

 

Wow that is crazy And to think I drove to speed limiter on those pos. What scares me the most is you had 70% tread left, and you werent speeding....

 

Its gotta be do to rubbing or severely high or low air pressure. I would asume the tire picked something up and got a small leak that eventually lowered the air pressure enough. Because it was a slow leak you probably didn't sense it till it was too late. It doesn't look like catasrrophic tire ailure so I doubt it is the potenzas issue.

 

Interesting thread I ran into. Could it be related? Maybe...

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....42#post1601342

 

Glad you're OK guy?
Will insurance cover something like that?

Back when I had my prelude, my insurance covered damages when I ran over debris on the freeway.

 

Im thinking low pressure. When you lower the pressure there is a huge increase in stress on the tire. My tires were pretty bald and I lowered the pressure (doh) a little bit thinking it would allow the shoulder to contact the road more till I could buy new tires. When accelerating to merge onto the freeway I heard a BOOM and when I get out I notice the sidewall is separated from the tread. After a tow truck ride (which ending up with me scraping the bottom of my C West Rear coming off it) I realized my mistake and from now on I really keep an eye on pressures and make sure they are 33 or above.

 

How irionic, and I ran into this thread. I use to think the Potenza REO 40's were OK even with all the problems I had with mine, but after what happened to me this last time, I am really disliking these tires. I can't believe they can sell these things for like $270 apiece.


Glad to hear you came out of this OK. Those pics are scary.

 

Good excuse for new rims...

 

What most likely happend here is when you were driving you ran over a piece of metal or something that put a holein your tire. Now the combo of driving 75mph and the wheel being a 18" with a low profile tire and losing air will cause the tire to heat up at a rapid pace and the wheel drops down on to the part of the tire where the tread stops and the sidewall meet, this will cut through that tire faster than a hot knife through butter. This is a problem with all low profile tires and is showing up more often due to car coming with bigger wheels. The first time you could smell the rubber burning that tire was already cooked and was done any way so just be glad you saved it from a wreck. I would take the wheel in to a wheel repair shop and have them take a good look at itto see if it is bent/warped or bent at the hub of the wheel. And for the other thread where the other tire had a titty in it is due to the pothole they hit and it just took a little time for the belt to break fully. Even though low profile tires have a stiff sidewall to help them perform better they dont flex when you hit something so they bust on the sidewall like that.

 

SR71 is dead on with his info; I see it all the time where I work. Exact same results from exact same circumstances. I see it at least once a week on all tires no matter who makes them. tire looses pressure, can't support the weight of the vehicle, vehicle slowly (or rapidly) comes down directly onto the rubber of the tire, tire and wheel heat up, wheel cuts through and destroys what ever is left of the tire. typically you end up with only two pieces of tire left, the out side sidewall and the inside side wall, the tread usually gets dispersed all over the road and the rims becomes useless due to the metal fatigue cause by the heat and increased stress placed directly on the wheel. It may look ok, but for safety’s sake, you need to replace it.

 

That was your first mistake! More than likely there was way to much pressure in it. It's been my experience that most tire places put WAY to much air in them when they're checking for leaks after the tire "seats" to the rim.

I've had cases where the cold pressure was 55psi or more even when I tell them to put it at 35.

Sounds like the tire got to hot and due to the high pressure (and perhaps in conjunction with you running over a nail or something) blew itself off the rim.

Check the pressure on your other tires!Oh, there are places that do rim repair. I'd find one to take it to & let them evaluate.

Glad you're ok and good luck on the test results!