Today, April 7, is Tire Gauge Day in Japan. It was established by Asahi Sangyo, a tire gauge manufacturer established in 1946, to remind people of the importance of keeping your car tires properly inflated. My craziest story doesn’t involve the tires on my own car, but that of a tractor-trailer wheel-and-tire combo that came bounding over the highway median one day while I was taking my 66,000-mile factory 5-speed ’97 Lexus SC300 out for a drive one day. It was bouncing at least 15 feet in the air headed right toward me. I swerved two lanes and the truck tire, which typically weighs 110-120 pounds, obliterated the front of Prius that was behind me.
What’s your craziest tire-related story?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Gun to your head, which crossover would you drive for the rest of your life?“.
Forced to choose a crossover, several of you made the most car-like choice possible, an Outback-ified Subaru. nlpnt‘s manual Subaru Crosstrek, Land Ark‘s Outback XT, and dankan‘s Impreza Gravel Express softened the penalty. Some of you chose to go back to the OG modern crossover, as represented by Bryan Kitsune‘s RAV4 Type G and Sammy B‘s V6 RAV4. Of course, the OG OG crossover is StreetSpirit‘s AMC Eagle.
Large, powerful, and sport options proved an all-crossover future did not have to be bleak. Tom Westmacott‘s Infiniti FX50 Sebastian Vettel Edition, Taylor C.‘s Mazda CX-90, and Ian G.‘s Hyundai Ioniq 5 N embraced the premise to the fullest. Rally-inspired options like steve‘s Ford Puma WRC, Negishi no Keibajo s Suzuki SX4, and daniel‘s ffantasy GR Corolla Wagon occupied a similar position on the opposite end of the size spectrum.
Meanwhile, others fully resigned themselves to the situation. Franxou‘s dejected choice of a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross said it all. However, the winner this week was BlitzPig, who came right out of the gates with this bit of dark humor:
Pull the trigger.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
my craziest tire story involves a set of rota cherry blossoms (reps are bad, i know…), my little old blue wondercivic and a coworker slashing my week old toyo proxxess semi-slicks because ‘those pink wheels are gay’ luckily we had cameras on property but what was the guy thinking…
OMGoodness, that’s awful! >:(
yeah those were some characters…kharma is coming for them though as their business took a nosedive and my shop is steadily growing.
I accidentally bought a $300 1993 Saturn SC2 at auction. Oops. Presumably the reason it was there was it had a clunk under the hood. Turned out it was broken motor mounts, easy fix and it worked out it was a great car that got super good mileage.
So my kids visited from Canada, we were out in the desert in Arizona with the car and punctured a sidewall with a root. Oh NO! What are the odds this $300 auction special has a spare and a jack?? Well it had both! God loves us best! But … we had no lug wrench! OH NO! So my boys got creative and used the folding jack handle to squeeze with all their might, pinching the lugs in the hinge and thus got the wheel changed. :D)
I just bought a good but cosmetically scruffy LS430 (another one!) for cheap, potential manual swap/lowering project. Ad bragged about “new tires,” which turned tout to be off-brand A/Ts WTF.
I was driving around 11:00 pm on I-95 in Philadelphia with my sister, who is a nervous wreck traveling on highways, when a Mitsubishi Eclipse started to pass on the drivers side. Just at it went past our car its right front tire came off and bounced across the highway in front of us. My sister very calmly said “Look there is a tire going across the road”. It then hit the Jersey barrier on the other side of the highway and bounced back towards us, which got my sister to calmly say “Hey look, there it is again”. The Mitsubishi meanwhile swerved towards the center median where it proceeded to scrape along the barrier until it stopped. Luckily my sister did not see that part of the incident.
This isnt that interesting but here it goes. When I was about 17 or 18? I was on a shopping trip a hour away from home. At the time I was driving my dads old 1983 Accord, as I was getting all my stuff piled back into the car and was getting ready to leave, firetrucks came down the road. Being the good citizen I am, I pulled off the road to get out of their way. I unfortunately turned a little too sharply and totally tore my sidewall against the edge of the curb… FLAT TIRE!!! So I pulled into the nearest parking lot which belongs to a pre-rennovated taco bell and thats where I sat for a good hour or two before my mom came to rescue me! I didnt have a spare at the time. A valuable lesson I learned that night is that 1- Carry a spare and 2- 13 inch tires are expensive!!.
Coincidentally, the very next morning I met my car club bros car club for the first time. Since they worked at the only tire shop open on a Sunday!
Before owning Datsuns, I was into VWs (please don’t hold that against me, I was young).
After just finishing a yard repair on my ’70 VW Bug, my buddy and I jump in it to go for some pizza. We were about a mile down the road when it happened.
All is going smoothly and then without warning, the left front wheel just starts rolling down the road ahead of us.
It was almost surreal. There was absolutely no warning, no sudden noises or lurching sideways, the wheel was just gone. The car stayed straight as an arrow and very slowly dropped down onto the brake drum as the wheel rolled away from us.
As I am focused on getting the three-wheeled Bug safely to the side of the road, I tell my buddy, in a matter-of-fact manner, “Keep an eye on that, we’re going to need it.”. He still chuckles today at mention of the incident.
“All is going smoothly and then without warning, the left front wheel just starts rolling down the road ahead of us.”
Reminds me of something from the OG Herbie movie.
Another lost wheel story, yes in my youth, also a Bug story and with the same buddy.
I’m at his folks’ place, a former farm property on a hill. Lots of open fields and typical of New England, stone walls beside every road
He has a Bug stashed in the woods uphill of the house that needs a rear wheel and hub. So we jump into his “field car” a rotted out 64 1/2 Mustang convertible with a 289 V8, 4 barrel carb, 4 speed to deliver the wheel to the Bug (I know, we were young and the car was barely worth $100 back in the day).
So with the wheel tossed onto the deck lid luggage rack, we head into the field, throttle down to go up the hill. Rounding the shed, the wheel slides off the rack. It lands upright, pointing straight downhill and starts to roll toward the street.
We stopped just in time to see the tire, at speed, hit the stonewall. It bounces into the air, clears the powerline and into the woods beyond the field on the other side of the road. It had to have bounced at least 50 feet in the air. We never found it.
I live in NY and agreed to purchase a 2006 Scion xB from a dealership in Wisconsin. I found it through an online car sales site. It was a small private dealership that had a shop “just down the block.”. I told the sales guy that I was going to need to fly in, get picked up at the airport, finalize the paperwork and then be on my way back to NY. He knew the car needed to get me back home
I flew in, and landed as it was snowing. it was January after all. The sales guy picked me up at the airport as planned. Brought me to the dealership where the toaster was prepped and ready to go. I signed the paperwork, gave the sales guy a thank you bottle of whiskey that I picked up at the duty free shop at the airport, and was on my way
I stopped to get gas and the snow really started to come down. My goal was to get to Pittsburgh, stay the night in a hotel, and then complete the trip the next day. A journey home in an econobox that I had never driver before during a Mid-west snow storm, what could go wrong?
As I was driving, this completely new to me shoe box on wheels, something just didn’t feel right. There was a bit of a vibration, a tiny pull. But was it the icy covered roads? Was it just normal for a first gen xB? I didn’t know, but I had to keep pushing on if I was ever going to make it home… somewhat as planned.
After a couple of hours of white knuckle driving in a completely unfamiliar car I decided the only way that I would EVER get home is if I had the car looked at. I pulled off the interstate, did an online search for the nearest tire shop and found one in Sturgis. It was close to closing time so I thought I would have to beg them to look at the car right then so that I could get back on the road. I pointed to the box in the parking lot and to their, and my delight, they said no problem, that they used to have one as a shop car.
Up on the lift, they couldn’t find anything wrong. they said it must have just been ice building up and throwing off the balance. That has happened to me here in NY in the past so I wasnt too surprised, and again, I thought maybe it was just the way the car rode. I told them that I had a new set of tires and wheels waiting for me to at home, and I just needed it roadworthy to get me there. They reassured me that I was good to go. So, off I went.
The sun has set. The storm raged on. And I questioned why I NEEDED to have a toaster. I started to hate my decision making process as the car CONTINUED to shake and rattle as I slowly rolled behind semis thinking I’d be lucky if I ever made it home.
I eventually decided I was in need of stopping before either I or my new purchase gave in. I made it as far as Columbus, Ohio. I pulled into a hotel. I asked the counter person for the cheapest room, was willing to sleep on the couch, just needed some restful shut eye to make the longer than planned second leg with a poorly driving car. The chap must’ve felt bad for me because I had gotten a decent room, which provided a great amount of rest.
I got up early, but it was light, and when I got to my new car, the driver’s front tire was flat. I felt a new sense of defeated that I thought was impossible after the previous day. Fortunately, there was a gas station just across the way. Filled the tire with air, said a prayer and was now on my way again.
On the interstate and there was the vibration again. But the roads here was clear with the storm having past in the night. Not even a half hour into this trip I knew something HAD to be wrong. I pulled off once again. It took me three shops before I finally found one that would get to my car with only a short wait.
I explained EVERYTHING that I experienced with this new to me car. I explained that I just needed to get home. And that there was only going forward.
After what seemed like hours, the tech came in and said that I was good to go. After being told the same in Sturgis I wanted to know more. He said that water had gotten into the tire. I said that I never heard of such a thing. He explained the water that got in was sloshing about and that threw the balance off. They separated the tre from the wheel, dried it all out, remounted and sealed it…and that I was good to go
I left with trepidation, but the car now drove straight and smooth. As the miles past, my confidence grew, and I started to not hate my decision of buying this thing and taking such an adventure. By the time I got to the highways that carved through western Pennsylvania I was in love with the car.
My only other slow down was the expected traffic in NY. I made it home, albeit several hours later than planned. And I now how justification for my other impulsive purchase…my premounted Yokohamas on Enkei wheels.
I keep those stickers in the shed as a reminder of this absolutely ridiculous journey.
I wasn’t so sure this would apply but … as a similar one was recorded, so be it! We … my wife and I with our infant daughter, were in our slightly decrepit Renault R-5 5-door hatchback (yes, I know, Renault … ha ha!) coming back from Great Lakes after medical appointments … is after a rather quick run up and back at high speed … when we made the turn into our street when the RF wheel came off, bouncing to rest at the curb! I managed to volplane the car to a space out from the middle of the road and, near our apartment. Fortunately, we were going about 20mph vice the 65-70 we had done otherwise ….
I was a dumb 20 year old. Bought my first Z31, a really clean 86 non-turbo. I knew nothing about tires and had no money because I spent it all buying the car (for 1300 dollars). I was driving down the highway and it started pouring rain and my car started getting extremely squirrely. I had to pull on the shoulder and wait 20 minutes for the rain to pass.
Once it was done I got out and looked at my tires and all 4 had cords showing. Since I was broke I went and got some kind of used generic tires for 20 bucks a piece, but since then I’ve always bought good quality tires for my cars.
I had a flat tire back in 2008. T’was my first year living alone, on a one-year contract in the north some 715 km away from my parent’s place. I was rocking my freshly imported, slightly modded JDM 300ZX twin-turbo 2+2 and was coming back home about once a month. The drive, south to north, consisted of about 150 km of highway in the south, then only provincial roads at 90 kmh, splitted kind of into two stretches by a couple bigger towns in a central area.
So on that sunday, now into the first road section, right about the middle of the stretch of nothingness and just coming out of pretty much the only town in the strecth with around 10k souls, the car started shaking and pulling hard to the right. Weird I thought, since I coult not see any washboard on the road, and why did the car pull to the sinde? Rumblerumblerumble! Oh, I had a flat tire…
Being young and dumb, thinking nothing bad could be happening to me, I decided I only lost pressure in the tire… I had no airpump in the car so I called CAA, the canadian AAA, and asked for a tow truck with air, since it would simply pump up my tire and get me going without fuss.
A solid hour later because the guy was on lunch, the tow truck showed up, arriving from one of the few garages in the town 5 minutes away down the road… With a defective airpump. We loaded the car on the ramp and by doing so, we realised that my front right tire actually exploded on the inside. The outside was allright, with threads still ok, but the inside were bald. The camber was strong with this one! The car now unloaded at the garage, their tire guy looked in the computer and told me that it would be at least two days before a pair of any low-profile 18″ could be delivered there…
The guy ended up helping me put the spare tire on the car since he was still acting as CAA service, but when it was time to pump that tire up, everything was written in japanese? Everything is written in japanese! The door sticker called for something-something kg per square centimetres, or some other mumbo jumbo… The guy said space savers usually are around 60 psi, I think, but not knowing how things are over the Pacific, we only pumped it up to 40 to stay safe, and he told me to take it slow since it could be low and soft, or maybe not, but to err on the side of safety.
A painstaking two hours later of going around 55-60 kmh on the 4-way flashers because of the 90 kmh speed limit, I arrived at the next town as the sun was setting, the slightly more densely populated place between the two stretches. I took note of the weird unit that was written in the car’s door, took a handful of change and hit the payphone to my dad in order for him to convert whatever it was to psi since he knows his way around a calculator. Do you know what? Even in Japan, space-savers are inflated to 60 psi! After a pump-up and bit of lunch, I drove the remaining 275 km to my place at 80-85 kmh and arrived at my place late during the night, swearing I would never go without a spare tire in my car.
Seriously, without that spare, I would have spent two days waiting in a village, away from work!
By the way, I suggest you look it up, the 2 seaters twin-turbo Z32 had a cool looking alloy spare, but the twin-turbo 2+2 like I had had a BRIGHT YELLOW STEELIE spare! The shame!
I had an NA Z32. I was young and informed. Got a flat, and put the spare on. Buuuuutttt. I didn’t realize that a space saving spare needed to be inflated. After all, there was no inflator in my used car. Got just a bit down the road and now I needed to replace my tire and spare.
Well, it wasn’t a car. We had to reposition a Boeing 777 to a nearby airport. We landed & turned off the runway to see a wheel come off a DC-8 doing training touch & go’s. It was bouncing a 100′ & barreling right towards us, so we cobbed it down the taxiway. It came to rest after demolishing a maintenance shack.