so I got a flat yesterday on the freeway after hitting a bump. (jacked the car up and went to put on the spare only to find out it didn't fit :wtf: , but that's not part ot he story)

Well so I jacked the car up today and took the rim into the local tire place. They filled it w/ air and then threw it in a tub of water and checked for leeks. They checked for a godo 20 minutes but couldn't find ANYTHING. They were completely stumped.

How could I of gotten a flat? Is it possible the beed seperated from the rim briefly? They told me it's completely safe to drive on but i'm still a little nervous.




I had checked the pressure right before I went for the drive and got the flat and it was all fine super

 

valve stem maybe?

 

valve stem was fine

 

I had a similar problem.
There would be times when I would park and the tire would go flat. And other times, I would ride around and park for 2-3 weeks without anything. It was because of an imperfection in the tire. If pressure was applied in the right spot, air would leak from the tire. That took me for fucking ever to figure out.

In your case, sounds like the tire went flat while driving. It is safe to assume your car requires an exorcism to function properly.

But I think you're probably right, there was a separation between the beading and the tire.

 

what tires did you have mantis?

 

nitto 555 extremes, I fucking hated those things. they caused me to spend so much money repairing rims when the real problem was the shitty tires. I'll never buy those again.

 

How big of a "bump" did you hit? It is very possible that the tire was not mounted perfectly and when you hit the bump, it popped the bead.

 

pretty big, that'd be weird if the tire wasn't mounted perfectly because they've been on for like 6-7 months. But it's possible.

 

flat tire.. dont use that fix-a-flat sht... that'll eat away your rubber.

 

I hit some potholes with the Stock Tires, and that happened. 1 tire blew out completely, the other just needed to be re-filled, since the Rim had black rubber over the lip I knew the tire just slipped out, and it seems fine to this date

 

are u still on stock rims? or aftermarket? what rim diameter?

 

I had the same problem with those tires

 

As said above --

Valve stem or improper mounting/bead is off.

If this is recurrent (and they cannot find a hole) you might want to have them re-mount the tire and change the stem.

 

Could also be a defect in the rim. If the area that contacts the bead isn't true, it would cause problems.

 

You sure you just didnt bend the rim on the beed, then when they sealed it again it got fixed?

This happend to me on my wheels when I had them, I also had Nitto 555's as well

 

nope, got towed home

 

18" w/ 225/40 Toyo Proxes 4's



The rim wasn't remounted or balanced, they simply just put air in it then they literally had 2 guys that spent about 15 minutes looking for a leak because they were puzzled too. The wheel was completey straight and balanced perfectly so I don't think they are bent at all.

 

some of the aftermarket rims have problems with maintaining beads. i have no idea which do and which don't. it varies.

the 18" rims also have less sidewalls than the stock 17". only 1/2", but it's still less. if you hit a large enough pot hole hard enough, something's gotta give. since you're on 18" tires and aftermarket rims i'm guessing that you hit the hole hard enough that the tire flexed enough to cause the bead separation. i don't think you'll ever see any signs of it. the tire compresses at the point of impact towards the rim, but the bead on both sides of the impact point flex out away from the rim to compensate for the pressure at the point of impact. it only takes a small amount to release enough air to go flat.

if the rim isn't bent you didn't get any rim to road contact. so that's good. sounds like just too much hole, too much speed, and too little sidewall.

hope it's your first & last flat.

 

definately not my first.


I figure what happened is exactly as you described. But should I be worried about causing damage to the tire?

 

You definitely hit a "space and time" vortex. They are very small and you probably only drove through it with that specific tire. The air was hermetically sicked out of the tire due to the blackish hole effect of the vortex and that air was transported to another dimension. You know, Bucakroo Bonzai stuff.


or, it could have been something else...

 

not sure about tire damage. i've seen reports on the tires/suspension board about "bubbles" in the tires. i believe this is EXACTLY what causes them. in your case the bead probably separated. in the "bubble" cases the cords separated. you could have both. maybe you haven't separated the cords yet, but you've probably weakened them some. how much i can't guess

however......

there may be HELP i'm told that you may be able to by something called a "tire replacement certificate" from some of the larger tire chains. this is basically tire insurance. i'm told that they're about $20 per tire. apparently they cover the replacement cost of the tire due to damage - including bubbles - for the life of the tire. (i've been to lazy to snag a couple of these for myself. but they're on my 2do list.)

call some of the local tire chains and see if they offer such a thing. note: these are NOT the same as "road hazard insurance". if these are real they're cheap insurance for overpriced tires.