Has anybody ever realized your tire was flat before you ended up driving any distance and ruining the inner liner like I did today?

I picked up a razor blade on I-275 today after work, most likely from construction work.
I was coasting a lot in heavy traffic and barely getting up to 50 mph when I noticed a growing vibration.

My first thought was the road was bad but it looked the same, then noticed the steering pulling to right, so I looked for wind but no trees were bending.
THen noticed the car was dipping some in right rear.

Time to exit.

Luckily I remembered a Tire discounter just off the exit on the right. I took it about 3 minutes after vibration started. I stopped one lot before Tire discounter just to get out and look and saw it flat.

I was really sure I didn't drive enough to ruin it but they showed me the tell tale shavings on the inside and the wear.

Replaced my Kumho Ecsta ASX with a cheaper AST (little less performance)

I was wondering if a can of fix a flat would have saved me about a $120 if I stopped sooner.
Not used to the fragility of the short side walls.

 

Yes if you stopped earlier you could have saved the tire. I worked it a tire shop for quite awhile. So when people came in with this type of flat I'd pull it off the rim & inspect if there were shavings on the inside or ripping on the outside due to the rim (& the weight on the car) sitting on a flat tire. This will cause a bubble on the outside & then later down the road a blowout while your driving. The weaker the bubble the stronger the ply (I've noticed). If it failed my visual inspection I'd bring them over & tell them why they need a new tire (men was the worst to deal with they never would beileve anything I said). I always took my time & looked carefully to see if I could save the tire with just a plug unless it had two plugs in there already.

 

Same thing kinda happened to me. I got on the freeway and felt the car sway a bit. So I pulled over and looked at the tires. Didn't notice anything wrong, so I proceeded to drive the car another 20 miles to my destination. When I got there I looked at my tire and noticed it was almost flat. So I drove it to the gas station (another mile away). The next day I took the tire to the shop and they told me they couldn't repait it due to me driving a long distance when the tire was running flat.

Ever since then I always keep a portable tire pump along with a repair kit inside my car. That way if anything is wrong with the tire I can take care of it right away. Over risk of running it low on air again and ruining the tires.

 

One to grow on I guess.

The vibration feeling was so subtle that I didn't realize it was the tire till too late.
Mabye I would have realized sooner if it was on the front.

I even thought it was the engine or transmission acting up.

Yea I thought about arguing with the guy because it didn't look that bad at first ...then looked at the guy and deemed him trustworthy and realized he was only getting to sell a new tire out of the deal at most.

He explained how a flat razor gets into the back tire which I never realized.
The front tire kicks it up first then back one goes over it. It still seems freakish to me.

 

I've killed about 8 18" tires with the TT

I'd be over 10 by now if I had been driving it the last 2 months.

 

It's mostly on the passenger side & the worst part about it is no one ever checks that side. Hell people really don't check their air pressure even when I tell them air always leaks slowly (I use nitrogen for even slower). Not saying check the air in every tire everyday, but at least once a month. Get the most miles out of the tire you paid for.

 

I cut a sidewall last winter, and blew out my spare (bent steel rim) 3 days later. I was pissed, pulled a U turn and drove the 5-6 miles back to my apartment. At work the next day, I pulled the tire off the rim, emptied the shavings out, banged the rim back out with a sledge, remounted the tire with 3 crowbars and some grease, and reinflated the tire. It rolls true and continues to hold air, almost a year later.

I think a lot of it has to do with luck. I have a whole stack of bashed up rims/slashed up tires from the couple of wrecks I've had, and all those tires are bulge-less and are still holding air, even with massive tears in the sidewall.

 

That sounds great if it holds up , just hope you are not riding on "worn out" luck.
I would be worried of hitting curve hard one day and the tire giving out.

As for the nitrogen, that's what they put in this one. It might have saved me if I noticed it in time.

I'm thinking more about the tire caps with sensors now too. They were on woot a while back, wish i had them this day. I think these should be standard or an add on package actually as they are not only a safety issue but fuel saver one.

I would have stopped the car right then if I new it was critically low.

Like this:
http://www.gizmag.com/go/6205/
or this:
http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=3567

 

Mitsubishi makes the best really. They don't go off after .0000001 of a difference. People don't seem to understand that's it's next to impossible to get equal pressure in all 4 tires. I used to use the nitrogen machine that 4 air lines would hook up at the same time & inflate equally. Plus we also run different air pressure in the front & back.

 

OK I'm just ranting about annoying customers at my old job.