I decided to take the highway back home from the driving range with my 10 year old son.

Cruising along at 70mph in the right lane, when the Right Rear tire let go...
Scary, but very controlled to a stop on the side of the highway.

I was lucky to have every thing needed to change it, and got back under way in 15-20 minutes. No damage to the rim or car, it wasn't the front, so I really lucked out.

Totally my fault, because I've been dragging my feet with the tire purchase, but I'll be pulling the trigger on some Eagle GT's (195-65-15). I've been toying with getting 205's, but don't want any rubbing.

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Glad this had a happy ending!

If it helps I’m running Goodyear 195x65-15 in the front and 205x65-15 in the rear without any problems.

Thanks, I actually hadn't thought of that. The main reason I was looking at the 205's was that it looked like it kept the speedo (slightly) more accurate. looks like if I put those on the back, and use the 195's on front, its the best of both...

did the tire fail on the sidewall????

Porsche now recommends that tires over 6 years old be replaced, regardless of tread depth. I recently checked the tires on my car, and was shocked to realize they were 21 years old! I replaced them with 195-65 15s as I don't autocross anymore and wanted to get a more period correct look (and an accurate speedometer)

Glad you and your little one is safe.
How old was this tire? I ask because I've been holding off on a new purchase myself.
Thanks

We had a lot of discussion regarding this on the 356 registry, and it seems to be evolving to a similar discussion here.

The problem with the older classic cars, as discussed on the registry site, is they are not driven enough to wear out the tread.

Ozone wears out the rubber and unless you put your car in a vacuum bag, you cannot get away from the Ozone.

The results of that discussion, and lots of Internet "research" was that 4 years seemed to be the date which you should change rubber.
That is 4 years from date of manufacture, not the date you buy them.

There is a DOT code on the tire that shows the date of manufacture so when you buy tires you can make sure they are not two or three years old already....

With the odd size, low volume , tires we buy, many have been sitting on the shelf degrading for years already....


Curious, what was the date of manufacture of your tires when they delaminated?
That is the classic Ozone degradation failure...so I am wondering just how old yr tires are?

Interesting, but after I learned all this from the registry, I am shocked to see how the tire companies still sell tires that are three, and sometimes four years old for many cars....typically the ones on sale are just old stock...need to dump them.

6 years was not agreed as a valid timeline for keeping tires, it came down to 4 years as the maximum for safe tires.....

Just seeing how much body damage can occur when my father in law lost a tire from delamination, and the tread swung around in the wheel well and trashed the headlight bucket and a few other things on the p1800 wagon made me a believer.

Btw, his tires looked perfect, and he drives the car 1000 miles per year, on a tough year, but more Ike 500 miles per years average.

For me, the net is, check the dates on the tires before the tire store mounts them....don't buy old rubber unless you have loads of money to burn.

Rich

curious what that looks like....got a picture you could post?

Are you saying if the front went out you'd be screwed? Naw...if anyone has a front blow out, simply push the accelerator and DO NOT go to the brake. Instincts make most drivers want to dynamite the brakes; however, do not. This allows the side pulling force to pull you out of control. Simply pushing accelerator creates more thrust direction forward until you gain control and then can slow proportionally to the side pull of the flat. Michelin Tires demonstrated a front blow out collision is preventable by this tactic. They put an untrained female secretary in an 18 wheeler, blew out the steer tire! With her trained on what tactic to use, she was able to hold control of the truck. They are that confident and it was a recreation to avoid a multi-million dollar lawsuit.


Nope, this happens to tires at speed when the air lets loose and the rim is now rolling over the rubber. <Think/ponder> a dull butter knife can cut a steak if the pressure is great enough. I've seen/changed so many blown out tires along the roadway, it is very common look.

I attended a tire blow out class presented by Michelin as a part of my collision investigation training. (became very helpful during the Firestone truck tire failure collisions) Michelin is always being sued for 'faulty tires' and they actually have recreated virtually every tire failure possible. The forensics of a tire failure can be traced back and often it is a result of poor care by the owner. An example: Low air, just driven a couple blocks, can destroy sidewall support and forensically can be proven.

Glad Turk22 is okay. Either way, I'm sure he needs a new seat cover!!!

Interesting about the tactic for a front tire blow out, probably hard to remember to execute when it happens... I've never had a front tire blowout, but I'll try and file it away.

I have to check the age of the tires, I almost hate to, because I know I'll be embarrassed by my stupidity... I'm sure these particular tires were sitting for quite awhile, and it should have been the first thing.. the absolute first thing, I did to the car, and I didn't...

I used the factory jack to change the tire on the side of the road, and it worked perfectly, I was again lucky that it happened in a place with a wide paved breakdown area, and changing the tire was really easy and uneventful. I'm thinking of picking up a sicissor jack to throw in the car just in case.

I'd like to see the 205's on the rear and 195's on the front as well, if you have a pic.

205 55 15 is very close to correct rolling dia so the speedo will be correct. that is the fattest meats that fit under all stock 914 without rub.

205 65 is too tall. larger dia than OEM tire. speedo will read low and acceleration will suffer

these are 205 50 15. they are a wee bit smaller. speedo is 3-4 mph faster than reality (keep you out of trouble) but the off the line acceleration is better

I am very happy that you and 914 were unharmed. i am guilty of running old cracked tires also. we should all pay attention to this cautionary tale

Sean, you sure, I didn't consider this size, because the tire calculator said it wasn't close:

Tire Size

yah i've seen sidewalls destroyed from driving on then after deflation, but this one seems to have huge chunks at the shoulder of the tire missing...

and I constantly see people driving around on grossly under inflated tires! and all the cars that now have 45-30 series tires that will not show visibly that they are under inflated.

that is a nice tire calc, thank you Andy!
personal preference dictates here but...
it is as I stated 3.6 mph faster, a small price to pay for:
lower car without ruining suspension geometry
better acceleration
ALOT more tred to the pavement
greater performance tire selection availability
better supply, better prices for more meat
fill up those empty wheel wells

I lost the tread on a rear tire on the way home from the Parts Heaven swap meet. Proper inflation, 65MPH, just crusin' down the freeway, miles from anywhere. Turns out they were tires that were on the Thunderbus, dating from around 1990. I gave the wheels and tires to a friend when I sold the bus. Maybe not the best plan to drive a loaded Vanagon at freeway speeds on those puppies ................... I was fortunate in just losing big chunks of tread and not having a blowout.

As for the best position for lesser quality tires, ALWAYS on the front. You can steer out of a front tire failure, having a failure on the rear makes for a more difficult recovery.

and they look awesome. thanks for the pictures!

for the sake of community service, we should talk about how to read teh date code on teh tire.

We're suposed to visually check our tires and check the pressure every time we fill up with gas.

Look for cracks in the sidewalls. Sometimes they are hard to see, so take a good look. If you see them developing, it's a good time to think about a new set - even if it appears that there's lots of tread left.

I thought the original tires for a 914 were 165SR15, which are a lot taller than 205/55-15.

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I like running 185 or 195/65-15s.

24.7 vs 25.5
2.8% error on speedo
a lot taller? " a lot" is subjective.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=11
link is about date codes

The Tire Identification Number for tires produced prior to 2000 was based on the assumption that tires would not be in service for ten years. While they were required to provide the same information as today’s tires, the week and year the tire was produced was contained in the last three digits. The 2 digits used to identify the week a tire was manufactured immediately preceded a single digit used to identify the year.

Since 2000, the week and year the tire was produced has been provided by the last four digits of the Tire Identification Number with the 2 digits being used to identify the week immediately preceding the 2 digits used to identify the year.

so post 2000 is by law a 4 didget # ? and pre 2000 is probrobly 3 diget ?

That is correct: tires mfg. after 2000 are dated with 4 digits and tires mfg. prior to 2000 are dated with 3 digits

Are those wheels 5.5 x 15 with 205 50 15 tires?

Happy you guys are okay. I am guilty of driving on old tire too.

You just got my attention.

american racing FUCH replicas 15 x 5.5. made in USA. tires are dunlop Direzza 300 treadwear. very good grip

i still run into pre 2000 tires on customer's cars. scary

I have an original factory tire on my 1984 Ranger, truck only has 21k miles, was garaged, this was the spare rotated in the mix.

I really only use it around town... Tire is still soft, no rot. I'm not saying it's good, but for around town it holds air.

I had a Goodyear Corsa as a spare tire in the 914, God knows how old. No apparent rot, not exposed to sunlight. Watching TV one night with my wife and we hear a loud BANG in the garage. Went down, looked around and found nothing wrong. It wasn't until a few days later when I opened the trunk and discovered the sidewall blown out of the tire and a huge bulge of the inner liner sticking out! The scary part? I put that spare on about 6 months before to try and chase down a vibration issue.

Reminds me of the time a client brought over his mitsu pickup that he said was driving strangely. I noticed some weird bulging and separating of tread on the right front wheel and when I put my pressure gauge on the wheel, it pegged the gauge (over 160 PSI)...
I was VERY AFRAID from that point on that there would be a loud BANG in my face, as I was bleeding it down.
I asked him what the heck he did and he said he just inflated it at the gas station and kept the hose on until it stopped making noise...
That tire wasn't going to make it another 5 miles...

Redneck low rolling resistance mod?

Wanted to update this thread with the new tires I got.

I went with the Sumitomo HTR A/S P01 205 60R15. Like the fat tire, they seem to ride nice (they couldn't have been worse than what I had)
These are directional tires, so I also got a store brand non-directional tire for the spare, in the same size...

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The date code is 0812:
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OH MY!

Ordered these last friday from treaddepot.com
Eagle GT 195x65x15
$300 +$60 rebate + free ship

I looked at Eagle GT's at Tire Rack (damn, never even looked at TreadDepot), and after figuring all the costs for mounting/balancing and incidentals, I went to to NTB, who I've dealt with before, and talked to the manager. He came up with a price that matched TireRack, and did the spare at close to cost. I was happy how it worked out. The Eagle GT's 195's were the way I was going, until I saw how Sean's 205's looked...