redhurley

Alright, here's the situation...

Dec 6: Received a 17" Shuk WR1 wheel and tire package I ordered from TireRack. The same day I switched my front 225/45 tires to 215/45 tires at America's Tire Co, because I felt the 225's were too wide.

Dec 12: Saw that I had a flat tire on my right rear tire. Upon inspection, I did not find any punctures or anything stuck in the tire (original tires and wheels as they came from TireRack). I then proceeded to put one of my stock 16" rims on the right rear. Emailed Jim to notify him of the flat, and told him that I was going to take it down to America's Tire Co. the next day.

Dec 13: Took the flat tire down to America's Tire Co. to have it repaired. They stated: "the tire has a ripped bead, and is unrepairable. This must have happened during the mounting process." A ripped bead is a small tear on the inside lip of the tire that will cause air to leak. I then decided that I had to call TireRack to request a replacement tire, since it appears that it was their error. Sent Jim another email, haven't heard back yet.

Dec 15: Driving on 3 of my 17" wheels and 1 16" stock rim (of similar height), I was driving down the 110S in the far left-hand lane. I suddenly feel a vibration and my car starts to wobble side-to-side. I attempt to get over to the right hand side of the road, but as I am in the process of switching lanes, my car loses control and I do a full 540 degree spin in the middle of traffic hour. I finally ended up rolling backwards in the 2nd to right lane w/ on-coming traffic staring right at me. I then turn my wheel to the left to attempt to get my car to the side of the road. I end up hitting a dirt embankment and come to a stop. I apply my emergency break, stop my engine, and get out of the car, as I'm calling AAA and my work to let them know I'm obviously going to be late

I looked at my left rear wheel and see that half of my tire has come off my rim. The tire had gone towards the inside of my vehicle, deeper into the wheel well. Two Metro Freeway Service Patrols pull up, and look at the tire as well. We feel the tire, and it doesn't appear to be blown since it's not firm. He then brings up the point that the tire must not have been balanced properly. I ponder, and agree that it's a possibility. California Highway Patrol shows up to file a police report upon my request, and also to stop traffic so that they can pull my car off the embankment. I get the car towed to Scott Robinson Service Center in Torrance.

My rear bumper is definitely gone, my muffler brackets must have been bent, since the muffler is sitting up on the rear bumper valance. My left rear rim and tire are destroyed. And my axle appeared to be bent since my right rear wheel was tilted, but hopefully it's just because the left rear tire was gone. I'm praying that my transmission isn't destroyed too, since I was in 6th gear, and then ended up going backwards, couldn't have been good for the gears.

Now I need some advice as far as what to do now. I contacted TireRack and spoke to Megan, and told her about this entire situation. She said she could offer me a new right rear tire for the one that went flat last weekend, but said that my accident today must have been caused by having my 16" stock rim on the right rear. I questioned her...."so having that rim on the right rear would make my entire tire come off my rim?" She replied "probably." Being skeptical, I proceeded to contact America's Tire Co, since I needed to get back the blown tire from last weekend in order to receive the new tire. I spoke with the manager, and he was able to find it. I also told him about my accident today and asked him if having a 16" stock rim on one side would cause my entire left rear tire to come off. He replied "no, unless the left rear tire wasn't balanced properly." EXACTLY what I thought~!

I need some legal advice, can anyone help? Should TireRack be held responsible for both of the rear wheels, since they were the ones who supposedly "mounted and balanced" them? Is it just coincidence that both of the tires that TireRack claimed to have "mounted and balanced" were defective (we can at least conclude one, the incident that happened today is still subject to inspection). It's amazing that I did not hit anyone spinning across all lanes of the freeway.

Any help you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated. I have pics of the car after the accident, and will post them ASAP.

This is a horrible situation, topped off by my horrible experience with these wheels from TireRack.

*UPDATE: alright, i hope these pics will work...

doesn't look that bad on the outside, hopefully i get some good news tomorrow.

here's the rim where the tire came off. just a sidenote, the tire wasn't like that when i first crashed, it was well intact. it became like that after it was towed to the body shop.

and here's a pic of the "NOTORIOUS" mismatched oem rim. don't think you can see in the pics, but it did seem tilted (similar to a veh w/ camber), so hopefully the axle isn't broken. i'm praying it was just because the left rear tire was gone, and caused it to tilt like that.

S2KenC

Ouch. Sorry to hear about your accident. FWIW, combination of 3 17" wheels and 1 16" wheels cannot be good for your case especially if you were riding different size rims on the rear of a rear-wheel drive car. Again, sorry to hear about your misfortunes.

SocratesDTC

[QUOTE]Originally posted by redhurley
my car loses control and I do a full 540 degree spin in the middle of traffic hour.

Ace10

this is not a flame but...

your first paragraph is entirely confusing. you bought a package from tirerack, but switched front tires at another place because you felt they were too wide? that's pretty confusing.

it sounds like you were driving mismatched set of tires, odd size in front and some mismatched rears. that sounds like a recipe for disaster. i'm certainly not a tire expert, but driving at high speeds (left lane, massive spin out) with a mis-matched set of tire/wheels does not sound like the optimal situation. i don't know if the mounting and balancing was done properly, but i don't think that you were acting wisely. service shops have the supreme resonpsibility for doing their job properly, but it's just too hard to figure out what was going on here.

btw-sending an email on friday and expecting a response by the next business day is pretty unreasonable. email hasn't quite caught up with the old-fashioned telephone, in terms of rapid response.

anyway, it sounds like you weren't injured, so there's a bright side.

WRS2K

definitely not tirerack's fault for the accident

Waterbug

Glad to hear you are alright, but you probably should have put the 16 on the front right and put your 17 front right on the front rear just like you do with the spare tire when you get a flat on the rear. It says to do this in the manual to avoid damage to the rear-differential, which makes sense.

I don't think that would be what caused your accident though. If it was, I think Honda would have a bigger warning on the spare.

redhurley

so far at least TireRack has agreed to replace the right rear tire that I received a flat on last weekend. the rest is still to be determined.

Just for clarification, my 2 front tires were matching, but I did have 1 stock 16" rim on the right rear. The manager at America's Tire Co, advised me that having one 16" rim on the other side wouldn't have caused a tire to come off, unless it was improperly balanced. I guess that all has yet to be determined when I get the damaged rim and tire and have them inspect it to determine what happened.

Thanks for all your input. I'll keep everyone posted as this situation progresses.

R11

Poor balancing will not cause a tire to come off the rim. A tire that was anywhere close to being unbalanced enough to cause something like this to happen would have to have some kind of major defect, which would be felt immediately when driving down the road.

ron

Bret

Swapping the front tires should not have any effect on the situation. However, by what you have told us here, you were driving the car with two different sized tires on the rear. As others have stated, the owners manual says that this is a no-no. My understanding is that you shouldn't do this because it will damage the differential, but there may be other reasons, like perhaps what happened to you. Given that you were driving the car in a condition that it should not be driven, I'd say that you're going to have a hard time proving that tirerack is at fault, much less convincing them. If you had the other tire replaced and then the same thing happened, then no doubt that they would be at fault. I'd try talking to someone higher up the ladder about what happened. You certainly deserve a more scientific explanation than driving with two different sized tires will "probably" cause such a failure.

rorrick

with R11