Catastrophic Sidewall Failure

[JAMAS]

Thats horrible!

I have the continental extremecontact dws tires on my wifes car. Kinda nervous about them now.

[Y33TREKker]

Wow. I actually know someone who works at a Continental manufacturing plant. I'll have to forward those pics and ask what he thinks could have caused that. Could be anything from an error in the mixing process to an improper build to a malfunction in the curing process.

Glad your sister-in-law is ok...and I'd probably second your mechanics first thought.

[tom4bren]

I'm guessing that there was a manufacturing defect that caused the blowout but most of the damage you see is probably from the skid/recovery/stop. There's so much damage to that tire that you'll probably never be able to tell what gave out causing the blowout & what occurred after.

Glad everyone is OK.

[etlsport]

im guessing the tire was not fully inflated. An underinflated tire at speeds over 40-50mph will it heat up and eventually shred. i see that kinda thing some some frequency in the shop. Not quite to that degree, but i see it often. Michelin's are notorious for blowing out like that. I dont deal with enough continentals to know if they do that frequently.

is there a bunch of tire "dust" stuck in there still?

[VX KAT]

That's simply amazing, glad it ended well!
It seems there's more damage on the outer side vs. the inner side, wonder why.
Curious, what position was it on and was turn left or right? Maybe this was the front outer position so the weight of the car and G force "pushed" on the outer side more causing those rips as it deflated under load?

[vt_maverick]

im guessing the tire was not fully inflated. An underinflated tire at speeds over 40-50mph will it heat up and eventually shred. i see that kinda thing some some frequency in the shop. Not quite to that degree, but i see it often. Michelin's are notorious for blowing out like that. I dont deal with enough continentals to know if they do that frequently.

is there a bunch of tire "dust" stuck in there still?

It's possible, I certainly didn't look at that specific tire before she left Tuesday morning. A bit weird that it would so much less inflated than the other tires, but if there was a slight leak I suppose it could happen.

There was tons of black powder on the inside of the tire. What does that mean?

[etlsport]

It's possible, I certainly didn't look at that specific tire before she left Tuesday morning. A bit weird that it would so much less inflated than the other tires, but if there was a slight leak I suppose it could happen.

There was tons of black powder on the inside of the tire. What does that mean?

She probably picked up a nail or a had a small pinhole leak in the tire that went unnoticed, it could have even happened on the same drive that blew out the tire.

The black powder usually shows up in tires that are run on low air pressure. Basically as the pressure decreases the center tread of the tire starts to raise away from the road while the sidewall flexes more. When the pressure is low enough the sidewall starts to pinch under the rim or bends at too sharp an angle. When that happens the inside of the tire starts to disintegrate. If its not corrected, the inner sidewall keeps building heat and disintegrating and eventually the belts are no longer held in place by the rubber, which is what you are seeing, the separation of the belts on the sidewall.