Please help, tyre wall damage - can I drive on these?

hotpot

dern said:

hotpot said:

Ask yourself which is easier! taking the car to a tyre fitting garage to change it or doing it yourself at the side of a busy road.

That doesn't make any sense. If you can't see the structure of the tyre you've just cut into the rim protector... that is the rim protector has done its job and protected the rim. If the OP has any concerns about air getting out of any of those then spray a mixture of washing up liquid and water on them and see if bubbles come out.

Could have lost the pressure simply due to driving up a curb as someone else has pointed out. When's the last time you checked the pressure and know that they're ok and have you pumped it up again and has it lost any since?

Always better to actually think about stuff logically than either panic or quote platitudes but it's the op's money

What a load o bollocks! Why would you even consider risking it! unless you like changing tyres at the side of a motorway or waiting in one of the dangerous places ie a hard shoulder for a breakdown truck. a fully loaded car with 4 adults in will soon heat that defected tyre up.

terada

dern said:

hotpot said:

Ask yourself which is easier! taking the car to a tyre fitting garage to change it or doing it yourself at the side of a busy road.

That doesn't make any sense. If you can't see the structure of the tyre you've just cut into the rim protector... that is the rim protector has done its job and protected the rim. If the OP has any concerns about air getting out of any of those then spray a mixture of washing up liquid and water on them and see if bubbles come out.

Could have lost the pressure simply due to driving up a curb as someone else has pointed out. When's the last time you checked the pressure and know that they're ok and have you pumped it up again and has it lost any since?

Always better to actually think about stuff logically than either panic or quote platitudes but it's the op's money

Thanks for the input. I'm going to have a closer look tonight and try the liquid bubble test.

When I pumped all four tyres up the rear left (with the gouges) had lost considerably more than the others (all had lost a bit).

Under the flaps it just looks like rubber, no cording as far as I could see.

dern

hotpot said:

What a load o bollocks! Why would you even consider risking it! unless you like changing tyres at the side of a motorway or waiting in one of the dangerous places ie a hard shoulder for a breakdown truck. a fully loaded car with 4 adults in will soon heat that defected tyre up.

It isn't any risk whatsoever if you check it's just the rim protector and no, it really won't heat the tyre up. I can assure you it isn't 'bollocks' but please yourself.

dern

terada said:

Thanks for the input. I'm going to have a closer look tonight and try the liquid bubble test.

When I pumped all four tyres up the rear left (with the gouges) had lost considerably more than the others (all had lost a bit).

Under the flaps it just looks like rubber, no cording as far as I could see.

The best thing you can do in this situation is to pump them up and then check them the next day. If one is going down then do something about it (unless you've found any structural damage in which case just replace it). If you're going to do the thing with the washing up liquid then whip off the valve cap and spray a bit on the valve. They can sometimes fail leading to it deflating. You can get that fixed for a tenner though.

hotpot

dern said:

hotpot said:

What a load o bollocks! Why would you even consider risking it! unless you like changing tyres at the side of a motorway or waiting in one of the dangerous places ie a hard shoulder for a breakdown truck. a fully loaded car with 4 adults in will soon heat that defected tyre up.

It isn't any risk whatsoever if you check it's just the rim protector and no, it really won't heat the tyre up. I can assure you it isn't 'bollocks' but please yourself.

I've been out to enough breakdowns in my life to know that it is just a question of time before that tyre fails.

dern

Really? If a cut like that hadn't reached the structure of the tyre then how would it fail as that part isn't structural and if it had of caused a blowout then how would you know that the resultant mess was caused by something like that rather than something that had cut the steel belts? If the tyre integrity relied on that thin outer bit of the tyre then they've all last about five minutes and explode when they hit any stone.

chillidoggy

Tyre sidewall damage = MOT fail.

dern

chillidoggy said:

Tyre sidewall damage = MOT fail.

Not true, from the MOT manual...

Reason for Rejection

1.
a. A tyre has a cut the length of which is in excess of 25 mm or 10% of section width, whichever is greater, deep enough to reach the ply or cords
b. a tyre has: 
a lump, bulge or tear caused by separation or partial failure of its structure. This includes any lifting of the tread rubber
any of its ply or cord exposed

I can't see inside the above cuts but if the OP says he can't see the tyre structure it will pass an mot.

I'm not making this crap up by the way - lol. I've got about 25 years of maintaining/fixing my cars and running track cars. I wouldn't blink with the above damage and had cars pass mots with such cuts.

tone1

Yep @dern is right..it's not even an MOT failure. Granted it doesn't look very nice but if VOSA deem it ok then it's ok..would I want my Mrs and Kids driving around in it because it's obviously been kerbed?
It's a Bridgestone tyre and not a budget tyre..i'd plump for the middle ground of sticking in the boot as my spare

Troy

tone1 said:

Yep @dern is right..it's not even an MOT failure. Granted it doesn't look very nice but if VOSA deem it ok then it's ok..would I want my Mrs and Kids driving around in it because it's obviously been kerbed?
It's a Bridgestone tyre and not a budget tyre..i'd plump for the middle ground of sticking in the boot as my spare

What use is a flat spare tyre though?

Sporky

It's like carrying an umbrella so it won't rain.

ie Gambler's Fallacy.

hobbio

I'm not telling a bloke on the internet whether his tyre that I've never seen is safe enough to carry his kids a few hundred miles or not, but if it was mine I'd replace it.

Sambostar

Fooking hell, I had a bit fall off the prop shaft of the Transit and the track rod nut is loose, the tyres were trash and I regularly went with one twin wheel flat.  Who cares.  Mind you it's only me and I'm a homicidal maniac so it's OK.  Makes me mad that the 100mph wankers who think they think they are invincible haven't even touched a spanned to gauge.  Ought to check out the factory spot welds because they vary in quality massively for starters. Mind you, once you slap some plastic on it it's sanitised and sent from heaven.  Play it by ear.

speshul91

The exact reason I went and bought new tyres for mine. Mine was in the tread though.

ICBM

More importantly, replacing it gives you the opportunity to present your wife with the bill and point out that's what happens when you kerb the tyres.

Moe_Zambeek

ICBM;1006474" said:

More importantly, replacing it gives you the opportunity to present your wife with the bill and point out that's what happens when you kerb the tyres.

Still cheaper than replacing wing mirrors if she ends up parking 2 feet from the kerb

dern

hobbio said:

I'm not telling a bloke on the internet whether his tyre that I've never seen is safe enough to carry his kids a few hundred miles or not, but if it was mine I'd replace it.

I don't think I was telling him that, I was giving him the info so he could make a judgement call for himself based on knowledge.

terada

So the results are in. MsTerada took it in to the authorised main dealer we originally bought the car from this morning.

The guys there had it in for about 10 minutes to test it, came back and said all was fine as is. No new tyre required.

Surprised to be honest, thought they would have tried to make a sale regardless (they had already ordered the tyre in specially and reserved a slot in their schedule to carry out the change).

At least I now have peace of mind.

Big thanks to all of you for your help.

dern

Nice one, peace of mind. Have a good trip.

Chalky

95% of people on here are experts on how a guitar is made and whether a fault is important or not. Unfortunately its seems they also know nothing about tyre design