Flat Tire experience with Nitto's and Discount tires

[autox-racer]

I have attached a picture of a nasty bolt in my tire. The other day I ran over a big bolt and found out about it at the end of the day when I walked out to my car. First flat in 34 years so pretty good average.

Changing the rear tire sucks because you have to put the space saver on the front first then move the front to the rear. Then driving sucks because with big 285/60/18 on one side and little tire on other side makes braking fun as the VX pulls to one side.

I did learn a few tricks when it comes to driving with the spare and TOD. Left foot brake when you come up to a light with light throttle. Otherwise the TOD makes a nasty noise as it downshifts. Also drive slow as the instructions say... Otherwise the Tod senses road speed differences and starts to engage/disengage 100% and makes a very nasty grinding noise. I found I could stop this with left foot braking again... Just step on brake while still on gas to disengage TOD

I got these nittos at discount tire and they were under warranty so luckily I only had to pay 75 dollars for a new tire. These tires have great tread wear so the prorate was not an issue since I have had these tires for a few years.

I would recommend getting from discount... For 80 bucks you can get road hazard on all... would have been worth it since I just spent that on a new tire.

[volume311]

Talk about a bolt, I guess it makes up for 34 flat free years. :)

[dkmiller68]

I guess you are saying, "Never run the spare on the rear." If that is corrrect; why is that?

[Tone]

That is what the manual and rim state. Smaller tire on one side in the back wears the LSD clutches quickly and messes with TOD even more. A side benefit of it on the front is front tire blowouts are far easier to control that rear tire ones. It's a pain to do that way but not as much as if you trash the rear end.

[LittleBeast]

Wow now that is a serious bolt! We need to "kill" that bolt that ruined your tire and bury it with the now dead Vulture that recently ruined my windshield!

[autox-racer]

Yeah that bolt is scary big... glad it was not launched from another car into my window. Amazing that it was able to go through tire considering it was 1/2 an inch for missing all together. The tire guy said a lot of times the front tire throws a bolt or nail into the rear tires... guess he sees a lot of rear tire failures.