Tennis balls in tire wall.

Post by **Faheyk1981** » 06 Feb 2013, 10:48

While on the road i was hearing an odd sound at my rear nearside tire. I decided to take a look and this is what i found. Two quite large tennis balls along the wall of my tire. Good thing i checked. I'll obviously get a new tire asap. I wouldn't mind but its a Bridgestone tire with about 15k miles on it.

How and why does this happen?

Post by **JDS60R** » 06 Feb 2013, 10:56

Not sure from the picture but it looks like some dry rot in the rubber. Mostly these lumps are caused by a structural failure on the tire either from hitting something (curb/pot hole) or just poor manufacturing.

Post by **matthew1** » 06 Feb 2013, 10:59

+1, those small cracks mean unhealthy or old rubber.

LASteve · Post by **LASteve** » 06 Feb 2013, 11:52

You should be able to take it back to any Firestone shop and have it replaced. Most of their tires have a manufacturers warranty which covers this sort of fault.

nitehawk55 · Post by **nitehawk55** » 08 Feb 2013, 10:40

Running a tire flat or hitting curbs or pot holes can cause this too .

Post by **Faheyk1981** » 08 Feb 2013, 12:59

From thinking back on it i did hit a massive pot hole recently and when i checked the tyre pressure it was about 20psi. So hitting the pot hole with low tyre pressure looks to have done it.

Thanks all!
Kevin

Post by **jimmy57** » 08 Feb 2013, 20:17

Tubeless tires effectively have an innertube as the inner layer of tire. If that layer gets bruised and has a breach it will leak through the carcass and be retained by the outer layer of tire. Since the outer layer is not not cloth reinforced it inflates like a balloon. There is enough rubber vulcanized through the cloth layers that the breach on the inside layer is localized. I have seen these ballooned spots grow and look like sausages. I have also seen them stay the same size and the tire wore out with the ballooned spot, though a small spot, still the same size.
DO not expect warranty. It would be very unlikely that the tire would not show impact damage when dismounted and spread on a tire patching spreader.

Post by **regent** » 09 Feb 2013, 08:51

i did hit a massive pot hole recently

I have no clue how big the potholes in Ireland are but you definitely have a much bigger problem: Your car seems to be attracting those Jumbo Mosquitoes...