Tire Blowout

Oftentimes, after a blowout at 75 MPG there's not enough remaining to determine the cause.

 

Same here happened on Rt. Rear @ ~45mph, ~3,500 miles for no apparent reason. They claimed I hit something -- i.e., a "road hazard" & wouldn't stand behind the tire, as I did not buy the add-on tire road hazard insurance. Ended up trading in the remaining toyo junkers & putting on Michelin "Defenders". The handling & ride improvement is well worth the upgrade to me, even if I've lost a mile or two/ gal.! (I simply do/did not trust those toyo's after that. I'm well into retirement, been driving since '62 & have had only 3 blow-outs, the 1st 2 were well overloaded Pickups!)

 

How many miles on the car/tires?

 

And virtually NO reports similar to yours here, I think.
Did you do any searching ??

 

First I’ve heard of one

 

My earlier reference was prompted by my experience when working in a tire center. Probably the worst example was seeing someone bring in the remains of his tire in a basket. He explained that he was at highway speed when it blew. Fortunately it was on the rear so he was able to control the car.

A tire with no air in it doesn't do well at speed.

 

No flats for me yet in a Prius after 4-1/2 years of driving them, but my wife put a 3/8" drill bit through her right rear a year or two back. My last flat was a blowout on I-80 near Omaha. Center lane, 75-80 mph, very heavy traffic. By the time I got the van to the shoulder and stopped, the tire was mostly gone and the rear bumper cover had some nasty damage.

 

While I haven't had a "blow out" in.......well forever........
My daughter's C developed a NASTY bulge on the side of one of her tires.

When I asked her if she had hit or run over anything big she said: "Do you mean besides those curbs, parking stops and pot holes ?"


OK, I got to finish the story.
When I found a place that had a matching tire in stock and took it in, they changed it out in about 15 minutes.
Problem WAS......that the tire with the bulge was still on the car afterwards.
You just can't make some of this stuff up.

 

It is possible but very rare for a tire to fail without hitting something. Most likely something you hit but didn't feel damaged the tire. Or a puncture or loose or bad valve stem allowed air loss that resulted in the tire failing at speed. That tire & wheel insurance pushed by the dealership finance guy is usually a horrible deal, but he needs the commission on it as part of his pay check.

My experience with the Toyo original tires is that they are very light (with a thin casing to get the weight down) for better fuel mileage/longer battery run. I replaced ours with Bridgestone DriveGuard run-flat tires. The ride and noise level is OK (these are 3rd generation run-flat tires). The tires weigh much more than the OE Toyos, but the mileage hit isn't significant. I'd buy these again.

The Michelin Defender is a fine tire made for longest tread life but gives up some traction. The Michelin Premier is a fine tire made for greatest traction, especially wet traction, and gives up some tread life. Every tire design is a compromise--the choice is yours.

 

Sounds like the time I asked the fencing crew to add a brace to to the just installed and already badly sagging gate. They came in, measured things up, cut and installed a brace, just kinda toe-nailed in, without even straightening the gate. And gave me a blast when I criticized their workmanship.

If anybody in Greater Van's contemplating fence replacement, I can tell you who to avoid, lol.

 

Is it possible the pressure in that tire was too high? I didn't check the pressures when I drove my '04 home from the dealer until the next day. 3 were in range of the specs for the car, one was 2 PSI over the max pressure on the tire!

Having forgotten about that, I checked the tires on my Prime since we have a long trip this week. All were a bit below the door placard spec.

 

Bruce, not likely. By the way, tire pressure changes something like 2% for each 10°F change in air temperature.

 

This is unlikely. Generally, blowouts are caused by overheating due to significant under-inflation, or by mechanical damage to a tire. This can be a curb impact that causes damage, puncture outside the tread belt, etc. We race Miatas with 50+ psi in the rear tires, well above the max sidewall pressure.

 

How many different OEM tires are being fitted on PRIME? I have read quite a few bad reviews on Toyo Nanoenergy here. I think this tire: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?message=singleSize&tireMake=Toyo&tireModel=NanoEnergy+A29&width=195%2F&ratio=65&diameter=15&cameFrom=selectSize&partnum=965SR5NEA29

Mine came with Dunlop Enasave 01 A/S https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=Enasave+01+A%2FS&partnum=965SR5ES01AS&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes With little over 20K miles on them, I generally like the tire though the tread life is likely to be less than 40K. It has excellent mpg. It started to be bit noisy now.

 

How many different OEM tires are being fitted on PRIME? I have read quite a few bad reviews on Toyo Nanoenergy here. I think this tire: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?message=singleSize&tireMake=Toyo&tireModel=NanoEnergy+A29&width=195%2F&ratio=65&diameter=15&cameFrom=selectSize&partnum=965SR5NEA29

Mine came with Dunlop Enasave 01 A/S https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=Enasave+01+A%2FS&partnum=965SR5ES01AS&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes With little over 20K miles on them, I generally like the tire though the tread life is likely to be less than 40K. It has excellent mpg. It started to be bit noisy now.

 

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Mine had those till a couple hours ago. Down under 5/32" after 24,803 miles. Not gonna ride on those in the Colorado Rockies in May.

I just went back to the Yokohamas that have served well over the years. Avid Ascend GT to be specific. Now I have 12/32" of tread. And lots of little nubs to wear off.