Tyre blowout

Phemo

Phemo

Phemo

Soldato
Joined
6 May 2004
Posts
6,125
Location
Fareham
Hi guys,

Well there's no real purpose to this thread other than to have a bit of a whinge about my rubbish day yesterday :) Drove from Coventry up to Edinburgh (335 miles going up to Glasgow then across on the M8) to do a quick job for work (yes it's a long way for a quick job) then I planned on driving from Edinburgh back home to Basingstoke (about 435 miles).

Anyway I was on the M74 when suddenly I could feel a lot of vibration and I knew something wasn't right so I pulled in at the next services. I checked over all my wheels and couldn't see anything odd with them so I checked tyre pressures and nothing seemed to be majorly out so I decided to carry on.

About 2 miles after leaving the services the vibration got really bad so I knew I had a tyre issue of some sort. I didn't expect this though:

tyre.jpg


At about 5:30pm with 375 miles or so left this was far from ideal ;) Ended up calling a friend who found a 24 hour tyre place up in Glasgow which was only 30 miles away so figured that'd be a safe bet so thought I'd use my breakdown cover to get a tow. Unfortunately although I supposedly have breakdown cover through my insurance company, they never had any record of this so after much hassle I had to pay through the nose for the tow - not that it matters as I will be getting it back. I then ended up getting home at half 3 in the morning.

Ah yes, the car has no spare tyre, merely a puncture repair kit and an inflator which is pathetic. At the very least I've learnt to check the status of my breakdown cover and for my next car (in a month or two) I'm going to buy a spare wheel if it doesn't come with one. Guess I can count myself lucky that the blowout happened while I was doing 70 and the M74 was reasonably quiet, but I still just felt like having a moan about it.
 
It was a Falken, so not totally budget but hardly high-end. Had only had them put on 2 months ago - didn't want to fork out for high-end ones since it's only a Fiesta and I only planned on having the car for another 3 or 4 months (from then) anyway.

I have my suspicions about how the tyre was fitted in the first place now though as my car feels different to drive. It's quieter and the steering just feels 'different'. I guess I can't prove anything now so will just get on with it and make sure my next car has a spare and always has decent tyres fitted :)
 
I was heading southbound and was probably only a mile or two away from having joined at J12 so there was no way I was driving any further on that :)

Edit: Oh I get what you mean - from leaving Edinburgh take the A702 then join the M74 at J13. It's a single carriageway road isn't it? I always get stuck behind lorries or old people doing about 50mph and it's a long stretch of road so find the extra miles going the M8 route is just as quick or better. Maybe next time I'll try it though.
 
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dare i ask, which of the high quality 24 hour tyre establishments did you end up at?

please tell me it was not one based in Shettleston Rd
 
Delta12 said:
dare i ask, which of the high quality 24 hour tyre establishments did you end up at?

please tell me it was not one based in Shettleston Rd
Click to expand...

It was and yeah I got the impression they weren't the most professional bunch ;) Still, it was 8pm and by that point I had a 410 mile drive to do so I just wanted to get home. The price for the tyre was reasonable and they didn't mess my wheel up any more than it already was so I'm happy enough with them.
 
Phemo said:
It was and yeah I got the impression they weren't the most professional bunch ;) Still, it was 8pm and by that point I had a 410 mile drive to do so I just wanted to get home. The price for the tyre was reasonable and they didn't mess my wheel up any more than it already was so I'm happy enough with them.
Click to expand...

What tyre did they fit?
 
I'll go and look in a bit, I'm sure it'll be the cheapest nastiest thing possible but for a 205/40 R17 it's not all that bad, considering. I recall even the dodgy cheap ones of that size are normally around 60 so paying a 20 quid or so premium considering it was out of hours wasn't that bad. I don't think I had many other options for getting something decent at that hour short of staying in a hotel and dealing with it the next day.

Now I'm back home I'll probably get the tyre swapped out over the next couple of days for another Falken just so that they're matching and throw this suspected dodgy one in for the next owner to use on a spare should they choose to purchase one.

Should have another car next month so won't be dealing with Falkens again ;)
 
I dont see how you can possibly say it 'wasnt all that bad' without even knowing what tyre it is. If its a Linglong then its very bad :p
 
knowing the place either a nasty part worn or a vastly overpriced ditchfinder,

literally 500 yards from my house shoulda popped by for a cuppa
 
It most likely is, but for that size I'm sure the nasty ones are still around £60 fitted anyway so the way I'm looking at it is that it's a £20 or so premium. It did the job for the 410 mile drive home, that's all I wanted it to do :)

As I say I'll be rid of it soon enough anyway. The way I'm looking at it (rightly or wrongly) is that a last minute hotel stay (for me and my friend) would've cost more than that anyway so I'm not exactly losing out on loads of money.
 
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