Had blow out today!

Yozz76

Yozz76

Yozz76

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:eek: What a scary experience. Was travelling on motorway this morning taking my daughter to play football when the offside rear suddenly went bang. Car felt like it was on ice! Was very happy to get to hard shoulder with everyone safe and let my nerves calm before changing wheel. Can't imagine how frightening this is when it is a front tyre.
 
Not a nice experience, I've had one on my front left before... scared the wits out of me.

However, it wasn't as scary as when I was overtaking an articulated lorry on the A11 near Bury a few months ago, he had a blow out on one of his right side trailer wheels... massive bang and a big swerve in my direction as he fought fo control. I made a mess of my seat that day!

Glad to hear you're all safe and sound.
 
I remember when I went down to Cornwall with my school on an activity week thing, had a blow-out on the front left of the minibus. that was bloody scary.
 
Not touching the brakes is the best advice :) Think about it, the side that has 2 tyres will get traction and that side will slow down but the side without a tyre will experience much less of a braking effect, if you're going fast enough at best you're going to be facing another direction to the one you want and at worst the new direction will be towards something hard.
 
Jotun said:
What is the reasoning behind that? and is that advice for all wheels or is there a different recommend action for front/rear blow outs?
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I would assume that the car easing to a slow stop by itself would be much more safer than some guy going 'OMG WUTFX' and slamming on the brakes.
 
Col_M said:
Not touching the brakes is the best advice :) Think about it, the side that has 2 tyres will get traction and that side will slow down but the side without a tyre will experience much less of a braking effect, if you're going fast enough at best you're going to be facing another direction to the one you want and at worst the new direction will be towards something hard.
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That kind of makes sense, but I thought 70-80% of braking is done by the front brakes, so if you have a rear blow out then it's not going to cause a huge change in direction if you do brake and leaving it in gear and using engine breaking shouldn't have any effect on the rear wheels (assuming FWD).

Obviously just standing on the brakes I would expect to cause more of an issue. I understand the point somewhat, but I also wouldn't expect that coasting to a stop from 70-80mph is particularly safe either as you will cover a large distance in that time, during which the condition of the tyre could deteriorate even more, and if you did need to stop quickly using the brakes, then what you mentioned in your post could happen.

I don't have any experience in dealing with a blowout, but I would expect if I had (before seeing this thread) then I would go for the brakes, gently at first and applying more pressure gradually so I could ease off if it did start to veer to one side, although it seems that wouldn't be the best course of action.
 
I was driving to work last year and going round a long bend at about 50mph i noticed a boulder about the size a bowls ball (not ten pin bowling) and a car coming in the opposite direction so i had to brace myself for an impact, sure enough it took my tyre (and wheel) out, scary.
 
Jotun said:
That kind of makes sense, but I thought 70-80% of braking is done by the front brakes, so if you have a rear blow out then it's not going to cause a huge change in direction if you do brake and leaving it in gear and using engine breaking shouldn't have any effect on the rear wheels (assuming FWD).

Obviously just standing on the brakes I would expect to cause more of an issue. I understand the point somewhat, but I also wouldn't expect that coasting to a stop from 70-80mph is particularly safe either as you will cover a large distance in that time, during which the condition of the tyre could deteriorate even more, and if you did need to stop quickly using the brakes, then what you mentioned in your post could happen.

I don't have any experience in dealing with a blowout, but I would expect if I had (before seeing this thread) then I would go for the brakes, gently at first and applying more pressure gradually so I could ease off if it did start to veer to one side, although it seems that wouldn't be the best course of action.
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Yup you're right, if you have a rear blowout controlled braking will transfer weight to the front and away from the rear and leave you in reasonable control. If you have a front blowout braking is a bad thing to do as it'll load the front tyres, not having a tyre on one side will cause you lose control.
So in one instance braking will lead to immidiate loss of control, not braking at all is relatively save in both circumstances so that's what is taught. You can't expect an inexperienced driver to determine the location of the blowout in a split second and decide if they are able to brake or not so it's always safer to go with the no braking option :)

Decreasing speed slowly in a controlled manner while holding the car in a straight a line as possible is the best thing to do as the car is less likely to become unbalanced. If you've had a blowout there won't be much left of the tyre to preserve so take as much distance as you need to come to a safe stop.
 
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Jimmeh said:
However, it wasn't as scary as when I was overtaking an articulated lorry on the A11 near Bury a few months ago, he had a blow out on one of his right side trailer wheels... massive bang and a big swerve in my direction as he fought fo control. I made a mess of my seat that day!
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Ive had this on the way to manchester on the M6, the tyre from the lorry hit my windscreen and i was going pretty darn fast. Very VERY suprised it didnt put the window through and i didnt die. It made a mess of the car bonnet, roof bumper etc

Nasty things blow outs !!!
 
PMKeates said:
Or just have DSC and run flats and carry on as if nothing has really happened.

Failing that, just DSC, and you can just brake and be safe!
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DSC wont really do much if you have a blow out, and you cant carry on as normal with run on flats as they are far from safe to drive on at speed i.e over 50 or any long distance
 
So in most people's experience what will happen handling wise immediately after a blowout occurs? Would it be like when you discover you have a flat and have to keep fighting the steering to stay straight, only more violent? Would a rear wheel blowout on a RWD car put you into a ditch backwards?
 
MrMoonX said:
DSC wont really do much if you have a blow out, and you cant carry on as normal with run on flats as they are far from safe to drive on at speed i.e over 50 or any long distance
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DSC will help as it will modulate braking to keep you in the direction you want to steer. Doesn't matter what brakes it needs to apply it will try, and all experiences and reviews I've heard and read say it helps.

By carry on as normal with run flats I obviously don't mean just keep pelting along at 100 or whatever! What I mean is that it will be very much a trauma-free experience :)

For example, friend of mine had a rear blowout in his Boxster on a roundabout. No spin, no crash, just a *bang* followed by lights and the car feeling sloppy. Not identical to a motorway blowout but principally the same.
 
I saw one on the M6 early this morning. I think it was a Vitara or something that size ended up nose first into the armco on the central reservation with the offside rear blown out. Couldn't see if the others had gone.

Probably a good thing i was the next car in the outside lane doing 70!
 
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