Stock tire sidewall failure?

Nothing there, all look normal.

I have TPMS and have never had an alert. I haven't aired down wheeling either. I don't think it was low before failure either, but I'm not sure how the TPMS alerting works. Does it update immediately if a tire is low? I did see it after I started the car after putting on the spare, but was too focused on getting off the highway after it failed to notice when it happened. Regardless, I'm pretty confident I would have noticed a bright yellow light popping up earlier if it was low.

 

I do not have much experience with TPMS. I'm mainly commercial truck tires. Be sure you sensor wasn't damaged. If it was it will leak air. Just wiggle it around and spray it with windex or soapy water.

 

From what I've heard, never, ever buy Firestone tires. My guess is that it's the stock tires right?

 

Yea, stock tires.

I'm a bit frustrated at the whole situation. I did a good bit of wheeling with my old truck and never had a flat. My only other tire failure was on used, crappy tires that were past the wear lines (I was young, poor, and didn't know better). I'm really disappointed in having a stock tire fail at this low mileage, especially when it put my whole family at risk on the highway.

Another consideration towards a manufacturer defect is, the front driver tire is completely undamaged. You'd think if I ran over something going straight on the highway it would damage the front tire's sidewall, not the rear. Plus, the side to the right of the tire is almost deformed down from the left side -- you can really tell that looking at the Firestone logo that the tear just ripped through. I feel like damage from running something over would have at least touched the tread.

 

What inside of tire look like? I'm not saying what ever you ran over caused that injury. I'm saying that nearest tread is where object was positioned. When tire gave an enough belts broke rest of injury occurred.

 

Wondering if your tire was both slightly defective and possibly mounted wrong at the same time? When you get that off the wheel look and see if the major splice is near that failure. If not, that tire wasn’t properly mounted which might have contributed to that sidewall tearing like it did.

Glad you were able to stay safe though, I’ve had a sidewall blowout while driving and it’s not fun to maneuver with.

 

It's still on the rim, so it's hard to tell. The tear is huge and sidewall bendy, so I just jammed my phone and a flashlight in there. Does this help tell anything?



The little bits in the middle are tiny pieces of rubber. They're kinda stuck on there, not flaky.

 

What is the major splice? Sorry, I'm not too familiar with tire tech.

 

That’s the thickest part, and thus the heaviest part, of the tire. It’s where the rubber overlaps in the manufacturing process. The valve core is usually at the smallest diameter and the lightest part of the wheel, so for balance reasons the major splice is usually closely aligned with the valve stem.

It might be marked with a sticker on the inside of the tire, or possibly with a dot of paint on the inside of the sidewall near the bead.

 

My guess too. The only blow out I've had in my life was with a Firestone during the early 90's fiasco. I'd never use Firestones.

 

FYI, if you are a Costco member and hold a Citi card, replace your tire and pay with the card. You have tire replacement for free... See brochure for details.

 

I had a tire go out on the rear of my car about 20 years ago, went over railroad tracks and there was a spike sticking up that snagged the sidewall.

 

Same thing happened to mine

 

Stock tire from the factory.

No tire warranty on my ToyotaCare either.

I care less about money here than the actual reliability of the tire. Money's a number in a bank account that I mostly increase month to month. I'm more concerned with having a truck that's safe to take my family on adventures in. We took the Taco to Savannah last weekend, it was about 4 hours each way. I was in SC in October, and had the truck up in PA early in the year. The bottom line is, if these are defective and a couple fail over a long trip, I'm going to be pissed as hell. I'd rather spend $1k on risk mitigation instead of getting stuck on the side of the road with a pissed wife, hangry toddler, and confused infant.

 

Same damage?

 

Ok thanks. I'll check this when they remove the tire.

 

I was going alot slower but had a 3 inch tear in sidewall

 

well if money is not an issue....

 

No need to worry about car safety if I'm too high up to get into a collision, right?

 

If I were you, a new set of Michelins would be in my very near future...!!