Tire failure: bubble x3 - WTF?
 

Mrs jwasbury's Mini got new OE conti tires this summer (from Tire Rack). Within a month, one of the tires had formed a bubble on the sidewall. Tire rack's initial response was it likely hit a pothole, and would be covered under road hazard insurance they include with every tire. Inspection of the tire revealed no evidence of road hazard damage and it was ultimately covered under the manufacturer warranty.

One month later, another sidewall bubble forms, wife gets tire replaced at dealer, brings old tire home so I can deal with tire rack on warranty (I'm thinking bad batch of tires from Tire Rack, but haven't dealt with it yet).

Today, I note another sidewall bubble has appeared. Looking back at invoice from dealer, I see that its the same tire they just replaced. WTF? Is it possible that there is something wrong with the wheel that would lead to the sidewall bubble? Or is it more likely that Continental has made a huge run of $hit tires?

Top 377 Complaints and Reviews about Continental Tires

I sense some new tires will be on order after reading that.

I had a bout of sidewall bubbles on some Michellin PS2s on our 993. This was in 2006. Same type of weirdness. America's Tire (Discount Tire) where we purchased them looked at them and told us same as you... But no sign of external damage.

Had a front and rear bubble on opposite sides of the car within a month of each other.

Warranty covered it no problem.

Still unnerving though.

Cooper

^not pretty.

Something must have changed recently though. These are the exact tires that came on the car and we had none of these problems for the last 2 years since the car was new. Reviews for the tire at Tire Rack were not bad either.

Potholes was my first thought. Bad batch second...

These are not summer tires, are they ?

They are "max performance summer" category tires. They are the OE run flat tires.

Run flat?

Well there's the problem. Your puttin air in them ;-).