What would cause this tire failure?

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A member at a subaru forum I visit had this happen to his tire as he was switching lanes on the highway. Any idea what would cause this to happen to a tire, without any type of impact? You can click the thumbnail to make the image bigger.

 
Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
Does the car have TPMS? Looks like it was run without air.


This was my first thought as well. Either extremely low on air, or out of air.
 
Low profile tire under inflated.

A full sidewall tire can handle under inflation better.
 
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A rapid loss of air at freeway speeds can cause that. It'd be interesting to have a full photo of the entire tread to see if a puncture occurred in the tread or perhaps in the sidewall/shoulder, however, with that much damage to the tire's sidewall it'd be pretty difficult to determine that.

Also, unless it's the lighting, it appears the wheel is bent. Not impossible, but if the inside sidewall already had an impact break, doesn't take much at that point to make the impact break 'leak' from a puncture. I can barely make out a 35 series 18" tire with a 86 load index, SL
 
Ive seen these super low profile tires like this, get driven until one of the sidewalls completely separated from the tire -like you could reach your hand in through the inside and touch the outer sidewall- and only then did they notice something wrong, and drove it to the shop.
On the tire with 1 sidewall, then ask for a flat repair.
Its real easy to miss the signs that its low with these, because they almost act like a runflat in that they are stiff enough to hold up the car without the tread flopping around and making that 'you have a flat tire *whapwhapwhap* sound'.
They aren't stiff enough however to keep from overheating and failing in short order.
 
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Yep,

I concur, run flat - that is operated without benefit of proper inflation pressure. Look very carefully for a puncture. They can be very hard to find, but looking on the inside is a lot easier than trying to find it on the outside. Don't overlook the possibility that the air could have been lost through the alloy wheel and the valve.
 
Thank you for the replies.


Originally Posted By: SVTCobra
Is that a hole in the rim at the 7 o'clock position?


I think that's just old wheel weight adhesive foam material.

I think the owner of the tire will reply here once his membership is approved, so I'll let him provide more details.
 
Seems like it was either chronically run underinflated or lost pressure due to a puncture.

The 7oclock thing is just the foam backing from a missing wheel weight that is now curling.
 
I rack up about 200 miles a day on highways in eastern MA. I see plenty of "mini- gators". Low profile car tire carcasses. I'm an old geezer. 70 is low profile for me.
grin2.gif
 
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