DCmaestro

Driving home last night and I blew my driver's side rear tire. Put on the spare and drove home. Took off the other rear tire when I got home, and both tires sidewalls were collapsed/warped. The one that blew is completely destroyed and the other does not look far behind. Are these tires defective or did I do something wrong? The tires are Nitto 450's with about 15,000 miles on them. I purchased a warranty when I bought the tires, should this cover the damage or is this user error? Any insight is greatly appreciated!

Icemark

From the picture it looks like the tires were driven under inflated.

1987RX7guy

iTrader: (3)

It looks like ademantium damage. lol

DCmaestro

The non-destroyed tire.

rx7gslse

thats a nice bubble...

stop running over ****.

DCmaestro

And another shot of the warp.

DCmaestro

Sorry, here is the pic. I keep getting a connection failure?

DCmaestro

ICEMARK: I check the pressue at least twice a week since they are so low profile. They stay at 32psi with hardly any variation.

Just got word from a tire shop. They say their best guess is that the sidewalls and steel belts collapsed some time ago causing the tire to warp. The warping caused the tires to go out of round which caused overheating of the tire while driving. The driver's side tire overheated to the point of blow-out and the passenger side tire isn't many miles behind it.

Does this sound reasonable or does anybody else have a better guess as to what went wrong? What causes the tires to bubble and warp like that? Is 32psi the correct tire pressure? Thanks again for any and all input!

MikeLMR

Low profile + pot holes = damaged wheels & tyres

rotaryracer1

iTrader: (1)

**** NITTO'S!!!!! i had the same exact tire as you did on my 17 inch rims before i got my 18's and they suck, i can totaly believe that that a Nitto tire would mess up like that. if you have the free replacement you should be fine that looks like a manufacturer defect for sure. Have you ever thought about Yokohama Parada tires? i have had 2 sets now on my 18's and i love them they last for a long time expesialy cause i am a very agressive driver. try them out you willl like them

rx7gslse

exactly..

"warping" as you say can happen when you hit a pothole or anything alse in the road with a semi-sharp edge.. Some of the metal bands and other structural parts of the tire get damages and as time goes on it manafests into a problem like you've shown...

again, stop hittin' **** and that won't happen

88IntegraLS

Or just run a smaller wheel / higher profile tire for street use and save the big $$ wheels / tires for the motorsport events.

DCmaestro

Took the tires to another tire shop to get their opinion. They said the sidewall damage is caused by "impact breaks" aka hitting potholes.
I think it is only on the inside sidewalls of the rears because of a camber issue. When I put on the Eibach kit and Tokico shocks, the camber became more negative than stock. The low profile tire, the increased stress of the inside sidewalls due to the negative camber, and the hitting of potholes over time all contributed to this damage. If anybody gets low profile tires with new suspension springs that generate more negative camber than stock, do yourself a favor and buy the rear adjustable camber link to keep those tires safe from this type of damage.

SleepR1

Those are defective tires. Get rid of those Nittos!

5 point whoa

geez, I've never seen anything like that

dis1

I have heard of Nittos doing this a few times now although it sounds like the defects were helped along by a bad alignment and potholes.

Fumanchu

Nitto's in my opinion suck. I had a similar problem running 18's on my old civic. I then bought some Falkens and loved them a lot. I did a "Dukes of Hazard" jump off an onramp when I lost control in some dirt and flew 15 feet down on to the freeway. My 35 series Falkens didnt blow and were fine from there on out for aslong as I had my car. That was way worse than any pothole that you could EVER hit.

emericanchaos

yeah nitto/kuhmo's do that alot. that's belt seperation. it CAN be caused by hitting pot holes and such but a decent tire shouldn't have that happen. those tires are defective and in cases like your's the warranty is worthless. falken's are a slightly better tire. not alot better though. they grip well but have also known to be defective in the past. if you're autoX'ing then they're good rubber since you'll prolly destroy them anyways.

mazdaspeed7

Whats the recommended pressure? Most low profile tires are recommended to use around 44 psi.