Tyre life after damage

[Darren S]

Probably preaching to the converted here, but this is just a heads up of the limits of tyre integrity after damage.

My wife caught an object in the road yesterday and it slashed the outer wall of the tyre as seen below. She managed to pullover into a little layby and after calling me, I drove out to meet her in her car.

A combination of living in the back of beyond, early morning and being about a mile-and-a-half from home - I thought I'd risk trundling the Clio back. Hazards on and doing about 15mph, I pulled over twice to check the state of the tyre and whether or not it was excessively getting warm. It was holding out on the outside, but the inside told a different story.

I reckon another half mile of travelling with it like that and the outer tread of the tyre would have sheared off completely.

 

[JamesBryan]

Yes, driving on a flat/very low tyre will do that in no time at all.

I'd have done the same as you considering it was only a short drive.

 

[R3k1355]

In a similar situation most people would have done the same.

Key point now is checking the rim is ok, from the pictures it doesn't seem to have taken damage?

 

[Short Norman]

a friend once drove about 2 miles to our house with a completey flat tyre, did it so I could change the tyre's for him because he's useless.

The tyre was absolutey fucked by the time he'd got to ours, it was also very hot. To add to his stupidity he had his daughter in the car with him.

Why he didn't just ring me and ask me to go to his house to help is beyond me.

 

[Brigsy]

Never ends up well driving on a flat. Id just get it recovered if no spare, its hassle but save having to replace a rim.

 

[Darren S]

Thankfully - it had pretty much zero damage to the rim. I cleaned the alloy up and there was the smallest chip above where the gash on the tyre was.

Glad I risked it - but it could have been a lot worse!