Catastrophic Sidewall Failure

[44ficus44]

totaled them shoes !!!!!!!!! that's scurryyyyy.... never had something like that happen... yet

[twalker920]

My 2005 Mazda 6S had Contis on, and I take good care of my vehicles (i.e. the tires were inflated correctly). And one evening driving home from a restaurant, THIS happens:



Absolute mechanical failure driving basically straight, no turns to speak of, on a highway about 10 miles from my house. Tires had around 12,000 miles on them, and were wearing evenly. They were high performance all-seasons, and were not anywhere near worn out.

I managed to pull over safely (light traffic luckily), but it damaged my rim, ripped part of the rocker panel off and bent the back bumper part of the wheel arch out, breaking 4 or 5 body clips in the process. The tread is the pile of black rubble under the rim...absolute disintegration.

I'll never buy Contis again. Cost $2200 in repairs, plus tow, plus a new set of tires (I don't drive on unevenly worn tires). Insurance covered all but the three "ok" tires. Still, it stranded me for 2.5 hours in November past midnight. I was not a happy camper.