Allotments 4 All

A cautious warning...

Just found out that i've been driving around for about a week (1000 miles +), up and down motorways etc. with a completely flat tyre..

My car has been handling a bit wierd for the last week, especially when going around round-a-bouts. The ESP kept cutting in all the time. So I called out the AA today to have a look. He spent ages looking round it, visually checked the tyres, suspension - could'nt find anything. Took it out for a spin and agreed it was'nt right, looked again suggested a sensor had failed and that i should turn off the ESP and take it to the dealer. He then checked the tyre pressures as a last resort, even though the tyres all looked fine - however the rear passenger side had almost no air in it! big f-in nail in it! Even the AA man was supprised..turns out its a run flat tyre  :-[

Blimey, they're expensive too.  I could mumble on about tyre technology for a few pages or so, but suffice to say, it's bloomin marvellous these days & I've had reason to be pleased that tyres and car suspension is majic nowadays when I had a tyre go at speed on a corner a couple of years ago.........

Will check on how you're supposed to know the run flat bit has kicked in and get it changed.

& ps, spacesaver wheels - deliberately designed to handle rubbish to make you go and put a proper one back on again.  Had three days on one last month - murder.

Mine's messing me about so maybe I'd better check the pressure!
:o

Having recently turned 50 i am doing lots of things this year, in the next week i am getting an mgb gt ~ i cannot wait (always wanted a sports car, always gone for the sensible thing ~ NOT ANY MORE!!!!!!!!!!, i shall definitely check the tyres ...... 8)

One in each corner is always a good start....
;D

 ;D ;D

Quote from: saddad on August 15, 2007, 23:41:45
One in each corner is always a good start....
;D

;D ;D I find one in the boot comes in handy sometimes too. ;D ;D

;D
[/quote]

;D ;D I find one in the boot comes in handy sometimes too. ;D ;D
[/quote]

Yeah - helps keep weight over them pesky back wheels when you're tanking it round a roundabout.
::)

I assumed there was a sensor of some sort to let you know. Gosh.

Is there some kind of "petrol-heads coming out of the closet" thing going on here?!?! I get slightly odd looks occasionally when I turn up at the lottie in my boy-racer WRX. Don't see why gardners shouldn't be into cars. Except it's always muddy and full of garden tools in the boot.

Ollie,  as far as I'm concerned a car is a tool like any other.  Ok, in my case there have been a few rather expensive tools, but that's my choice.  The thing that seems to wind people up around me is that I don't treat my cars as something fragile.

When I had a Merc sports coupe, it had a surprisingly good carrying capacity, so it was used to pick up flagstones and bricks etc for when we landscaped the garden.  It went down the lottie on a regular basis & I improved my driving skills as it was on occasion a bit of a handfull offroad.  My next door neighbour was appalled at my lack of respect for my car.  He had a LWB Range Rover at the time!!!!!!  ( OK, he did pull me out of the hedge once because I couldn't negotiate the U-turn at the end of our lane on ice.)

Current exec saloon gets the same treatment, if not worse.  ok, by the time it's 4 years old it will have 120,000 miles on the clock & be worth less than the laptop I'm using now, so being in good nick will be nigh on irrelevant.  But it's a thing.  I bought it to use it.  I like powerful motors.  I have an allotment.  QED. 

Not fully utilising my motor is like putting in a bath and having to wash before you use it!


Poop Poop

In case it makes you feel better, Keef:

1. We had a front offside tyre go flat on the M5 going to a Funeral. We didn't know until a passing car waved us down! Changed the wheel, set off &, within 1/2 hour, same again. No spare left! No Funeral - thankfully!

2. I've had 5 tyres burst on take off or landing in my flying days.

I'm sure I've got a slow puncture or a dodgy valve on one of my tyres as every four weeks or so I have to pump it up ... it's usually down to around 15psi, but should be 32psi.  Mechanic reckons there is nothing wrong with it  ???

i once drove from bristol over the old severn bridge and into tintern thinking the car seemed a bit dodgy and discovered a front tyre was as flat as a pancake i,d noticed something wrong just after i left home ...... :-[
marg

That could have been painful Tim!
::)

Quote from: OllieC on August 16, 2007, 17:12:25
Is there some kind of "petrol-heads coming out of the closet" thing going on here?!?! I get slightly odd looks occasionally when I turn up at the lottie in my boy-racer WRX. Don't see why gardners shouldn't be into cars.

Well,

Here's me nearly lighting my tyres at the Nurburgring this year at Pflanzgarten II


And,

Errrr...me facing the wrong way after taking Quarry at Castlecombe a little on the fast side  :-X


And,

Errr...me stuck in rather a lot of mud  ;D (now sold :()


And yup, mine (legnum vr-4) gets used for absolutely everything. It gets rather low when its got 1/2 tonne of masonary and god knows what else in it....Still shifts though  ;D

Tim

Hi Keef,

Checked on the tyre thing. - Run flat tyres are constructed to stay attached to the rim of the wheel when they go down, so that the tyre doesn't shred off and leave you on the wheel rim, but they do go down.  There are two other sorts of High Tech tyres on some newer cars.  Foamers, where the tyre gets re-inflated by a foam which supports the tyre until you get it replaced ( couldn't be sure if that's an automatic or manual process tho)  and Gel tyres, where there is a layer in the tyre filled with gel which reacts with air so that it goes hard & plugs the hole so you can carry on.

What did the tyre replacement place say?

(sorry, being a geek I know, but that's how it is)

Well i feel even more embarrest... :-[

The ATS man reckoned they're not run flat tyre's - just extra load low profile tyres. The side wall is a lot stronger so thats why it probably looked OK despite having no air in it.. Scares me even more to think how much driving i done with a flat tyre. I really am amazed that both myself and the AA man did'nt spot it, until the pressures were checked.

Glad you got it sorted Keef... which brings me to my problem

As you all know i have had my Suzuki grand vitara a few weeks now... driving on the A1 at around 70mph and the car starts wandering all over the place - steering v light and constantly having to correct it... i slowed right down and went to accelerate and off it went again... anyway long story short i have so far paid out £125 getting the steering checked out etc and nothing wrong with it... I wonder if it could be my tyres - it is doing the same thing intermittantly which is very annoying and a bit scary at times driving on the nasty A1.

I have 1 almost new tyre on back, 1 new tyre on back... front tyres are on wear line now but still plenty of wear at the moment... tracking does need to be done - after i was forced on the inside white bumpy vibrating line for quite a few hundred metres by some loon truck driver.

Anyone got any comments?

Probably the tracking. Probably fronts towing in a little, so at speed it makes it a bit unstable and sensitive to little adjustments.

The guy did say that the tracking could do with being sorted... but said not to bother til i get new tyres... but as i crap myself everytime i go more than 5 miles away from home, maybe i'll just shell out the 20 quid...  do you think i put the tracking out by going over those bumpy white lines? was fine til then.!