Hi guys,

bough my furby vrs (black) on the 18th of December 2004. Have already done 2000miles since that time. absolutley love the car, couldnt have got a better car for the money. Two days into the car however I clipped a curb (very gently) and to my suprise the front tire punctured. Thought it was just unlucky and changed the tire for the spare and bought a new tire to put onto the spare rim. Yesterday was going down the m42 about 75mph, one hand on the wheel, listening to music minding my own business when suddenly WHammmm! banked hard right (and I mean hard) realised I had to start turning left as I could see the central reservation directly ahead of me. After about 5-6 seconds of trying to gain control of the car managed to get it onto the hard shoulder to find the back left tire completly in shreads, litteratly hanging off the alloy. One puncture and a blow out in two weeks!! Is this just one of those ununlucky things or do you think Ive got a batch of dogy continentals???

Any help would be appreciated?

thanks

Sounds like a dodgy tyre - those tyres are rated for well above 80mph. Was there any evidence of a nail or anything in it? Any obvious point in which the tyre started to fail?

yeah there is a piece of tire that is missing a piece about the same size of two stamps put together. that is obviously the point eruption. the tire then ripped the whole rim away from the alloy. if it was a piece of glass or something though surely the front would have blown first as i was going straight. Just very disconcerting, must be pretty weak tires for this to happen though, especially brand new...

Only time I had a blow out was on my Scooter , and there I managed to drive stright over a piece of metal that didn't touch the front tire and ripped a huge hole out of the back one , so it is possible.

I was only doing 45 at the time , but it was bloody scary when you suddenly find you have the scooter equivalent of a tankslapper going on.

Sometimes it could just be luck. I had 2 punctures within a very short space if time too, caused by crash debris and a nail. For both I had been on the motorway a very short time before , and although they didn't blowout one was close to the sidewall and could have done...

Are you sure you didn't clip the rear wheel at the same time that you clipped the front one?

It's very easy to damage a tyre from this sort of accident, but it's not always obvious from the outside. That's why it's important to have your tyres, suspension and wheels checked properly if you clip the curb, particularly if you do it hard enough to burst one of the tyres.

Size of two stamps? :eek: Sounds like a whopping big stone could have been the cause? But it would be to be big, pointing the right (or wrong ) way to puncture the tyre in such a way. It does, as Colin says, sometimes just come down to bad luck, wrong place, wrong time, etc. :(