Left rear tire blow out...while parked in garage!!

[motorcop]

On Thanksgiving I took a ride with my 12 year old son in our 1984 Cab. While cruising at highway speed I felt a wierd vibration coming from the rear of the car, almost like a wheel out of balance. I planned on replacing the tires over the winter since they were due, but they have worn nice and even and I have no complaints. Anyhow, we make it home and park it in the garage. I take a quick peek under and around and see nothing out of the norm. On goes the cover and inside for some turkey. Fast forward to this morning, I go into the garage and notice the car has a lean to the left (drivers side)....flat tire, great. Out comes the compressor. Air is coming out as fast as it's going in...terrific, bead came off the rim. Break out the floor jack and breaker bar, off comes the wheel and what do you think I find? A FIVE INCH gash on the bottom of the tire! No it has not been slashed, but rather a belt had seperated (remember the vibration?) Took it to a friend at a tire shop who confirmed and said it does occur sometimes....my luck. Thankfully it did not let go on Thanksgiving and wreck my fuch rim or worse yet. By the way they are Good Year Eagle F1's 225 50 VR16. Replacements are on the way. I attached a couple of pic's for your viewing pleasure.

[Flieger]

How old are the tires?

I have only seen that kind of damage from dry-rot. The sun baked the old tires on my VW Vanagon and I washed it in the afternoon on a typical warm sunny day. A little later, the tread had ripped to shreds and delaminated off of the carcass due to the heat cycling and expansion then the cold water contraction.

[MotoSook]

That doesn't appear to me as tread separation. It looks as though the sidewall failed due to design and/or age or there was some scoring on the sidewall which ultimately weakened it leading to that failure.

As you admitted, they were due for replacement, so there were probably old. Thankfully, you and your son...and car...did not experience the tire giving out at speed.

[motorcop]

Not sure on age of the tire, they came on the car when I purchased it. The gash does appear brittle and the car sat for some time prior to me bringing her home. Could be a flat spot had formed while sitting.

[ischmitz]

doh - that looks scary. So to confirm: you noticed something like a vibration during your ride but the tire didn't go flat then. And later all by itself while parked in the garage it burst.

Strange but as others said the main thing is that this didn't happen at speed. There should be a date stamp on the tires telling you the year and week of production. Take a look. From what I know it is a three-digit number if it was made before 2000 and a four-digit number if made since 2000. The first two digits are the production week and the last digit(s) are the year.

So 2406 would be the 24th week of 2006 and 235 would be 23rd week of 1995.

Ingo

[calling911]

It appears that your tire was severely out of balance to me based on the treads.. still, this shouldnt have happened unless the tires were dry rotted and maybe left flat for years.

[Zeke]

My guess is that tire hit a pothole hard sometime in its life. Right on that spot.

[JeremyD]

Goodyear tires - good for just one year

[widgeon13]

Possibly an under inflation issue (heat build-up) or rubbing on something on the inside of the wheel well. Tire may have been damaged at some point.

[RWebb]

take it to a Goodyear dealer - they can inspect it

may give you a free one - but it's info content will eventually filter back to the design engineers

[Bart_dood]

Whats the story here?

[vreference]

Originally Posted by JeremyD

Goodyear tires - good for just one year

I haven't run into anyone who's had much luck with goodyears. Even the Military Humvee tires I had (I's * II's) were pretty worthless.

[widgeon13]

Originally Posted by Bart_dood

Whats the story here?

I think that is the inside lip of the rim not the outside, does look a little beat up but possibly from mounting.

[motorcop]

No contact was made on anything to the inside of the wheel or tire. The discoloration to the rim area are superficial scratches from previous mounting Im guessing. They look worse in the photo than they really are.