I had a flat tire a few weeks ago. It is my hope that you can learn from what I did right, and from what I did wrong.
I was headed to work in my 1989 Saleen Mustang. It was 5 am and I was blasting down the freeway at something like 70 mph. My commute is around 25 miles, or 30 minutes. I was almost there when I started to feel a strange vibration in the car. I did not have a clue as to what was happening. The car felt like it was going over a rough road, but I seemed to remember this section of the freeway as being in good condition. Then the thought crossed my mind that I was loosing control of the car. FLAT TIRE! is what my brain finally screamed out.
In all this time I had not slowed down, and looking back I think I drove about a mile while I was trying to analyze what the hell was going on. Luckily for me there was no traffic around me as I dove for the right side of the road. The car went through some wild gyrations as I was getting it stopped, and once I was safely parked on the side of the freeway I got out and looked around. When I got to the right rear corner of the car an amazing sight greeted me. The right rear tire outside sidewall was totally shredded. The entire sidewall was blown out. The wheel was not damaged so I was very glad that I had pulled over when I did. (The wheels on this car are no longer being manufactured. It would cost around $400-$500 to buy a set of 4 new ones.) Looking back all I can think is that whatever I ran over in the dark punctured the sidewall and started a (relatively) slow leak. That and the centrifugal force allowed the tire to basically keep its shape for as long as it did. When I looked closely at the destroyed tire I noticed that there was smoke coming out of the inside of it. This tire was a high performance low profile tire with a stiff sidewall. (It was a General Ultimax HP, sized 245/50 R16.)
The last time I had a flat tire before last week was in the same car, on the same corner of the car. But it happened 25 years ago. That time I also ran over something that punctured the sidewall of the tire. This happened about six months after I had bought the car new. (And it came equipped with General tires.) But the difference was that I was only going about 30 miles an hour back then, and that I was able to quickly realize what had happened while covering much less distance. So back then the tire was not repairable, but it was also not totally destroyed, unlike this time.
Well there was nothing else to do but jack up the car and put on the spare. Everything went well and 30 minutes later I was back on the road. Here is the part where I did things right. In this car the spare tire is mounted in the trunk, and it is mounted with the tire stem pointed down. So the only way to check the pressure in the spare is to remove it from the car. And over the 26 years I have owned this car I have been in the habit of around once a year removing the spare and filling it up to specifications. (Which in this case is 60 psi.) Well it turns out that when I needed the spare it had 50 psi. Which was enough.
The spare tire has written on the side wall “Convenience Spare-do not exceed 50 mph.” Well I did not feel very comfortable going much faster that 25-30 mph with the spare mounted on the car. An added complication was the fact that the car has a limited slip differential, and running two very different sized tires on the rear axle was going to mean that the differential was going to be doing a lot of slipping. I figured the slower I drove the car the less potential I would have for possible future differential problems.
I got into work and I was only half an hour late. I had all day to plan out what to do next, and when I was done with my job I got back into the car and I limped back home using the back roads. It was the middle of the day so there was not much traffic.
Here is the part that I did wrong. I bought the tires I had on the car over the internet. From Tirebuyer.com to be precise. Back in June of last year I was looking to replace my old tires. I had heard from lots of people that the internet was the place to get a great deal on new tires. I did some comparison shopping and it seemed to me that everyone was right. I got the front tires for $90 each, and I got the rear tires for $95 each. Shipping included!
Well it turns out that it was not such a good deal after all. Once I found a place to mount and balance the tires I was into the new tires for $410. Then I found out that the guy I had balance the tires the first time had an inaccurate balancing machine, so I had to get the tires re-balanced for another $40. OK, $450 later and I am off and running. I had put a whole 5,000 miles on the car when I had the flat that is the subject of this story.
I called Tirebuyer and they had some bad, bad, really bad, news for me. There was no warranty on the tire, and to make things even worse this particular tire was no longer being made. And when they were being made they did not make very many of them. So I had zero chance of finding another one. (My stomach just sank when I heard this. I just knew that I was going to be spending more money on some more tires.) This meant that I was looking at buying at least 2 new rear tires, or maybe 4 new tires if the new rear tires and the old front tires were not a good match.
Well, I vowed then and there to never buy another tire from the internet. I went to a local tire shop and they gave me a great price on 2 new Kumho tires for the rear. ($150 each, mounting and balancing included.) After driving on the Kumhos for a few days I could tell that they were much better tires than the Generals. The new rear tires had more traction, and a stiffer sidewall than the old General tires. And I knew that having more traction in the back end than in the front end was going to be a problem. So I put new Kumhos in the front too. (At $140 each.) I am into the Kumhos for $580 now, but I know that if I have a problem my local tire store will be happy to help me. And I know that if I need to just buy just one tire I will be able to get just one tire.
When I am able to sell the three old tires I have I will be able to get a little of my money back, but all in all this was an expensive lesson to learn. The old rule that “You get what you pay for” still holds true. And it seems like every time I forget that saying I get another life lesson that reminds me just how true that statement is.
In closing I would just like to encourage you to check your spare tire. You never know when you will need it. And if you find a deal that seems too good to be true it probably is just that. Oh, and one more thing, always carry a flashlight. I had one and it was a big help. It is hard to fix anything when everything is dark. Actually I had four flashlights that I could have used if needed. Two on me and two in the car. It pays to be prepared.
I have a really weird flat tire story. My mom was dying in the hospital, cancer. As I was on my way to go see her, my car got a flat right at the very last place I ever took a walk with her. And it was the only flat I’ve ever had. True story, sorry if it’s a bummer
I don’t think your story is a bummer.
Nothing, and no one, lasts forever. People check out, leaving us with memories. Thanks for sharing.
No, that is very touching. She was speaking to you at that moment, the same way my darling wife, who died on Valentine’s day this year, does to me every day. Far, far from being a bummer. More like a shining light!
Iw and kev. Sorry for your loss. Hope you had many happy years together.
I’ve done well with Internet tires. I run them on everything. My last flat was in December on my Audi. It was -10 degrees (F) outside, and the right front blew. I pulled the spare out, and started to freeze my hands off. If anybody has seen the OEM Audi jack, you know what’s coming next. The jack slipped, and dumped the car on the spare, pinching it and causing a leak. We ended up waiting over an hour for the motor club to send a tow truck.
Now, the ironic part- I ordered new tires and they were in the back of the car. That’s right- I had four brand new, unmounted tires in the back of the wagon. The people at the Walmart tire center had a laugh at that one.
That’s the only time that I’ve had a flat on the road. Being on a farm, I’ve probably changed hundreds of tires, but this was the only time I’ve ever had a jack slip. I know carry a bottle jack and a screw jack in the car instead of the stupid OEM widowmaker.
My last flat happened a block from my house in the Porsche a couple of years ago. I was driving through the neighborhood when I heard a thunk and then a thumping noise at every revolution of the tire. I pulled over and realized that I had somehow run over a 5mm Allen wrench that went through the tire. Drove back home and pretty much saw the tire deflating. Jacked it up, took the wheel and tire off and went to my tire guy. He was able to fix it but I never really trusted that tire again. I guess it is the one instance where I was happy that rear tires on a 911 tend to wear fairly quickly! The Allen wrench is now part of my toolkit.
I once (many years ago) ran over a 1/2 inch broken drill bit with my right rear tire turning left and did a 360 in my ’75 Rabbit. Instant blowout. Since the bit was broken I threw it (and the tire) away.
I’ve been thinking of spare tires a lot recently because we’re shopping around for a new minivan, and one of the models we’re considering — a Toyota Sienna AWD — does not come with a spare tire. It has run-flat tires, but no spare.
That makes me nervous. First, it compels you to always buy run-flat tires, which are more expensive and offer much less choice. But more importantly, there’s no spare! The most recent time I needed a spare tire was about 8 years ago when I had a flat tire, and it turned out to be a cracked wheel — something you definitely need a spare for, since a run-flat tire would be of no use.
If we do get an AWD Sienna, I suspect I may buy a mini-spare to take on long trips, but that seems to be an unnecessary hassle.
In short, even though flat tires don’t occur too often, I still consider a spare essential, even with run-flat tires.
One of the reasons I gave up my Solstice was that it had neither run flat tyres nor a spare. You got a small air compressor and supposedly had a can of some kind of fix-a-flat (mine didn’t).
Yeah, it’s probably irrational, but that bothered the hell out of me. This from a guy who rides motorcycles, which means any time you get a puncture, you’re being towed. Period.
No you are completely right about this. The Solstice was a bigger car BUT had piss poor trunk space and no spare tire unlike the Miata did.
Your GM POS will probably need to be towed for a breakdown long before a flat tire. And the flat tire won’t be GM’s fault.
For what it is worth the sidewall of a tire usually fails because of low tire pressure, not from a puncture. The low or declining pressure causes the sidewall to flex too much as the tire rotates, and the more the sidewall flexes the more heat it generates (just like repeatedly bending a piece of metal will cause the flex point to heat up); when the sidewall gets hot enough it fails.
Low tire pressure can come from a tread puncture, valve failure, or neglect. But sidewall failure is usually the result of another problem. The federally mandated tire pressure monitoring systems have forewarned (and prevented) more tire failures than we will ever know.
I check the pressure in my tires every 2-3 weeks. I took a good look at the tread on the flat tire and I could not see anything there that would have caused a leak.
It was dark when I started out on my trip, so maybe the tire had lost some pressure overnight for some strange reason. But I am in the habit of always looking at the car just to see if anything looks strange.
I run metal valve stems on the car. I think I just ran over something that whipped up and stabbed the side wall and the air started leaking out of the hole. It was probably a slow leak, but it was enough to cause the side wall to fail.
YES!!!!!!! Always do a walkaround before getting in. Pilots do it, and you are piloting your own ship, so why not?
Must have been about 7 to 8 years ago, left rear. Ideal conditions to change the tire though, as the car was in my own garage. There’s a full-grown spare on the rear door of my Land Cruiser. Changed the tire, drove to the dealership nearby and they repaired it immediately. It was a nice little round hole.
Since then I do have a steel pipe in my car, so I can lengthen that little fancy fru-fru short Toyota wrench that came with the car. Now I’m sure the nuts will come off easier….
Must be nice to be monied. The lugs should not have been tight enough to need a pipe to loosen them. 100 foot-pounds is surprisingly little torque (My alignment guy from years ago let me try it, and it didn’t even feel tight when it clicked.). I must have been tightening mine to 200 or so before he showed me that. The tool that comes with the car is plenty long enough to get the 100 ft.-lb. you need.
First, be sure to periodically check your spare’s tire pressure.
My Flat from Hell was on a family vacation to the AZ White Mountains. On hwy 191, our XV10 Camry Wagon got a puncture on a rear tire. Put the spare on, continued to Safford where we got a replacement of unknown pedigree at a service station. Resumed trip thru Morenci (huge Phelps Dodge open-pit copper mine) & finally to our campsite in the White Mtns. In the middle of the night, our young son had an unprecedented seizure, so in panic we bundled in & drove downhill to Springerville (just a clinic there), and on the winding way, that tire deflated again, but no evident puncture. Scraped my knuckles replacing the wheel with the spare. Hence my warning about spare tires.
CC EFFECT ! .
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I’m right now driving from California to Massachusetts with my Big Brother in his recently purchased 1987 Mercedes 300SDL , a W-126 land barge that handles really well , a good thing as you’ll see .
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I’d asked him to replace at least the bald on both outer sides left front tire and inflate all of them to 40 # including the spare as he has *so* much crap in the trunk the rear end squats about 3″ .
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He told me he’d checked the spare and made sure each time has 35# checked cold .
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He routinely ignores my mechanical advice , I routinely have to fix his mistakes 1,200 miles from home on the side of the road…. notice : he’s a Lawyer and I never , _ever_ question his Legal Advice =8-) .
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Anyway , going East across Colorado’s empty Plains I heard ” Zzzzzip,thwapthwapthwap ” and told him ‘ there goes the left rear tire , don’t stamp on the brakes , just let off the gas and ease to the side ‘ .
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I unloaded the (huge & stuffed full) trunk then used the good factory Bilstein jack to change it out ~ as mentioned , the tread had separated right where it meets the sidewall due to over flexing heat buildup because it had too little pressure , he said thanx for swapping it out rapidly & safely , we motored on and the next day in Mo. the right rear let go , same failure tread edge de laminated at speed , he sort of flipped out , I said no worries , I’ll buy you a set of new tires , the super nice AAA Tow Truck Driver ‘ EDDIE ‘ took us to a tire shop that was just closing up where they remarkably had the correct size 205/65/R15″ tire in stock , sadly they were Firestones , I’d not put those on my own car , better to beg old baldies , mount ’em and limp on but whatever , the car rides nice now and no longer drifts to the left , (I told him alignment with four mis matched tires wasn’t smart) , doesn’t pull to either side under braking (it still has a badly warped front brake disc) . and the speedo is now accurate too .
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I’ve got more flat tires stories than most , nowadays I buy new tires in sets of five just in case and have not had any flats in a long time on my own vehicles .
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-Nate
So weird, I had the same thing happen to me as you, but with a 1983 Mercedes 240D. What an odd coincidence
Strange but a good friend of mine had the same issue on his 1982 300D. Must be the design of the Mercedes suspension. He put expensive Michelins on that car and within 20k miles the inside tread of the tires were worn terribly, so much so that the steel cords were showing and he eventually had a blowout with two of them.
Personally, I haven’t had a flat tire (knock on wood). But a couple of years ago a couple friends and I had a flat-tire (mis)adventure up on Angeles Crest Highway above Los Angeles.
So the backstory was that my friends and I decided to go take a drive up on Angeles Crest. It was late afternoon and we had a pretty late start. The plan (as I understood it) was to drive east to west, but somehow the group in the other car decided to only drive from the western terminus at La Canada to just Mt. Wilson. My friend who was driving her recently acquired (used) ’08 Scion TC, and I decided to continue with the original plan (east to west) and meet up with everyone else at Mt. Wilson.
As we got past Wrightwood, the sun was setting and it got dark pretty quickly out there. As we were coming through a “S” like curve in the road, there was a fairly large rock right in the lane. I yelled “Rock!”, my friend panicked gripped the steering wheel and we plowed the driver’s side tire right into it. The rock shattered, the TPMS light came on, and we coasted off into a conveniently placed turnout.
Now the fact that the car was used plays in significantly here. For some reason or another, that car had a spare tire, but no jack. I guess the prior owner decided to hold on to it as some sort of a souvenir of his ownership. In any event, we were in a pickle.
It was dark out, and we were stuck about halfway through the Angeles Crest Highway. Cell service was non-existent and there wasn’t a call box for miles. Oh and to make it better, we were separated from our friends and they weren’t going to come looking for us. Great.
So we put the hazards on, locked the car and started walking back down the road. We got maybe a quarter mile or so when we saw a Grand Cherokee coming up the road. We flagged them down and told the couple inside about our predicament. They were sheriffs from Louisiana in town on a conference, and luckily their rental Grand Cherokee had a jack.
So all in all, we changed the tire and had a slow 50 mph drive all the way back home. Oh and when we got back we put the flat tire back on, and my friend took it home. (In our inexperience, we knocked the car off the jack, killing the jack). The next morning another friend went over and tried sprinkling a few nails on the ground in the garage to make it look like the car had gotten a flat from that. Since ultimately, as far as her parents knew, that car was only supposed to have traveled a couple miles (not the 100+ up Angeles Crest Highway) that day.
She still doesn’t have a jack.
Interesting that you mention that the tires were Altimax HP’s. My Accent came with these when I bought it with 42,000 miles. They performed decently enough but were the most fragile tires I’ve ever owned. And they weren’t low-profile–185/65 R14. A month after getting the car, I was told that one of the front tires couldn’t be balanced properly because it was defective, so it got moved to the back and stayed there. I had slow leaks at least four times with those tires, although they were able to be plugged. By 25,000 miles, I was sick of them, and they were pretty much shot anyway. One of the problems with unidirectional tires is that they can’t be rotated properly, so it’s hard to make them wear evenly over the long term. I replaced them with Altimax RT43’s and Cooper tires from Sears, all of which have been great, especially for the price.
Beautiful Mustang!
The ex-mrs had caught something in the sidewall on her Cavalier years back. She drove home on a flat front tire, about 15 miles. Luckily there was no wheel damage (16″ chrome wheels) but the tire had to be cut off of the rim.
I went to Discount Tire online and ordered 4 new tires.
What a hassle. They sent two 215/55/16 and two 215/55/20 tires.
What did I order? I ordered four 205/55/16 tires, the stock size.
I call them and they say they’re going to give me an RGA number and new labels.
After two days I call back as nothing showed up. “We’re sorry there must have been a mix-up” and they agree to re-send.
Two days later.. Nada..
This went on for two weeks before finally getting the RGA and my refund.
I used to use Discount Tire exclusively up to that point. I haven’t even price shopped them since and I will never buy tires online again.
Thanks for the Mustang comment. I wrote up a story on the car last year.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/long-term-coal-1989-saleen-mustang-25-years-together-and-still-going-strong/
Yes, it is very frustrating try to deal with a company that is far away. And once they have your money they don’t seem to be very interested in helping you when you have a problem.
Matador,
The only time I’ve had a car slide off a jack it was an Audi, too. German cars, at least the ones I’ve owned (Audi, VW, Porsche 914, Ford Capri and Fiesta) have had THE most idiotically designed jacks.
My last 3 flat tires were “discovered” while the car (and truck) were parked. The right rear tire on my Civic looked a bit “fat” on the bottom. And when driven, the car (seemed) to handle oddly. It turned out it had about half the recommended tire pressure, and a small hole in the tread. Then the left rear tire developed a slow leak. For the time being I’m keeping an air compressor on standby.
The Audi has been the only foreign car that I’ve owned so far. I’ll probably replace it with another, but I’m throwing the jack out, For anyone who’s never seen the Audi jack, it’s basically half of a scissor jack.
I saw the car starting to move, so I quickly lept back out of the way. I wonder how many people have been injured by that thing.
The sad part- that’s basically the same jack that they used on the Q7.
I had a flat once on my Citroen DS20. This gave me a chance to demonstrate the DS’s party piece:
– undo one bolt to remove the rear wing (fender)
– raise suspension to top position, place stand under the chassis rail at the appropriate corner
– drop suspension to bottom position, and the flat tire is left in the air
I was tempted to try the driving-on-three-wheels trick to get home and change the tire there, but I didn’t think the London police would like that.
Showoff! 😀
2/10/82 the day after my 25th birthday.My front left tyre was slashed and I jacked my Sunbeam Rapier fastback up one handed as I had hurt my left arm by falling on my back with my arm underneath.It was my birthday and I was horribly drunk and never felt it(Alcohol,high heels and wet pavements don’t mix well). I drove to the outpatients at the hospital and they put a cast on my broken wrist and put my arm in a sling.The only time I was glad my Rapier was an auto as I drove home one handed.
Oh my God, that’s so sad. That’s a damn country song.
If it was a 57 Chevy it would be a proper country song
More like an El Camino.
Now if I got home from hospital and found the dog had been run over and caught my boyfriend cheating with my best friend it would have been the ultimate country song!
It’s still not the ultimate country/western song. You still haven’t mentioned mama, jail, or trains. 😉
Or cousins, a bottle of JD, or the 3 legged dog. 😀
Only if it was a prison hospital, you had to take the train home, and your momma was waiting for you with the pickup truck.
What’s a tyre? My computer even did a spell check on me for typing it. I live in North Caroliner, so at least I know what a “tar” is.
It’s British.
I’m sure you knew what that is… No need to be wise about it, it’s a British spelling of tire… Same thing.
Just like I HOPE, you don’t think us Yankees, Brits, Aussies, Midwesterners, West Coasters know what a “tar” is.
Really?
Got one recently on my 59 Minx, culprit was a ba screw on my carport floor one of the hazards of working on cars at home, I simply swapped both 195×60 14 rears for a pair of 205×60 15s to raise the gearing and carried on, so I now run 14s up front and 15s out back, car handles great and cruises at or above our speed limit easily.
My most recent flat happened at work I too heard or rather felt a slight thumping sound coming from the rear of the vehicle after stopping I discovered one reat tyre had thrown the tread but being in a 8 wheeler truck fully laden pulling a laden 8 wheel trailer at the time theres very little can be done except call base and get them to send the tyre man along we dont carry spares or jacks it keeps the tare weight down and I’m not paid to jack up 45 tonnes of truck and load.
And then this.
CC effect.
The last time I had a flat was 1985, not interesting…
I haven’t even heard or seen any flats in action for 20 years or so. Steel-belted radials are the best invention of the 20th century …. Until just YESTERDAY. Heard the unmistakable rumble-and-flap sound, but didn’t recognize it because it’s so completely obsolete. Then watched a ‘tuned’ and lowered (now even more lowered) black-primer Honda limp along the street at 10 MPH toward the nearest gas station. Highly satisfying.
Oh, yes!!!! I think I just had an orgasm over that. Wish I could see one of those myself. I would drive by, slowly, smiling and pointing to the factory wheels and correctly sized weight-and heat-ranged (89H) Goodyear Assurance tires.
On my honeymoon in my 1989 Lincoln Town Car, on route 495 outside of Boston we were in the 3rd lane doing about 80. Traffic was heavy so it took awhile to get over to the breakdown lane to inspect the noise that I was hearing. To my amazement, the right rear tire was flat with a chunk of metal that punctured it in 4 places. That car was so smooth that if I hadn’t heard the noise I don’t think I’d have known that there was a problem.
My most recent flat tire was a couple of months ago, at work. I went out to eat lunch in my car, and the left front tire was totally flat. So, I scarfed down a bag of peanuts and changed the damn tire right away, so I wouldn’t have to worry about it at quitting time. My car is about 23 years old, but this was obviously the first time the little scissors jack had ever been used. My car has one of those damn space-save donuts, too, but since I hate those things, I have a real full-sized tire and wheel that I use instead. It takes up quite a bit of trunk space, but it has the virtue of being an actual tire. Even though I used a fancy cross-shaped lug wrench for extra leverage, those nuts were really, really hard to remove. I figured, “Mike, you’re gettin’ old… can’t even change a flat without working up a sweat.” But, when I took the tire in to be patched, the guys at the tire store fixed the flat tire, but wouldn’t actually put it on the car, because one of the lug studs was cross-threaded and likely to snap off if they tried to take my spare off of the car. Okay, so that explained why it was so difficult to remove the lugs. It was late in the day, and the tire guy advised me to come in the next morning,”as early as you can,” and they would replace the stud and mount the good tire.
Okay, fine. But I remembered reading right here on CC (in an article on a 1992 Corolla by Mr.Niedemeyer) how easy it was to replace a lug stud on that car. Since my car is essentially a 1992 Corolla wearing a Chevy bowtie, I decided I’d replace the bad stud myself. The designers at Toyota were thoughtful enough to put a little notch in the shield behind the hub assembly, a notch big enough to push out the bad stud and put a new one back in. Pretty cool, when they design a car to be easy to work on like that. I replace all four studs, and I think the hardest part was getting the cotter pin out.
So now, all my neighbors thinks I’m a mechanical genius. Sorry to be a flat-tire Pollyanna here, but my last flat tire ended up being kind of fun, and it looks like I’m officially back in the habit of doing my own maintenance.
An actual flat has been a long time. Usually I notice that air is escaping from a tire with a nail in it so I get it fixed before it goes all the way down. The current car and previous two have/had tire pressure monitors which I check (I can see the current pressure for each tire) nearly each time I drive the car (or every other day). A nail or even a screw will usually result in a slow leak so you have a few days to see a problem coming up. The CTS has run flats on it (Pirelli’s 255/35 19 inch).
Last flat was almost a year ago.
Heard something ping off the bottom of the car, and started feeling a little wobble 30 seconds later. Whatever I ran over, gouged the inner sidewall on the left rear.
I will say, if you have to change a tire on the side of an urban freeway, 8 am on the Sunday of the July 4th weekend is probably about the safest time to do it. 😉
Being in the tire business most of my life I could bore you with stories but I won’t.
Excellent choice buying the Kumhos, I do recommend that brand anytime someone asks.
Ok, you sell tires and recommend those crappy tires? I have had 2 sets of those, and except for Yokohama, they were absolutely the WORST tires I have ever had installed on a car, at any price. At those two times, I had to buy by price. The first set in 2008 made my Accord drive funny; that is, it pulled to the right when they were installed. I got home and switched the front tires side to side and it helped. BAD TYRE. (That’s a callback.) So, when I rotated them for the first time, it led to the left. ANOTHER BAD TIRE. The second set I had to buy was just as bad. I noticed the manufacturing dates were different on them, but they were in pairs, so I matched them up and that actually made them barely tolerable. They roared from day one, with a roar that sounded like my engine revving to about 3000 rpm all the time. That roar went away after about 20000 miles and was replaced by another different roar. One bittersweet good point; I had to endure them for 58200 miles. Anyone who thinks the roaring was because of alignment or rotation can stop thinking that right now. The Goodyears I have now, proper heat and load range for the car (as were the Kumhos), are silent (I mean, whisper silent) and perfectly smooth. I will NEVER recommend or buy another Kumho.
That’s odd. I’ve done well with both Yokohama and Kumho, though I prefer Cooper tires. I’ve had three sets of Goodyears on my cars, and I wouldn’t spend money on a fourth.
I think that it depends on the car. Our Impala ate through tires, but it did the best with Hankooks or Firestones.
My 2007 SRX came with Goodyears. They lasted 40,000 miles, as expected from the ratings. I replaced with Michelin’s, which lasted beyond the additional 50,000 miles that I put on before trading the SRX in. But in slushy snow neither set of tires were really good or bad when half worn out. I suspect that most tires are not great in slush when half the tread is gone. The ATS came with Michelin run flats. They were OK on slippery roads. My current car, the CTS came with Pirelli’s, which seem quite good on slippery roads, better than I would have thought.
When we bought our 2011 CR-V EX it had Goodyear Assurance Fuel Savers on it. They were horrible. Loud, hard riding, horrible in the wet weather, overall just not a very good fit for the CR-V. I replaced them with Yokohama Tornantes and the difference is incredible. The CR-V rides like a dream now, is ultra quiet and handles better than ever. On our other car, the 1999 Accord EX, I put an inexpensive Wal-mart set of Goodyear LS2’s on it and they are great! Quiet, ride nice and excellent in wet weather. I truly think some cars are suited to certain tires better than others. Sometimes it is trial and error, the problem being tires are not cheap and easy to replace once you have them. I always try places that offer the “trial test drive”. Worth its weight in gold, especially if you are picky about tires like I am.
The last time I had a flat tire on a car would’ve been approximately 1995. It appeared to be a piece of broken plastic from a car accident that was stuck in my tire. I guess I ran over some debris from an accident that had recently happened. I got out and put on the spare and had the tire plugged from the inside at a service station. I do not understand people who drive on a flat tire and ruin it. Are they so pathetically lazy they can’t get off their butt and remove a few lug nuts?
That and pathetically ignorant. But they know how to keep that phone glued to their face. Lost generation.
One morning in 1985, I had to borrow my mum’s 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450SEL after discovering the unexpected mechanical issue in my car.
Nothing eventful until I stopped at the intersection and noticed smoke emanating from the right side. I walked round to look for any source of smoke. I was astounded to see the tyre mostly shredded and barely holding onto the wheel.
I wondered for a while why I didn’t feel any indication of tyre going flat. Ah, the mystery solved: my mum’s car was equipped with hydropneumatic suspension, which did an effective job of masking the whole thing from me as my friend who owned Citroën DS21 attested.
My father was understandably very angry and blared at me for my stupidity of driving long way before noticing something amiss. Some years later, the exact thing happened to my mum. She reported not hearing or feeling anything out of sort, too. He apologised for raising ruckus at me in the first place.
Too bad the tyre pressure monitor wasn’t a standard fitment until twenty years on…
Two weeks ago I was driving through dried flood debris on the highway when I picked up nails/spikes in TWO tires. By the time the TPMS went off and the ride went soft, I was able to limp to a gas station to air them up. Then I drove straight to Sam’s and bought a full set of Pirelli’s to replace the unimpressive Continentals that came with the car.
I just came home yesterday after being gone for 2 weeks and when I opened my garage, I was greeted by my 1968 Coronet with a flat tire. I own several cars that are all driven hard and driven often so flats are a way of life for me. No big deal, I just plug it and move on.
The last blowout I got at speed though was on my 1969 Charger about 2 years ago on I-81 near the MD/WV state line at about 80 mph. It was the R/R tire and it was no big deal; I just held the steering wheel steady, pulled off on the shoulder and put the spare on. What was a big deal though is that it was the middle of July and it was around 100 degrees; the car has a black vinyl interior and no air conditioning so I would up driving the additional 200 miles home in my underwear to try and keep cool.
Had two last year, one on the Buick, had parked on the street and came out to find the left front tire, which had been losing air a bit during the previous few days and which I was planning to replace, completely flat. Put the full size spare on, and got a new tire that afternoon.
Then a couple of months later a piece of metal punctured my former ’93 Cadillac’s sidewall on the Hutchinson River Parkway…the usual hissing and flapping sound. This was dicey because it was a heavily trafficked area and almost no shoulder. I was quite leery about changing the tire without a spotter under those conditions, fortunately the HELP truck NYS has on its suburban parkways rolled up about that time, and he changed it out while I acted as spotter. He was equally uncomfortable changing it there and we were both relieved when a trooper pulled up so that oncoming traffic would see the flashing lights and slow down. Too many stories about people getting killed in situations like these by traffic that doesn’t look or slow.
I blew out the two right side tires on my ’77 Chevelle in January of this year, hit a pothole and it chewed up the sidewalls. I stopped, put the spare on it, using the bumper jack, and sat there for a bit to collect how I was going to get a car with still a flat tire home. I called the insurance company, they called a wrecker and I sat with the car for two hours.
To protect the LSD next time put the spare on the front and transfer the good front tire to replace the flat one on the rear.
Exactly. A little pull temporarily to one side is a lot cheaper than a burned out LSD clutch.
That is a good idea. But the problem was I did not really trust the jack to raise the rear corner of the car. And I sure as hell did not trust the jack to raise the entire passenger side of the car.
I would have been there by the side of the road for a long time if I was swapping out three tires instead of just two.
If I had a floor jack and some jack stands, and some good tools instead of just a tire iron, then putting a front tire on the back, and the spare on the front would have been an option. As it was I was happy to just get the car off the freeway.
Jack up the front tire first, put the temporary spare on it. Lower jack. Jack up back tire, put front tire on the back. Then put flat in trunk.
I got lucky the last time I had a flat. I was at the assisted living facility to take my Dad to a radiation treatment after his bladder cancer surgery, and as I pulled under the canopy and got out, I could hear the right rear tire hissing but it still was about half way up. So out of the rain I was able to put on the spare. It had a cut in it on the edge, and so had to be replaced. About 4 years later, my niece was using the Jetta as I repaired her car, this was on July 4th in the evening when she called from the side of the freeway, so no tire stores were open. She was on the freeway with her kids, so I drove out in my truck with my floor jack and just put on one of the studded tires I had in the garage. This way she still had a spare. The trunk was full of her shopping stuff and the car was in a bad place so I didn’t want to go digging for the spare. The tire had exactly the same kind of cut, and it was the mate to the other tire I replaced years earlier. I think both tires may have been defective, by that time the second tire was about 10 years old, but still had better than 50 percent of the tread left. I am glad today’s tires are so durable, flats used to be so common, now they are really rare. I always carry a full size spare after a nightmare experience where I got a flat in the mini spare a few miles down the road in a monsoon rainstorm at 2:00 am after getting a blow out in the front earlier. I wound up putting the full size original flat tire on the rear and driving 40 miles at 45 mph in the rain, which kept the tire cool enough to get me home. Lucky for me the Jetta has little weight on the rear. When I took it off the next day, the inside sidewall was nothing but threads and steel belts. Carry a full size spare always now.
My last flat was not actually a flat, but a delimination of the tread on the rear tyre on my Fiesta, at about 65mph.
A strange noise that quickly subsided to a quiet strange noise, and a slight vibration.
This was on a main dual carriageway, Sunday night and dark. Youre absolutely right – a torch is vital (I keep a wind up torch in the car for just this type of event).
This car has a compact spare, nominally limited to 50 mph, and it was 2 days for the local tyre shop to get replacements.
And the previous one? About 18 years ago.
I had 2 cars (both Ford Focus) on which i never used the jacks, in over 240,000 miles
My last flat was on my 70 Mustang, about four months ago. I had bought a new set of tires for my Ranger wheels from Pep Boys. I was sure to buy road hazard coverage. Before everyone calls me a cheapskate for buying tires from Pep Boys. I’ve had good luck with their Futura brand which is made by Cooper. I’ve run through several sets on my cars with zero problems. Anyhow I noticed a slow leak and found a drywall screw in the tread. Took the wheel to the shop and they repaired it properly with an inside patch, not a plug. Two weeks later I noticed another slow leak in the same tire..This time I found another screw in the base of the sidewall. i took the wheel back and they replaced the tire with a new one. Just paid the pro-rated cost of around ten bucks. Now these were not expensive tires only around 55 bucks a piece, but it’s always a good idea to buy the road hazard coverage. Back in the 90s when I could afford to drive a nice car , I had just replaced a set of Goodyear Z rated tires on my 94 Seville STS. The bill was about 900.00 so I declined the road hazard coverage.The salesperson was surprised but said That I could add it later. There was a display of a cut away tire with a screwdriver puncturing the sidewall and a sign that read “Did you forget road hazard?” As I drove away I was mulling that message over, I went one block made a U-turn and purchased the road hazard coverage. Talk about trying to exercise false economy!
Bear with me while I provide a safety tip, I’m a retired CHP officer and I have sustained flats at over 80 mph. several times while chasing violators. First when you feel something “funny” lift your foot off the accelerator while signaling to move to the right,. maintain a flexible arm hold on the steering wheel as it starts to oscillate back and forth a bit. If you get a death grip on the wheel you will only succeed in feeding more unwanted motion into you car’s chassis. Maintain directional control of your car, stay in your lane as you access the situation..As your car starts to slow be sure to start moving to the right shoulder. Maintain some speed, maybe 45-50 as you merge over. Do not come to a stop in the roadway. Always try to avoid moving to the left unless there is a real wide shoulder in the center divider. you can end up partially blocking the #1ln. with traffic swerving around you at high speed.I have come to the rescue of many people trapped in their cars in this situation..It was a very dangerous situation for both of us. Once on the right shoulder as far as possible from traffic, you can call for assistance or change the tire yourself.Always face oncoming traffic while changing the tire. If you have another person with you have them watch oncoming traffic also. They don’t need to watch you and kibbutz. Radial tires cannot be run very long flat before the sidewalls are damaged..If you walk out to your parked car and find a flat it can usually be fixed successfully with an inside patch no plugs unless an emergency.
I hope I don’t come off as a know- it -all, I’m only posting this because AmazonRay wrote that he didn’t really know what to do in this situation. If you have young drivers at home, share this info with them. Stay safe.
Thanks for the advice Jose. I am always happy to learn from somebody who has been there and done that.
I think the main problem I had at the time I had the flat was just figuring out what the hell was going on with the car. Once I realized I had a flat I was headed to the right and slowing the car down as best, and as fast, as I could.
“Always try to avoid moving to the left unless there is a real wide shoulder in the center divider”
I’m sorry but I strenuously disagree with this statement. You should always avoid moving to the left NO MATTER WHAT. Always move to the right side of the road and get completely off the road! When you are ready to get back on the road you DO NOT want to merge into traffic from the left side! Worse than that, if by some stroke of bad luck you will need to hoof it a few miles, you DO NOT WANT TO BE ON FOOT IN THE MEDIAN.
My last dramatic one was several years ago, in a Ford Ranger. I was driving to a hamfest (swap meet for ham radio types) in another state to sell. About a mile away, I heard a thump. I thought I hit something, but didn’t see anything. When I pulled into the hamfest, the guy taking tickets said “you know, you’ve got a flat tire”. Which explained the thump.
I evidently ran over a wrench.
Moral of the story, whether brick & mortar or internet, do your homework.
I haven’t had a truly flat tire in a long time. Over the last 18 years or so, all my problems have been screws in a tire, slowly letting the air out. All but one was fixible.
But around 1997, I had a bad week of tire hassles. I was driving my 1993 Grand Cherokee around Toledo, and I came up suddenly on a pile of screws and stuff that came off a contractor’s truck, the driver was picking the stuff up around the corner as I drove over the stuff on the street I was on. Almost instantly, the tire started going down. I was close to the local Goodyear store, and I drove there figuring the tire was a goner anyway. And it was, there was a big deck screw in the sidewall. An hour later, I was on my way. I got reimbursed from the contractor so I was ok with it, not really upset at all. The next day, I’m on the other side of town and I ran over what appeared to be some cardboard in the road. It’s still a mystery as to what it was, but it destroyed my other front tire. I had to pay for that one. I had it aligned, as it was pulling to the left slightly, and went on my way again. About 3 days later, and I still can’t figure out how I managed to not blow my new tires along with the two old tires in the rear, I was going down the freeway when a truck full of lumber and building stuff dumped a bunch of those wavy things that are used for framing, and both rear tires exploded instantly. I had to sit there in the street, and wait for the tow truck, which came from the same Goodyear store I had bought the first tire at. The truck that dumped the stuff took off, and I never saw what company it belonged to. So at the end of the week, I had 4 new tires and about $400 out of my pocket.
Funny you should ask. Middle of last week. The Crown Vic was sitting low in the left rear. No. 2 son had apparently run over a nail. I have a compressor and it held air long enough to drive to Discount Tire, where I got to use the road hazard warranty for the 3rd time since the Michelins went on it in 2007. Of course, the flat was the newest of the 4 tires. $17 for the warranty certificate on the new tire and we were on our way.
The worst flat (and strangest) was with my 1991 Escort GT. The car was only a week old, and ironically I was driving about a mile from the dealership where I bought it. All of a sudden I heard the strangest noise. It was a bang and then a ka-klunk ka-klunk ka-klunk. I pulled over and to my amazement I had run over an adjustable wrench that actually went through the tire and into the alloy rim putting a huge whole in both! Those Eagle GT+4’s weren’t cheap, either! $500 later I had a new rim and tire, thanks to Mr. Adjustable Wrench!!
My last blowout where I’ve had to use the spare was probably 20 years ago. I had 2 or 3 of those when I was in high school in college, no doubt due to the dubious quality of my cars and tires back then. I’ve had flats since then but they’ve all been slow leaks I was able to get to a shop with.
I still won’t buy a vehicle without a spare though. Well, at least not a daily driver. The modern “fix-a-flat” trend is a disturbing one IMO. I don’t think most people buying cars with no spare even realize it until it’s too late. I know I was surprised my mom’s Town and Country didn’t come with one.
Last flat I had was days after I bought my current 2003 Subaru Outback–ran over a nail at a new housing development (that’ll teach me to go house-hunting) and needed a new tire. Luckily, the tires were new enough not to cause any issues with the AWD.
Worst flat experience ever, downtown Chicago, 4th of July, 1998. Had a flat in the middle of the fireworks crowd, and a CPD Police Explorer (quasi-police training for youth) kid helped me change the tire and get back on the road. We limped back to Madison the next day on the safety spare at 45MPH.
I don’t recall one in the last 12 years or so, but it does happen a lot in LA–a truck spills debris on the freeway, and a string of 5-6 cars will all end up waiting for AAA. So it’s not out of the question.
My worst flat story ever is…
When I was coming home from working at my job, three towns over, back in 1995… Driving my 1983 Datsun Nissan Stanza 4door hatchback.
It was Friday, driving the speed limit, and singing along to a good tune. When, I noticed I was very low on gas, and thought, “No worries, will get gas near the nearest shopping area exit.”
Within a mile or so, from the exit, I looked in my rear view mirror, and saw nothing but a cloud of billowing white smoke, accompanied by a loud thwapping sound.
The smoke looked like a scene from a James Bond film. I kept driving till I got to the exit( No choice, really, couldn’t see the oncoming cars and didn’t want to get rear-ended).
As the smoke cleared, the car that was behind the Stanza, was a State Trooper car.
Great, if you needed assistance… but, my license was suspended at the time.
On top of that, the car insurance had lapsed. Lovely.
Talk about a sucky end to a busy work week.
It cost me only $90, to get the Stanza outta impound, it sat there almost three weeks. Luckily, the tow company were friends of mine.
Interesting and unfortunate application of the CC effect – my last flat (and first ever at speed) was the day this was posted! Dad and I were driving down to buy a tractor an hour and a half from home and had nearly arrived at the seller’s location when one of the 4 tires on the trailer blew. Symptoms were very similar to what Ray described, though even more obscure as it was on the trailer, not the truck. Probably inadvertently drove about a mile or two before exiting and investigating – tire was destroyed, but fortunately rim was fine. Even more fortunte was that the trailer, which I was borrowing from a friend, had a spare mounted on it. Most fortunate of all was that it happened when the trailer was empty, and not when the ~3600 lb tractor was on it! Don’t know exactly what caused it, but being on the passenger side, probably some roadside debris.
I went to the midnight showing of the last Dark Knight (Batman) movie. Came out to a flat. A patch had blown out. Hey, at least it wasn’t HOT cause had it been in the daytime, that FL sun would have baked me.