Have You Ever Suffered A Blowout?

I did, and it wasn’t fun. I had my little sister in the car, I was doing about 70 on the PA turnpike and pulling out to pass a semi, my Eagle was rolling on the junk tires it had on it when I bought it out of a field for 500 bucks. When the left rear let go, it felt like the whole back end was suddenly on rollerskates. Fortunately, my mad driving skills and people’s instinctive tendency to get out of the Eagle’s way averted major catastrophe. But I sure wouldn’t want that to happen again, and I sure learned my lesson about being a dumbass about my tires. Continued…

With summer road-trip season getting underway, the NHTSA issued an advisory this week reminding people to check their tires. Most of all they emphasized proper inflation and tire age, which are major factors in tire failure—both underinflated tires and old tires are more likely to blow, and both conditions are compounded by summer heat. To that, I’d add checking for dry-rot and cracking (both more prevalent on older tires), and being extra suspicious of any tires whose history is unknown: if you’ve just bought a car, especially an old one, keep in mind the seller may very well have swapped on junkyard rollomundos before the sale so they could keep the nicer ones for themselves. The danger for old, junk tires is tread separation, which is what happened to me in my Eagle. If you’re driving and feel a harsh or cyclical vibration, pull over immediately and feel your tires over for deformities—it could be a shifted belt or a tread getting ready to separate. Better yet, if your car came with sketchy tires, or you know darn well you haven’t replaced them in years, think about biting the bullet and picking up four new, especially if you’re taking a trip this summer.