The Amazing Exploding Dunlop Direzza

Hugh

Hugh

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At the epicenter of the Zombie Apocalypse
Cruising down I-95 this afternoon, minding my own business at about 85MPH listening to the brand new AC?DC album when all of a sudden my right rear Dunlop Direzza's carcass decides it no longer wants any part of Charlotte and her highway antics. Called AAA, 30 minutes later a very cool brand new Jerr-Dan flatbed with a height adjustable air suspension shows up. The angle of the bed was so low I could have easily driven the car up onto the thing. Gonna need a few 8mm clips to re-attach the inner fender liner and a big ass rubber mallet to get the lip of the wheel back into line.

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explodingdunlop01.jpg


explodingdunlop01.jpg
 
Hugh..check those tire pressures often...I bet you overheated it due to low pressure
 
Sduff@Composites said:
Oh wow, good thing you and your car's ok. What do you think caused the blow out? Any signs of wear and how old were the tires?
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The Star Specs were installed on 1/14/14 at 308,066 miles. It blew up at 320,866 miles with plenty of tread left on it. I threw a Nitto 555 on the wheel today since Charlotte has to attend the Toys For Tots exotic car rally and NSXCapades this weekend.

I have no idea what caused it to blow out. Docjohn suggested under-inflation but my tire pressure and all fluid levels are checked at every other fill up.

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Hagasan said:
You might want to check your left rear as well then ;)
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Seriously? Do you look at the rest of the world in a mirror or is your mental retardation inherited? :)

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Hass said:
Ouch

Glad you were not hurt. Wheel bent before or after the tire exploded?
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During actually. :)
 
I had a similar blowout with a rear Bridgestone S-03. It was caused by a slow leaking puncture that I didn't know about, followed by the sidewalls overheating from friction, finally causing the blowout!
 
There are a lot of possible causes of blowouts: improper pressure (too high or too low), using tires on wheels that are wider or narrower than the range approved for the tire make/model/size (very common when "stretched"), damage from potholes or road debris, manufacturer defects (quite rare), aging or poor storage (not likely with a tire relatively new to the market), etc.
 
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Giving a car the name Charlotte and taking it to that paint stripping car wash is slightly retarded as well Hugh :biggrin:

Sorry about the blowout.

Replace with RE-11.

re S
 
Wow, good to see that you and Charlotte are OK.

We can only speculate on what happened (especially since the tire is no longer of this earth…) - does your car wear the tires evenly? As I am sure you know there are many cases where the tire looked good but the inside edge is severely worn.

Maybe ask Satan?
 
......being called charlotte, i expected it to be green....
 
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I had a very similar blowout not to long ago on Falken Azenis RT615 rear tire. Luckily no wheel damage for me though.
 
If that wheel pictured above was bent like that before the blowout, it's possible the tire was leaking air at the bead.

I had one tire blowout on the NSX. It was on a tire on which I had had a valve stem with an intermittent leak. One day I'd check and adjust the pressure, and then a few weeks later the tire would suddenly be low. I'm quite certain that the tire had sufficient pressure when I got in it, and lost pressure as I drove on it.

Since I already had my track tires and track equipment in the car, it only took me about twenty minutes to swap one of my track tires onto the car for the rest of the ride home.
 
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