Insane Tyre Distortion

[Station]

My mate has been driving my Nippa round for the past couple of weeks. I bought part worn tyres early January as they were low. The tyres are 12 inch, and pretty difficult to get. They had a normal on and a crazy Semperit 'mud and snow' wheel, which I thought would come in handy, so put it on the front with the other 'M+S' tyre that was a spare.

 

She complained of a strange rumbling noise from the front, and Sunday we went out to check it, and after about 20 minutes we had to pull over and have a look. The rumbling had turned into a full on knocking which could be felt through the car. It thought a wheel was loose.

 

 

All nuts were tight, so I rotated all the wheels to see if that would change it, and noticed this:

 

 

The tyre is completely distorted and it looks like it's about to explode. It is normally inflated to 28 psi. WTF has happened here??

 

ALSO, they put the 'same size' tyres on the same axle - unfortunately, 145/55 and 155/55 isn't the same in my eyes. Should I take the wheel back and complain? Amateurs.

[KruJoe]

WTactualF?

I've seen tyres in some states before, but that's a new one on me. Maybe some cords inside it have broken...

 

It's very poor of the fitter to send you out with odd boots like that. About going back to him - is it a place you often use? If so, give it a try, otherwise I guess you'll be pissing in the wind.

[overrun]

The steel belts have collapsed inside of the tyre.

 

I have had it happen to me, before. Very odd sensation.

[M'coli]

I've seen that sort of thing in the past, most noticeably on the missus' 106 many moons ago - the steering wheel moved about half an inch each way at low speed. The car had sat on its tyres or about 2 years prior to our getting it and putting 4000 miles on them, so not surprising that the carcass was giving up. Just after 4 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon with 120 miles to go, and the spare was shagged too...that was an expensive pair of new tyres.

[srad34]

Seen something similar before, not quite as bad, it drove like a clowns car! Scary...

[gordonbennet]

Sometimes bad fitting can start this off, the radial cords get broken near the bead, wasn't a problem when we used to fit tyres by hand, unless you were Charles Atlas you had to get the far side in the well of the wheel to get it to slide on, and plenty of lube was the order of the day or its simply wouldn't go.

 

The bloody machines are a different story, in my tyre days i've seen half wits putting new tyres on bone dry (hopefully someone humps them the same way to teach 'em a lesson) and apart from the machine ripping the dry bead to shreds and tearing at the side cords as its works its way around, the far side of the tyre won't slide down into the middle of the wheel, so the bead gets stretched too and the tyre is effectively scrap before its even been initially inflated.

 

A bloody good pote hole or kerb strike would do this too, or tread seperation.

 

I don't do part worns (but understand with 12" you don't have a lot of choice) cos you don't know what the tyre has seen before, could have come off a massive write off.

 

No chance of upping the wheel size to 13" from another car with same wheel fitments, going down an aspect or two to give the same RR?

[Cavcraft]

Looks like a severe case of seperation (air between sidewall plies/wire). You could and should return it but they will probably say you hit a kerb and that's what caused it.

[Ratdat]

It's mainly Stomils that seem to do that. I've had three of them distort like that over the years.

[retrogeezer]

Had one on my old 323 that looked like that. Fortunately it was on the back so the only symptom was a kind of slight side to side feeling like the car was sliding on mud.

[babydriver]

Same thing happened on a pair of Mitchelins on the rear of my car, felt like I was wiggling my arse at passers by and was quite frightning at motorway speeds

[Danblez]

Do winter tyres have a maximum speed rating which may have been exceeded? I know that snow tyres do as I found out on Italian motorway doing 70mph in the middle of summer!

[Station]

Comfortable top speed in Nippa is about 60 - 70. Whatever they say, no tyre should do this because of going a bit too fast.

The car has done about 100 miles since January to the shops and back. This is first time it's been up to speed. Glad I was in it as I doubt she would've noticed - I reckon it had a couple of minutes before ONG MASSIV EXPLOSHUN!

Think I'll just buy new 12 inch tyres and then just take it to the main fitting place. I don't want them fitting anymore.

[Lacquer Peel]

http://www.camskill.co.uk/m72b0s352p0/Car_Tyres_-_MPV_Tyres_-_People_Carrier_Tyres_-_12_inch_R12_inch_-_145_70_12_145_70R12

 

£27 each.

[Tayne]

Do winter tyres have a maximum speed rating which may have been exceeded? I know that snow tyres do as I found out on Italian motorway doing 70mph in the middle of summer!

 

That's probably more of a temperature thing.

 

My winter's are rated to something like 125mph but start to feel squiggly at 12 degrees above.

[Angrydicky]

I don't see the point in fitting part worns, budget brand tyres are so cheap nowadays.

[Richard]

It depends how worn and how cheap they are. I certainly wouldn't pay half the new price for 4mm of tread but I did get nearly new Uniroyals for £10 each a while back.

[Station]

I'd rather have decent tyres with 5mm of tread than a budget tyre with 7mm. They don't half make a difference.

[spike60]

How old are the tyres? Most have a 4 digit code stamped on one sidewall after where it says DOT then a mixed letter numbers code. The one which tells the age is usually only on 1 side and something like 3008, which would be week 30, year 2008. 3 digits mean before 2000.

This tyre would be week 30, year 2008.

[Parky]

Had distorted sidewalls through age but never anything like that. Definitely contact the manufacturer and send them pics in case there's a bad batch out there. They might even give you some new ones in exchange for forgetting this ever happened.

 

It's an odd size though, hardly anywhere stocks them. Would it be worth seeking out a suitable set of 13 or even 14 inch wheels as it might make future tyre buying easier? I can haz big rimz?

[Station]

It was Semperit! I thought these were a good brand.

[Luckythirteen]

Had a part-worn Hankook on mine that started acting up. There was something like a grey patch where the rubber didn't look quite right, on the edge between tread and sidewall. It had a nail in the tread, so I thought I'd see if it could be fixed. No chance says the tyre guy - it's coming apart inside! He showed me, it was like the rubber had gone grey inside too, and the fabric was fraying.

Not so sure about part worns now! The other front wasn't too great, so I had both changed for a pair of Michelins for less than a ton, and it's all better.

[dugong]

It's not because you were running M&S tyres on a dry surface, was it?

 

That Camskill link LP posted up was a good 'un - although their service varies between 'good' and 'dire' depending on what day you place an order. 

 

I don't see the point in fitting part worns, budget brand tyres are so cheap nowadays.

As Dave said, there's a massive difference between a brand new budget boot and a decent-brand part-worn. I collected a 306 for a mate once in Lancaster and it had just-fitted-that-day Evergreens on it. I stopped twice on the way back from Glasson Dock because I thought the tyres were bald. A pair of £30 Michelins from the garage on the Uni campus transformed it to the point where it would actually turn in instead of ploughing straight on.

 

It also depends on how large your wheels are. Most 'budget' boots for the C4 (205\55\16 V) hover around the £80+ mark, and that's a lot of money for a plastic Chinese shite dumpling. Especially when 5mm Michelin E3A Energys can be had off eBay for £15 each and new ones are £83 from Costco on chocolate pizza day.

I've only fitted a part-worn to that Citroen once, because work cut my hours, leaving me potless for the month.

 

Dog-salad tyres on 'moderns' are a false economy. On something with a bit of poke they're lethal.

 

Summary : you need words with your tyre fitter.

[Angrydicky]

Aha, I don't have a modern, or anything with a 'bit of poke', so fair enough

[Station]

I put 4 Kuhmo Ecstas on my Impreza - I was told they're a pretty good make and tyre and they transformed it. Really worth investing in decent tyres, even though enthusiastic driving will have them last months, esp on a tail happy car.

[Lankytim]

I've spent today at KINGPIN TYRES near Shrewsbury, collecting 25 tons of shredded tyres for export to India. Kingpin make remoulds and I took a walk around the factory and saw the remoulding process, it was very educational! They do every size, including very low profile tyres for high performance motors.

 

The inlaws needed a 195/60/15 for their Fusion, so I bought a fresh off the press remould for £27. Are they now going to die?

[Cavcraft]

I used to go to KIngpin, Tim. Are they still on the 'Dads Army' industrial estate at Wem? The lads there told me quite a bit about the shredding/remoulding process which I found fascinating.

[Lankytim]

Yes, it's still there! I was surprised to find the factory was effectively a large shed surrounded by old wartime nissen huts. Not very high tech at all!

[Station]

Someone I worked with went onto work in a remould factory.

 

There is also a 'How It's Made' on tyre remoulds.

[stuboy]

How old are the tyres? Most have a 4 digit code stamped on one sidewall after where it says DOT then a mixed letter numbers code. The one which tells the age is usually only on 1 side and something like 3008, which would be week 30, year 2008. 3 digits mean before 2000.

WP_000134.jpg

This tyre would be week 30, year 2008.

that a ford wheel?

[oman5]

regarding new vs part worns-does it not bother anyone else spending hundreds on new boots for a car that might expire in 3 weeks time?