Hi all,

I have a mk3 octavia which I bought at 30k miles. It's now done 50k miles. The Skoda dealership I bought it from told me that it had 4 new tyres at the time I picked it up. A few days back, I was driving down the motorway at 70 mph and one of the rear tyres burst. Thankfully the car stayed under control so I pulled over immediately. The rubber on the inner side of it had come off (almost 50% of it) and of course the tyre was now flat. I replaced it and went straight home (after checking the pressure in the spare wheel). 

The next day I went to have all 4 tyres replaced as I thought that the rear tyre burst due to low tread and so, with it being a front wheel drive, the front one's will definitely need replacing as well. When the garage took the burst rear tyre out of the boot, we measured it's tread and it was at 4mm i.e. 62% worn but it had cuts in the inner wall. The other rear tyre also had similar cuts so could've blown out at any time too. This one also had 4mm tread remaining.

What's odd is that the front 2 also had 4mm remaining (no cuts or bulges in these as I had them inspected). So all 4 tyres had 4mm tread remaining yet the rear 2 had cuts in the inner wall. I can't seem to figure out how this happened. The car doesn't pull to the left or right when I let go of the steering so I highly doubt it's the wheel alignment. Any thoughts would be highly appreciated.

cheers!

What is the tire dimension and brand? 20k miles may be a lot for some tires, for others not. 

 

Can you take a photo of those cuts? 

quite possibly the alignment - have a tendency to wear on the inner edge on the rears,

 

when was the tracking last checked? inflation checked?

Hi @nidza. they were Pirelli Cinturato P7 225/45/R17 91W

 

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the damage but they were like cracks only in the part of the tyre where the tread depth bump is located (i think it's called the groove. excuse the layman terms i'm using lol)

 

hi @Gissin. i'd checked the inflation 2 hours before this happened and all 4 tyres had the exact right amount of pressure. unsure when the tracking was last checked but i have a feeling i've not had it checked since i've owned it as i've had no work done to the tyres since owning it (only tread depth check from Skoda three or so months ago as part of another job).

how quickly have you done this 20K -

hmm that's odd if skoda did a check on the tyres  a few months ago and didn't pick up inside edge wear ( possibility that there has been a rapid deterioration in that time) did whoever changed the tyres check the suspension at the same time?

 

what car is it, engine / year /spec/ wheels  - I take it it's not been modified ?

 

I would 100% get a 4 wheel alignment  a combination of negative camber and excessive toe in will eat the inside edge pretty quickly.

if that's ok then it's time to check suspension and compenents / trailing arm bushes etc.

@Ht1  Welcome to the forum.

What was the tyre pressures when you collected the car and checked and how often have you checked in 20,000 miles before the check 2 hours before this happened?

?

What was the pressure you had the tyres at?

?

& What was the tread depth 3 or so months ago when checked?

& what miles was that at?

 

 

Really it is the driver that needs to get on their knees every week or 2 when checking the tyre pressures, then they might notice uneven wear.

Adjust / check as weather / seasons change and reset the TPMS.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/481655-never-seen-tyre-wear-like-this-before

 

Edited 17 June, 20205 yr by Roottootemblowinootsoot

hi @Gissin. 20k miles in 2 years. they didn't mention a suspension check to me. this visit to them was part of a free brake check. do you recommend i get a full wheel alignment ASAP or when I come to replace the front 2 (bearing in mind that the back 2 tyres have been replaced and the front 2 are at 4mm tread)?

 

it's a 2014 octavia 1.4 tsi dsg with Pirelli Cinturato P7 225/45/R17 91W. i've had the same tyres but 91Y put on the back as that's all the garage had and they said it should be fine to have those on even though the fronts are 91W)

 

hi @Roottootemblowinootsoot. thanks. i'll have to check the paperwork Skoda gave me to see what tread and mileage it was 3 months ago. mileage must've been roughly 1k less than it is now due to much reduced travelling. i used to check tyre pressure every 2 weeks but when middle of March came around and my travelling reduced drastically, i've checked them once a month. my 2nd last check was probably end of April though. does that matter though given that the last check showed the correct pressures all around? 

I've never had a blow out, but my Father, who covered a lot of miles, did.

 

Back in the day, he had a set of tyres from which one blew out. Got a replacement, and then another blew out. Then a third blew out. This was too much for him, so he took the whole caboodle to the tyre dealers (an outfit he'd used over a number of years, so who knew him), He wasn't in the habit of concealing the fact when he had a grievance, but it doesn't seem to have taken much to convince them to replace the whole set, including the new ones that they'd just sold him, for zero cost to him.

 

He never had any other problems with tyre blow outs.

 

I can only conclude that they knew there was a problem with a batch of tyres, and that's why they were happy to do this.

 

These were Firestone tyres, and he never subsequently bought any Firestone tyres. Neither have I, but I wouldn't make that an absolute bar, these days, now that Firestone are owned by Bridgestone.

 

Don't know if any of that helps you, but I assume that tyre manufacturers generally have problems with some very small percentage of their production, and the good guys have fewer problems, and are more willing to ante up when they do.    

24 minutes ago, Ht1 said:

hi @Gissin. 20k miles in 2 years. they didn't mention a suspension check to me. this visit to them was part of a free brake check. do you recommend i get a full wheel alignment ASAP or when I come to replace the front 2 (bearing in mind that the back 2 tyres have been replaced and the front 2 are at 4mm tread)?

 

it's a 2014 octavia 1.4 tsi dsg with Pirelli Cinturato P7 225/45/R17 91W. i've had the same tyres but 91Y put on the back as that's all the garage had and they said it should be fine to have those on even though the fronts are 91W)

 

 

ok so should have been picked up at a MOT at some point too then in that time ..so could be something that's happened fairly quickly. Yes I'd get it tracked asap as depending on the issues the new tyres you've just put on could be in the same state in a few months.

w and y jus relate to the speed ratings W(168mph) and Y(186mph).  ideally you should have the Y's on the front ( higher speed rated on the drive wheels)  but it shouldn't cause any issues.

 you've not hit any big potholes or anything recently have you ?

 

 

To be clear are you saying the cracks are in the root of the tread, the part that contacts the road, or the side wall of the tyre that has the writing on it.  Don't wish to be rude but you said "part of the tyre where the tread depth bump is located " and some of the discussion is about the side wall.

If it is the root of the tread I seem to recall Dunlop had problems with this many years ago.

An observation if all four tyres were replaced at the same time and not rotated under normal circumstances I would expect the front to have different tread depths to the back. Might be interesting to check the date code on each tyre and see if they are the same.

   

1 minute ago, Gissin said:

w and y jus relate to the speed ratings W(168mph) and Y(186mph).  ideally you should have the Y's on the front ( higher speed rated on the drive wheels)  but it shouldn't cause any issues.

 you've not hit any big potholes or anything recently have you ?

 

 

The load ratings probably are more significant than the speed ratings, until you get to about 10 mph from the speed rating. So, provided you weren't over 158 mph, I don't think this is an issue.

That is what can happen if you dont drive the car at 168mph or 186mph at least once a month with the airconditioning switched on

 

Or it could be the imbalance between the ratings, 168mph not fast enough for one pair and 186mph too fast for another.

 

Seriously, how on earth did we ever get to the situation where a 1.4l family car needs tyres rated to 186mph? 🥴 And said tyre correctly inflated carrying a fraction of its load rating  will blow out at 70mph!

 

I'm lucky if once a month I can legally drive over 50mph.

Edited 17 June, 20205 yr by J.R.

Motorways have lots of debris on them from vehicles having blowouts, bodywork etc and also coming off the back of commercial / scrappers vehicles.

If there is no clear reason why two tyres had damage to the inner side of tread or to the inner sidewall, Have you thought about how/where you park or drive?

Yu might find you reverse into a driveway, where yo scrape the inner walls, etc or somehow manage to damage the tyres thus!

 

Another thing to think about... You may have damaged one side and at a later point, the wheels may have been removed and fitted on the oppose side, say during a service and then, the other tyre suffered the same fate. This would again suggest either a tracking issue or somewhere you "Hit" the tyres against regularly. (Payment mounting, raised driveway, etc).

^^^ 

This and iron works / covers at roadworks / ramps marked with a sign on the road saying 'ramp'.

Big sheets of have metal placed on the road.

2yr 20,000 miles - a tyre bursts, some tyres have cuts...  nothing unusual in that, it's just wear and tear.

 

Immediate thought of a blow-out is tyre is at wrong pressure. You said you checked them but you may well have picked up a puncture en-route. If tyre is going to blow it's on the motorway - long period of high speed creates higher temp.  ( I've been there too, rear tyre blew on M5 south of Birmingham, scared the *** out of me. After I'd swapped over to the spare, all I can remember is the smell of fish for the remainder of the journey - hot rubber not nice ).

 

If there is anything unusual about this story, I'd have thought it would be all four tyres were at 4mm after 2yr and 20,000 miles. Would only expect to see that on a permanent 4wd.

Edited 17 June, 20205 yr by Guest

31 minutes ago, GreenMachine1.6 said:

To be clear are you saying the cracks are in the root of the tread, the part that contacts the road, or the side wall of the tyre that has the writing on it.  Don't wish to be rude but you said "part of the tyre where the tread depth bump is located " and some of the discussion is about the side wall.

If it is the root of the tread I seem to recall Dunlop had problems with this many years ago.

An observation if all four tyres were replaced at the same time and not rotated under normal circumstances I would expect the front to have different tread depths to the back. Might be interesting to check the date code on each tyre and see if they are the same.

   

 

i'm referring to the groove part i.e. the part you'd run your fingers through to check the tread. i've just checked the date code (bear in mind i bought the car in 2018). the front 2 have 3317 and 4517 and the back two, which I had installed on sunday both have 19 at the end (is this an issue by the way i.e. the fact that these are from last year?) 

No issue, they need to be manufactured, distributed and then transported to fitting places. 

That happens over the weeks and months.

5 minutes ago, Scot5 said:

2yr 20,000 miles - a tyre bursts, some tyres have cuts...  nothing unusual in that, it's just wear and tear.

 

Immediate thought of a blow-out is tyre is at wrong pressure. You said you checked them but you may well have picked up a puncture en-route. If tyre is going to blow it's on the motorway - long period of high speed creates higher temp.  ( I've been there too, rear tyre blew on M5 south of Birmingham, scared the *** out of me. After I'd swapped over to the spare, all I can remember is the smell of fish for the remainder of the journey - hot rubber not nice ).

 

If there is anything unusual about this story, I'd have thought it would be all four tyres were at 4mm after 2yr and 20,000 miles. Would only expect to see that on a permanent 4wd.

 

hi. i'm attaching pictures of the tread depth i measured. i really hope i read the tool correctly now lol

 

could've picked up a puncture en-route but the same issue with the tear was present in the other rear tyre despite plenty of tread whereas nothing of the sort on the fronts-that's the unusual part for me.

5 minutes ago, Ht1 said:

 

i'm referring to the groove part i.e. the part you'd run your fingers through to check the tread. i've just checked the date code (bear in mind i bought the car in 2018). the front 2 have 3317 and 4517 and the back two, which I had installed on sunday both have 19 at the end (is this an issue by the way i.e. the fact that these are from last year?) 

 

forgot to add that the garage said on sunday that the rears had 2016 on them so he thought that i've been misled by the dealership that they were brand new and so had been through some wear and tyre hence why they deteriorated quicker than the fronts :S

19 minutes ago, mrgf said:

If there is no clear reason why two tyres had damage to the inner side of tread or to the inner sidewall, Have you thought about how/where you park or drive?

Yu might find you reverse into a driveway, where yo scrape the inner walls, etc or somehow manage to damage the tyres thus!

 

Another thing to think about... You may have damaged one side and at a later point, the wheels may have been removed and fitted on the oppose side, say during a service and then, the other tyre suffered the same fate. This would again suggest either a tracking issue or somewhere you "Hit" the tyres against regularly. (Payment mounting, raised driveway, etc).

 

i park on the road and have probably hit the kerb twice in 2 years. what's odd to me is how the tears have occurred on the part of the tyre that wasn't in contact with the road due to there being plenty of tread left and the tyres being at the correct pressure. 

 

don't know about the tyres being refitted because, if this was done by a garage, it was done completely without my knowledge.

 

another thought then: the fuel cap says keep it at 2.2 bar if there's 3 passengers and a bit of luggage. that's how my car normally is. so that's 32 psi but i keep all four at 34 psi. could this be a contributory factor to this tearing at all?

As all is done and dusted now, very little you can do as recompense, the most you can do is keep a very close eye on the new replacement tyres over the coming months. I would assume the fitter had at least a basic look at the vehicle, to be sure nothing was rubbing or causing the issue. As for tracking,etc, go to a well trusted place that will use good quality last equipment. A good place will almost certainly offer a free check and only charge if they need to adjust the set-up. If it is out, it will only F.C.U.K  the new tyres so it'll be worth the £60 or so quid!

Edited 17 June, 20205 yr by mrgf

When was the tyres last checked b4 you had a blow out? I don't mean the pressure, I mean the tyres themselves. Anything could have created a bulge in the inner wall - pot hole, curb etc. If you had anything like that then it's likely the tyre would burst.

 

If you still had the burst tyre then you may be able to tell by examining it, but there's nothing unusual in your story.   As suggested above, you might want to check the tracking but if the wear is even across the tyre then the tracking should be OK.

 

Sounds to me like you've just been unlucky.

Tread depth or lack of it has no relation to the possibility of a blow out, punctures yes but a blow out is an explosion rupturing the tyre usually at speed, more often than not caused by overheating resulting from underinflation and/or overloading.

 

Damage to the inner reinforcing resulting in bulges will also cause blow outs but again usually in conjunction with excess heat.

 

Tyres will happily wear all the tread away then through the reinforcing leaving the plys exposed without blowing out.

If your driving over these daft half humps the councils use on some roads, and you drive to miss them this causes cuts in the tyres