This was last Friday. It went while on vacation traveling through South Dakota, at about the two thousand mile point of our four thousand mile trip. I had noticed they were getting noisier over the last five thousand miles or so and this one started an annoying wa-wa-wa about 200 miles before it blew. This is the reason I will always have a spare and not that worthless plug kit. Thankfully the sidewalls kept the wheel from getting damaged.
WOW! And thankful you and the car weren't damaged either (crash). Yet another example of why I carry a spare on long out of town trips which is otherwise left in the garage under daily use.
how many miles on them? how fast were you going? seems there have been more complaints than normal about these tires.
Please be sure to report this incident to NHTSA. That won’t do anything for you, directly, but yours is not the first complaint about the tires, and if NHTSA receives enough similar complaints, they may open an investigation, which could eventually lead to a recall.
Though this case was giving some warning for 5000 miles, and a stronger warning for 200 miles. So it seems that some inspection or operator intervention was called for, before this blowout.
Donut spare or full-size? If donut spare how far did you have to drive on it to get to a town where you could replace the tire? South Dakota of course has lots of wide open spaces.
This was on the right rear thankfully. I'm going to get some Michelins next week then look for a spare wheel so I have a full size to take from now on. About 23k miles on the ODO at the time. Cruise was set at 75. Stopped to get gas in Chamberlain and did check the tires as I always do and also ran my hand around the treads to see if I could find one causing the increased noise. Nothing abnormal at that time. It was the donut. Had to limp 35 miles into Rapid City.
Quite lucky you were that close to a large city where you could purchase a tire, which is why I asked. Myself and others have been making a case for carrying a full-size spare on long trips, something which many people won't consider, which I can understand. For one or two people it's feasible, for a family of four and a dog maybe not. Coincidentally I posted a message yesterday on this very topic, someone was in a quandary choosing their next Toyota because not all models come with spares. I pointed out that donut spares have limitations on long trips and suggested to at least consider a full size spare, which may also help in their decision on their car purchase if they can take the donut out of the equation. In town you can leave the spare at home because if you have a flat in town, most likely you have a way to get the spare to where your car is (spouse, friend, Uber) Prius/Camry quandary | PriusChat
This is what happens to tires that are driven on when flat. I suspect the wa-wa-wa sound was you hitting something. They do a really good job with tires and stability control on cars these days. Even non run flats. They can feel like there is nothing wrong with the car except a small tug in the direction of the flat that could be ignored as wind. In the past the blow out would be an immediate loss of control of the vehicle.
I plan on having a full size spare before our next long trip out of town along with a new set of Michelins. Quite possible the tire could have hit something that cut it but it didn't lose air until just before it blew as the low pressure light wasn't on
