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Bridgestone RFT AE906AS in action ! Destroyed !

985 views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  jburke4689 
#1 ·
In case anyone is curious about what goes down when RFT's explode:

Driving 80mph+ down 495 in MA and come off a bridge to see the mother of all pot holes. It was as if Satan himself had dug a hole from hell. I tried to avoid it and failed miserably due to a large truck on my left.

The tire explodes, I see something fly off to my right and all hell breaks loose in the car, lights are on and tire pressure is done, heavy pull to the right.

Popped the Emergency "SOS" button once I managed to get off the next exit from the emergency lane and a wonderful woman walks me though the process. I take a gamble and drive the 30 miles home on back roads with a full load, wife and two kids. At first it was just a crack, but by the time I hit mile 25 the tire was wide open. Driving for the first 15 miles was a breeze, really solid and I even hit a few bumps without issue.

As time went on you tell the tire was totally getting destroyed. I brought it down to 20mph and made it home the last 4 miles. BMW is now picking up the car (2hr wait for a truck), I'm within the 4 yr period and am stoked on the performance of this tire. AE960AS 3rd Gen Bridgestone.

Only regret is the tire is about a year old and I know I'm in for two of them to balance this out. An expensive day but everyone is safe and thats all that matters.

 
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#2 ·
Make sure you carefully check the wheel for any cracks when it is off the car.
 
#3 ·
Thanks I will. It was certainly a large enough hole to have the chance to structurally damage the rim. I can see where the rim punched into the tire, and how the other side was a jagged knife of 495 highway grace.

Also for anyone that reads this I have some advice. You can ride on RFT's like this for quite some time, but you have to avoid potholes, taking turns too tight or anything else that will stress the tire.

I went across another small drawbridge that had those like waffle cone ridges (that make a noise like bees when riding over them). Things were fine going into the bridge, but I could feel going over it that the ridges had gripped the tire (tracking) and really stressed the crack.

I asked the woman on the phone about the "90 miles" at 50ph stat (unsure of exact). I think its more a function of time. So you can drive at 20 mph for an hour over poor road conditions or you can drive 50mph over roads like in Germany for an hour same deal.
 
#4 ·
Only regret is the tire is about a year old and I know I'm in for two of them to balance this out. An expensive day but everyone is safe and thats all that matters.
I'm glad they did what they were designed to do and that you're all okay. I may have caught you too late, but you can order the new tire shaved down. I bought my last set from Tire Rack (board sponsor, and they'll ship to many stores, and in my case extremely and surprisingly quickly), and I want to say they charge $5 per tire shave. E9x tires normally start at 10/32 of any inch, so if you're close to that, then I would shave it. Tire tread depth gauge was probably less than $5 for me, and every once in a long while I'll check up on all my treads with it. The closer you are to 4/32 (or perhaps slightly less), then you get more value by getting the second new tire, you'll have to play that value game after measuring.
 
#6 ·
Same thing happened to my 2007 335i (e90) when the car was about two months old. The rim didn't crack but it did bend a little. The bend was repaired and the tire replaced. When it was time to replace all the the tires I switched to Continentals from the Bridgestone's. The ride a lot nicer and quieter.
 
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