Tire + Wheel blowout on highway
 

this happened to my 40th wheel a few days ago..

what the hell happened and why?

Driving @ 70mph in the fast lane, heard a giant crash noise (kind of what it would sound like to hit a pothole at 70) I pulled over instantly and this was the damage.

I went back later and the road was perfectly smooth and nothing in the road.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e...o/IMAG2364.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-q...o/IMAG2365.jpg

The edge of the wheel was bent, the tire teared and the best part, a hole in my wheel. what the hell.

Similar thing happened to me the other day as well. I hit something though. Not sure what

yeah, looks like you hit something like J did, and it pierced the tire and wheel. Likely it got picked up and flung away from the area in the process.

^ wow in a similar place too..

Enkei rp03 still right?

what poor luck.

This was on a different car. OEM Jetta wheels that are nearly twice the cost of my Enkei :/

were there other cars nearby? i may sound slightly crazy but a hole like that in that location looks like it would have come from a bullet penetrating the tire then the wheel... check for damage or markings on the suspension and chassis components.. people are getting more and more f**ked up now days and it very well could have been an act of vandalism

^That's just effed up. If we see a news story about someone going around shooting out people's tires, we all know to go after Xero! :evil_laug

The thought of a bullet occurred to me too, but I don't think it's reasonable at all. It would need a big bullet, which the hole suggests, but the location of the hole would mean that the shot would have had to come from essentially straight ahead and not far off the ground. Too far away, and the angle of bullet drop would be more than the angle from the tire face to the bottom edge of the front bumper.

The RX-8s doesn't expose much of the tire forward under the bumper edge. If it was in a low speed high angle of steering turn, it would be more plausible, but at speed on the highway generally straight, not so much. Even a highway curve doesn't actually require much steering input to expose enough of the angle of the wheel to that kind of trajectory.

Metals like what wheels are made out of behave unusually when several forces are being applied to them. its not just the bullet putting a force but also heat and pressure as well, not to mention forces from the tire rotating which would easily cause a bullet to tumble and impact the wheel at an angle potentially completely sideways which would create a larger exit hole. Additionally, most of the damage to his tire appears to be centered around the shoulder of the tire, almost the sidewall... which would mean it could have come from somewhere besides the road. Additionally anything that would create a hole so cleanly would need to have been moving at an extremely high velocity with a lot of kinetic energy. Lower velocity with less kinetic energy and the wheel would have likely had cracking or fractures in the metal around the hole..

Vandalism especially shooting out tires is unfortunately somewhat common in my area of south florida.. I have had people throw garbage at my car while driving (dash camera in my car = police report on them with tag and evidence).

OP, check your car for additional damage. Better to fully inspect in case something with your vehicles drive line or suspension has been compromised.

It was a sniper dude, I know it. You lucked out.

Whats crazy is that the bead of the tire is sheared right through. I've been working in a tire shop for almost 12 years. Ive seen just about every kind of flat and blow out there is but have never see that before. You cant even cut through the bead with a bolt cutter. Ive tried.

Man that sucks NYC potholes are just as bad.

its funny people cry over stuff like this.

You have a terrible sense of humor

yikes that wheel damage is crazy!
ive picked up a wrench in my tire before, blew my tireout and the wrench broke in half,
the half of it was stuck inside my tire found it at the tire shop haha! it didn't puncture my rim though