Catastrophic Sidewall Failure

[vt_maverick]

So I bought 4 brand new Continental PureContact with Eco Technology tires for our 99 Subaru Legacy. These things are the highest rated passenger all-season tire on TireRack.com, and for the first 100 miles or so everything was fine. Until this happened the other morning on my sister-in-law's way into school:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/3269/IMG-20130813-00001.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=24068)

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/3269/IMG-20130813-00002.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=24069)

Now I know what you're thinking, and she was NOT involved in a drive-by or in the shootout at the OK corral. It was probably 65 degrees and drizzly out Tuesday morning, and it more or less exploded as she was going around a turn. She lost control and slid into the oncoming lane, but thank God no one was there and she righted the ship long enough to get on the shoulder. Continental provides an unconditional 1-year warranty on its tires from the factory, so we got a free replacement overnighted from TireRack.

But my question is what the **** happened? I took it to my mechanic and the first words out of his mouth were "well I bet she **** her pants." He'd never seen anything like it. Anyone else have ideas? A manufacturing defect perhaps?

[JAMAS]

Thats horrible!

I have the continental extremecontact dws tires on my wifes car. Kinda nervous about them now.

[Y33TREKker]

Wow. I actually know someone who works at a Continental manufacturing plant. I'll have to forward those pics and ask what he thinks could have caused that. Could be anything from an error in the mixing process to an improper build to a malfunction in the curing process.

Glad your sister-in-law is ok...and I'd probably second your mechanics first thought. :p

[tom4bren]

I'm guessing that there was a manufacturing defect that caused the blowout but most of the damage you see is probably from the skid/recovery/stop. There's so much damage to that tire that you'll probably never be able to tell what gave out causing the blowout & what occurred after.

Glad everyone is OK.

[etlsport]

im guessing the tire was not fully inflated. An underinflated tire at speeds over 40-50mph will it heat up and eventually shred. i see that kinda thing some some frequency in the shop. Not quite to that degree, but i see it often. Michelin's are notorious for blowing out like that. I dont deal with enough continentals to know if they do that frequently.

is there a bunch of tire "dust" stuck in there still?

[VX KAT]

:freek: That's simply amazing, glad it ended well!
It seems there's more damage on the outer side vs. the inner side, wonder why.
Curious, what position was it on and was turn left or right? Maybe this was the front outer position so the weight of the car and G force "pushed" on the outer side more causing those rips as it deflated under load?

[44ficus44]

totaled them shoes !!!!!!!!! that's scurryyyyy.... never had something like that happen... yet

[twalker920]

My 2005 Mazda 6S had Contis on, and I take good care of my vehicles (i.e. the tires were inflated correctly). And one evening driving home from a restaurant, THIS happens:

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/medium/Conti_Blowout.jpg

Absolute mechanical failure driving basically straight, no turns to speak of, on a highway about 10 miles from my house. Tires had around 12,000 miles on them, and were wearing evenly. They were high performance all-seasons, and were not anywhere near worn out.

I managed to pull over safely (light traffic luckily), but it damaged my rim, ripped part of the rocker panel off and bent the back bumper part of the wheel arch out, breaking 4 or 5 body clips in the process. The tread is the pile of black rubble under the rim...absolute disintegration.

I'll never buy Contis again. Cost $2200 in repairs, plus tow, plus a new set of tires (I don't drive on unevenly worn tires). Insurance covered all but the three "ok" tires. Still, it stranded me for 2.5 hours in November past midnight. I was not a happy camper.

[vt_maverick]

im guessing the tire was not fully inflated. An underinflated tire at speeds over 40-50mph will it heat up and eventually shred. i see that kinda thing some some frequency in the shop. Not quite to that degree, but i see it often. Michelin's are notorious for blowing out like that. I dont deal with enough continentals to know if they do that frequently.

is there a bunch of tire "dust" stuck in there still?

It's possible, I certainly didn't look at that specific tire before she left Tuesday morning. A bit weird that it would so much less inflated than the other tires, but if there was a slight leak I suppose it could happen.

There was tons of black powder on the inside of the tire. What does that mean?

[evillecutter]

note to self: add continental to the list of tires not to buy

also look at the date on the tires - some tires you buy "brand new" are 10+ years old and have been sitting on a shelf when they only have a 6 year shelf life - beware of the "manager's special"

how to check:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

i bought a set "brand new" for my truck before, checked the date and they were 9 years old - made them give me a set made within the same year for the same price

[Riff Raff]

note to self: add continental to the list of tires not to buy

also look at the date on the tires - some tires you buy "brand new" are 10+ years old and have been sitting on a shelf when they only have a 6 year shelf life - beware of the "manager's special"

how to check:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

i bought a set "brand new" for my truck before, checked the date and they were 9 years old - made them give me a set made within the same year for the same price


x2. Conti's has just earned the #1 top spot on my "Black-Ball" list for tires!!!

:thumbdn:

[JAMAS]

I am now officially terrified....

...my wife has 1 year old continental tires on the car that she drives our kids around in.

They seemed like great tires from the reviews and they drive real nice.

[Y33TREKker]

There are simply too many unknown factors about the specific tires in question at the moment to start getting TOO worried or getting totally gun-shy about Continental tires just yet.

I'd say the first step would be to see what the DOT code of the tire(s) tells us. Maybe they were just some NOS (new old stock) tires that should have never been sold in the first place (like evillecutter was referring to)?

Then again, maybe I'm just saying that to try to make MYSELF feel better since I'm currently running a set of Conti-Extreme Contact All-Seasons which have already been on my car for a few years now and have been the best riding, most even wearing, high-peformance, low-profile tires I've had on my car yet. ;)

[Chopper]

I NEVER buy Continental tires.
Or Michelin.

Toyo/Nitto
BFGs.......even a High-end Kumho on the Veloster (as it should be)

NEVER a stinkin' Conti

[Y33TREKker]

I NEVER buy Continental tires.
Or Michelin.

Toyo/Nitto
BFGs.......even a High-end Kumho on the Veloster (as it should be)

NEVER a stinkin' Conti
It seems it all just depends on personal experience, because I had a set of Toyo High Performance All Season FZ-4's that dry-rotted big time and Toyo wouldn't do a thing about them. As a result, I'll never buy another Toyo.

I'd say all a person can do is try to get the "freshest", most recently manufactured tires available and hope for the best.

[etlsport]

It's possible, I certainly didn't look at that specific tire before she left Tuesday morning. A bit weird that it would so much less inflated than the other tires, but if there was a slight leak I suppose it could happen.

There was tons of black powder on the inside of the tire. What does that mean?

She probably picked up a nail or a had a small pinhole leak in the tire that went unnoticed, it could have even happened on the same drive that blew out the tire.

The black powder usually shows up in tires that are run on low air pressure. Basically as the pressure decreases the center tread of the tire starts to raise away from the road while the sidewall flexes more. When the pressure is low enough the sidewall starts to pinch under the rim or bends at too sharp an angle. When that happens the inside of the tire starts to disintegrate. If its not corrected, the inner sidewall keeps building heat and disintegrating and eventually the belts are no longer held in place by the rubber, which is what you are seeing, the separation of the belts on the sidewall.