Video of Me Getting a Blow Out

cormie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh3WEUWL0kM

HD:http://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DSh3WEUWL0kM%26fmt%3D22&session_token=U798lEEHxoepyfmJv4n1Hu83EK18MTI4ODY1NjQwMg%3D%3D

So after all the talk about winter tyres, I got them fitted on Friday and brought them on their first journey today.

After fitting, I didn't adjust the pressure from what the fitter prescribed and drove from Sandyford, to Dun Laoghaire, then from Dun Laoghaire to the applegreen on the N7 just passed Rathcoole (less than 50km total) where I got fuel and checked the pressure and adjusted to the recommended pressure for my Opel Astra G 2004 Van. 2.3bar at the front and 3.2 at the back, but I put in 2.5 at the front.

I then drove another 10 or so KM when all of a sudden the above happened.

The tyres themselves came from eiretyres.com and are Nokian W+ 175/70 R14 84T M+S marking (Wi), one for each corner. I received them around the 27th of September and got them fitted the 29th of October, in the time between they were stored in a shed in a pile of 4 and weren't rotated in this time.

I'm not sure how it happened, brand new tyres (less than 40 miles on it when it happened), pressure checked 5 minutes before it happened and a speed within their rating. I called the AA as soon as I pulled in, I took the tyre off and waited for the AA to arrive to just check to make sure everything on the axle was ok. Took the rest of the journey handy enough but I did notice there is a considerable noise increase from the tyres when you go from 110kmph to 118kmph.

Quite disappointed after taking so long to decide on which winter tyres to go for and these were supposed to keep me out of trouble for the winter, not get me in trouble :P

I'm also a bit apprehensive about going any kind of speed with them, overtaking etc in fear of it happening again so I'm not sure if I should buy another of the same type, or replace the whole set. I also don't know how far I'd get with getting a refund/replacement. Did I do something wrong or are the tyres themselves not safe I wonder?

Would appreciate any feedback

Matt Simis

That video was a lot less dramatic than I expected! Any tips on what you did to handle that so smooth?

Ive never used those Winters, but put up most of my mileage in Fulda's (German economy brand, but good) and never had any issue.

drunkmonkey

cormie wrote: »

Did I do something wrong or are the tyres themselves not safe I wonder?

Would appreciate any feedback

I think it was gods way of telling you to get out of the outside lane.

Ghost Train

might just have run over something

in before the "you were driving too fast"

Tigger

Excellent driving sir.

drunkmonkey

Nice slow down

unkel

cormie wrote: »

Quite disappointed after taking so long to decide on which winter tyres to go for and these were supposed to keep me out of trouble for the winter, not get me in trouble :P

Would you not be better off to just buy decent tyres for your car?

By all means save money every where else, but do not buy unsafe tyres!!!

cormie

I don't skimp on tyres at all, I buy the best tyres I can regardless of the price. It was a toss up between the Nokian and a set of Pirelli. I went for the Nokian as seemed to have a better reputation and certainly not because they were cheaper, but now I'm not so sure if it was the right choice

drunkmonkey, few changes made, but I'm not sure how accurate measures were anyway!

Ghost Train, that's a possibility and I'd love to know! Actually just as I was about to pull off again, another guy pulled in ahead of me to ask the guy from the AA if he knew where a tyre place was as he had to go to Cork and had also had a blowout just back a short distance and only had the space saver!

Matt, I'd a fair idea of the traffic that was around me so just braked slowly kept the steering steady and picked the right time to move over. All happened very calmly for me actually. Lost a hubcap though!

Spunj

I have no idea from what you said that a puncture was found, but when you said that you checked the pressures 5 minutes before, it lit up a little reminder of something that has happened to me.

The valve can be a 'sticking' point, literally. Sometimes after you check or top up the tires, the valve spring may not fully close.

Just a random thing that has happened me before, there is no way I can tell from your video if that is what it is, but it didn't seem to be an explosive decompression of the tire.

You will get it checked and let us know, so this is my speculation.

peasant

Are you sure it's the tyre that blew and not the valve?

EDIT as above + the valve might also not have been fitted correctly

cormie

Thanks for the suggestion. To be honest, I haven't a clue, how would I tell? I still have what remains of the tyre, I didn't check it fully, I'm not even sure if the valve is still there, but could you explain what MAY have happened? Was it something I might have done at the air place?

GreeBo

138kph all on your lonesome in the overtaking lane?
Nice.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

From the title I was expecting this video to be something different..:)

GerardKeating

Damian Bumpy Earring wrote: »

From the title I was expecting this video to be something different..:)

Yeah, i mis-read the last work of title for a sec..

Ghost Train

Was it a front tyre or rear that went?

From the video I'd guess front

cormie

Yup, front driver side on a RHD!

corktina

at least two unaware drivers passed you on the inside whilst you were decelerating...you' think they might have seen something was wrong and kept out of the way!

GTE

Great driving. I dont know how I would have fared in the same situation.
Its good to know though that if it does go wrong it can be, at least from the look of the video, very safely controlled. No major loss of control it seems.

I see the outside lane speed brigade is out in small numbers here too. :rolleyes:

I wonder what the other drivers mentioned above thought. I thought one had hazard lights on or at least in indicator(dunno why) and one swerved into the hard shoulder to either give you space or avoid you. Maybe didnt notice you with your hazards on or something.

bazzachazza

Good slow down.

Always brake for something like this where possible in a straight line like the OP did.

For those whining about him being in the Overtaking lane on his own, check again its a wideangle lense so you can't judge distances accurately from it. I saw him overtaking one car and about to overtake a Subaru when he gets the blowout.

I had a blowout many years ago doing 70-80mph again it was in a straight line and it caused me no issues other than I had to change it in the pitch dark.

Speed is not an issue, probably a valve issue as others suggested take the remains back to the tyre place and see if they will replace it. If there is no obvious signs of external damage they should foot the bill imho.

unkel

cormie wrote: »

I don't skimp on tyres at all, I buy the best tyres I can regardless of the price.

I don't think I've ever seen any Nokian tyre coming out best in any test?

Ghost Train

Likely speed not a factor here but might have been if you lost control or had an accident

Not every blowout is going to be the same, I know 20kph extra mightn't seem like a lot but would imagine if your trying to regain control it might give you a fraction more time

Kersh

I see the outside lane speed brigade is out in small numbers here too

Their observation must be sh1te, I seen him overtake a car at 0.01, and 0.13, and hes is coming up on another when he gets the blowout. Think that might be called overtaking, :pac: ,not hogging.

Nicely handled Cormie . . and a nice dry spot under the bridge too . .

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Kersh wrote: »

Nicely handled Cormie . . and a nice dry spot under the bridge too . .

Yeah hate sitting on the wet patch after my blow out...:p

matt-dublin

that tire pressure seems quite high??

i would have thought 31psi (2.15bar) at the front and 27psi (1.9bar) at the rear unloaded

rex-x

whats the camera? I like!

Atlantic Dawn

Frightening stuff, fair play for controlling it.

I guess the moral of the story is buy a decent brand of tyres.

E39MSport

rex-x wrote: »

whats the camera? I like!

Looks like a roadhawk. I still haven't worked out how to get footage off mine.

CiniO

OP what was the reason for it?
Did you inspect the tyre?
Maybe you just drove onto a nail or something.
Or maybe the valve went.
It doesn't look like sudden blow out, but like just a bit more gentle loose of pressure.

peasant

unkel wrote: »

I don't think I've ever seen any Nokian tyre coming out best in any test?

Nokian winter tyres do fairly well in the ADAC tests, tbh ...couldn't find one for the W+ though


@cormie

For a brandnew tyre to blow, there would need to be a substantial manufacturing defect. Not saying that it couldn't happen, but it would be a very rare occurence.

The more likely scenario is that the valve was fitted badly and leaked air at a high rate or even popped off.

After your slowing down maneuvre ...is there anything left of the tyre that would point towards the reason? If the tyre is still in one piece, just badly mangled from being driven at high speed with no air, that would point towards the valve.
If the tyre is just shreds or more or less completely missing, that would point towards a tyre failure.

Bodhan

Great driving, braking in a straight line text book stuff!

cormie

Thanks again for the replies, ok quite a lot to get through here.

I'm actually quite surprised anyone thought I was hogging the overtaking lane. I didn't even realise that's what drunkmonkey meant in his post as the thought anyone would think I was hogging didn't even cross my mind. I specifically left that frame with the car I was overtaking in at the start so it WOULDN'T derail the thread. So as has been pointed out, I was overtaking that car, if you pay close attention, you'll see the next in front of me actually pulls out from the driving lane to overtake the car in front of him, I knew I was going faster than he was so rather than moving in on the guy I just overtook, only to have to overtake the guy the OTHER guy was going to overtake, immediately, I lay off the accelerator, kept distance waiting for the overtake to be complete. And yep, wide angle so the further away something is, the further away it looks. Now I've also gone to the trouble of uploading footage of just before the blowout on the 3 lane N7 for my defence, I even flash one or two middle lane hoggers in the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI6lzHq9Cv4

So now that that's been dealt with, I'd like to try get to the bottom of the reason it happened

bbk, yep the silver car had its hazards on, I had one eye in front and one in my wing mirror seeing what was going on behind as this is where most of the danger can actually come from. The silver car actually had to dodge my hubcap as it went rolling behind into his path, everyone reacted quite well to it thankfully!

Unkel, I went mainly on the advice of boardsies as opposed to test results on getting the Nokians as I wanted a set that would suit my needs and wanted suggestions from people who knew Irish winters In this thread you'll actually see me voice my concern on the fact they are cheaper and not a well known brand as I wanted the best, but they seemed to keep getting recommended in that thread so I went for them

Ghost Train, definitely would be safer at lower speeds of course, but I was going a safe speed for the conditions and this could have just as easily happened on the Autobahn where the speed I was going would be considered cruising. I don't know what the outcome would have been had I been going a further 20kmph faster, but I'm glad of the outcome of this anyway

matt-dublin, manufacturer recommended pressure is higher at the back then the front on the Astra, I'm not sure whether the pressure was too high though and I'd love to know, but it's the same pressure I've driven thousands of miles with on my vredesteins on the same van

rex-x, Camera is DRS1100, same as roadhawk, few threads already about them

E39MSport, I use CamStudio (opensource) to capture footage off mine, it's quite difficult to set up though and I wouldn't know where to start if I was to do it again but give it a go and you might have more luck than I did with getting it set up, once it's set up it'll be easy though

Cinio and Peasant, thanks for info, I've uploaded the following for analysis, I'm not sure what to be looking out for myself but peasant, by what you said it could be tyre failure?

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/7249/imag0046ag.jpg
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/9172/imag0047q.jpg
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/3695/imag0048s.jpg
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/6788/imag0049q.jpg
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3417/imag0050kv.jpg
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/9940/imag0052v.jpg




Thanks again to everyone else for comments

peasant

cormie wrote: »

Cinio and Peasant, thanks for info, I've uploaded the following for analysis, I'm not sure what to be looking out for myself but peasant, by what you said it could be tyre failure?

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/7249/imag0046ag.jpg
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/9172/imag0047q.jpg
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/3695/imag0048s.jpg
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/6788/imag0049q.jpg
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3417/imag0050kv.jpg
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/9940/imag0052v.jpg

Now, I'm no expert on tyre failure, but that looks dodgy to me.

The thread has separated from the sidewall ...a "usual" feature on cheap re-threads, but shouldn't really happen on a new tyre.
But what worries me most are those regular right angle cuts in the sidewall which to me would suggest that that simply wasn't strong enough.
From where I'm standing (once again, I'm anything but an expert) this looks like catastrophic failure of the tyre and me, I would certainly take this up with the supplier / manufacturer

L1011

What on earth are you listening to in the van?


When I had a blowout I couldn't hear any added tyre noise, the van just started handling like ****e, rear axle with little load above it may have helped. Was at a lot less speed than that though, ~75km/h on the N65

CiniO

After I've seen this pictures I don't actually know what to think.
It's cut in a really straight line.
There could be some kind of manufacturers defect, but on the other hand, they could be cut like this with the rim easily considering the speed.
Valve looks fine, but it doesn't mean it's good. Take it to some garage for inspection - you'll know if it was valve or not.
Is there any kind of sign after nail or screw or something like it in the thread?
If valve is fine, and no nails, it looks like that tyre really blowed up.
Did you feel a sudden push to the right (we can't see it on a video) but if it was a blow out, you'd definitely feel it. Just a sudden push to the right, which you would have to overbear by turning your steering slightly but suddenly to the left. Was there something like this?
Or did you just felt that car starts to push to the right, and it's getting stronger and stronger?

Heh it just made me think, because I have exactly the same tyres like you Nokian W (exactly the same tread). I made over 10k kms on them last winter and never had a problem. I was actually doing for a short while over 200km/h on them, even the speed index is T (max 190km/h). Nothing happened - so I suppose it was a good test for them.


So even if it was factory defect, I suppose it must have been only in that one.

Tissot

Have I gone to sleep and woken up in Northern Sweden or something?

What the hell are you running winter tyres for?! I think the cold snap last winter has people spooked!

Oh - forgot to ask - what are you using to record the footage? - it's pretty cool.

GTE

Tissot wrote: »

What the hell are you running winter tyres for?! I think the cold snap last winter has people spooked!

Little known knowledge is that most normal tyres (Which are actually Summer tyres) begin to fall off in terms of grip at 7 and below degrees (road temp).

Its a very real problem if you think about it. I went to a tyre fitter to get my all seasons fitted and he was gob smacked that I wanted to put what he considered to be Winters on my car. I asked him what his more popular "normal" tyre was and he couldnt tell me what its optimal temp range was or at what temp the tyre switched off at.

Point is that even if you leave out the ice and the snow, driving about on Summer tyres in the Winter on very cold but clear roads means you are much much closer to the limit then you think, maybe even past it in some cases (whether it be like last year or just a normal cold January).
All Season and Winter tyres dont mean you can hoof it around the back roads but merely that extra headroom for heavy braking and turning is there if you need it.

Taking ice back into it I know my All Seasons may not be as good as Winters but chances of me actually wanting to wonder into serious instances of those conditions are slim.

On the snow and slush front however knowing that my tyres have the Snow Flake mark and knowing they will work on clear ice cold roads much better then Summers gives me a safer feeling as we do head into 7 degree and below road conditions. Driving on a treated motorway with slush is a very possible condition for me to drive in.

Im even feeling it now. There is a short stretch of my estate that when wet I always spin the wheels in second gear if I wanted. On a cold dry day now they are spinning up in the dry. There have been other moments where I feel the tyres are letting go a little earlier then they would have in the Summer. Just little indications.

The tread is getting low on them and just in time so I will be very interested to see how my first set of All Season tyres fair on each corner. They carry a Snowflake mark and an M+S mark too.

twowheelsonly

OP, do you have a manafacture date on the tyres? Usually on the inside tyre wall.
There's excerpts on youtube (somewhere!!) from an American documentary on the effects on out of date tyres and it would scare the living schwite out of you - and a lot more common than you'd think. I've always checked dates on new tyres since watching it.
The effect shown on the documentary looks remarkably like what's happened to yours. May not be, but looks similar.

As part of the DOT code (G in the tyre marking above), there is a tyre manufacture date stamped on the sidewall. Oddly this code is sometimes only one one sidewall so you might need to get under your car and look at the inward-facing side of the tyre. Take a look at yours - there will be a three- or four-digit code. This code denotes when the tyre was manufactured, and as a rule-of-thumb, you should never use tyres more than 6 years old. The rubber in tyres degrades over time, irrespective of whether the tyre is being used or not. When you get a tyre change, if you can, see if the tyre place will allow you to inspect the new tyres first. It's not uncommon for these shops to have stuff in stock which is more than 6 years old. The tyre might look brand new, but it will delaminate or have some other failure within weeks of being put on a vehicle.
Reading the code. The code is pretty simple. The three-digit code was used for tyres manufactured before 2000. So for example 1 7 6 means it was manufactured in the 17th week of 6th year of the decade. In this case it means 1986. For tyres manufactured in the 90's, the same code holds true but there is a little triangle after the DOT code. So for this example, a tyre manufactured in the 17th week of 1996 would have the code 176
After 2000, the code was switched to a 4-digit code. Same rules apply, so for example 3 0 0 3 means the tyre was manufactured in the 30th week of 2003.


Read more: http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html#ixzz144qpJ7N1

swe_fi

Nokian tyres are from Finland, they get quite good reviews in general and always have. One tyre called Hakkapelitta is very common in Scandinavia both studded and studless. I searched reviews on Scandinavian pages on this specific tire but did not find any reference = they are probably not that good in comparison to other tyres.

One thing that could possibly be a factor here is that the tyres are maybe last years unsold stock. There is natural rubber in the compound which grows old (cracks) faster. It would also matter what temperature they were stored at, the humidity and position (horizontal or vertical). That combined with the (relatively) high temperature for a winter tyre now and the speed you were doing, not that extreme but if you add it all up maybe. I would contact the manufacturer also about this you may get some goodwill because this should not happen.

Pattern looks very similar to many other budget studless friction tyres in Scandinavia, i have had very similar Fuldas.
http://www.nokiantyres.com/tyre?id=15706037&group=1.01&name=Nokian+W

Studded and studless tyres will like someone said "swim" a bit when used in spring / autumn type weather and get quite warm if you do high speed.

Here is a test of studded and studless tyres from 2007 (sorry), it is in swedish but just use translator in browser. You can see what tyres get good marks and the cost of a good tyre is roughly 2000 SEK = 220 Euro.

http://www.automotorsport.se/biltester/2007/0721/072107.pdf

unkel

cormie wrote: »

Unkel, I went mainly on the advice of boardsies as opposed to test results on getting the Nokians as I wanted a set that would suit my needs and wanted suggestions from people who knew Irish winters In this thread you'll actually see me voice my concern on the fact they are cheaper and not a well known brand as I wanted the best, but they seemed to keep getting recommended in that thread so I went for them

One poster recommended them, and he got back up from another guy who is from Finland (Nokian is a Finnish brand). That same guy recommends them somwhere else too, but would never buy them himself seeing as they are now made in Russia and he implies of questionable quality:

itarumaa wrote: »

Nokian tyres is a Finnish tire brand, really good Winter tires and ok summer ones, I personally don't want to buy them tough, since they decided to save money and start to build them in Russia...

Linky

When buying things as important as tyres, is it really wise to believe a man on the internet without checking some reputable tyre reviews first? Sorry for banging on about it, don't mean to attack you or anything, I just don't understand your thinking process here

swe_fi

unkel wrote: »

One poster recommended them, and he got back up from another guy who is from Finland (Nokian is a Finnish brand). That same guy recommends them somwhere else too, but would never buy them himself seeing as they are now made in Russia and he implies of questionable quality:

A Finnish person would not have many good things to say about Russia in general in fairness...would not say that matters. My guess is that it is old stock and grey import, THAT is something I think would increase by moving your manufacturing to Russia :-)

garancafan

It would be of interest to know if your tyre-pressure check on the N7 required significant adjustment. I ask because I have had experience - to my cost - of very inaccurate fore-court pressure-gauge readings.

swe_fi

garancafan wrote: »

It would be of interest to know if your tyre-pressure check on the N7 required significant adjustment. I ask because I have had experience - to my cost - of very inaccurate fore-court pressure-gauge readings.

This is from Nokian themselves
http://www.nokiantyres.com/recommended-tyre-inflation-pressures?make=Opel&model=Astra%20Caravan

Similar dimension just 65 profile on Astra Caravan - 2.5 bar should not be a (the) problem. Winter tyres have an advised run-in period of 500-1000km to "set" also. I think this has got to do with aged tyres or manufacturing fault.

argosy2006

Did u not see that red car as u pulled onto hard shoulder, u nearly took him out

cormie

Thanks again for the replies

Peasant, will get onto eiretyres and see what they have to say!

MYOB, Yann Tiersen and I won't have you say a bad word about that Great music

Cinio, where would you recommend I take them for inspection? The place that fitted them? I guess that's one downside to buying tyres online, you can't take them back to the place who fitted them to get a replacement. Hopefully will never happen again anyway! With regards to feeling the "push", it's hard to remember, but yeah, I think it went all of a sudden down on the right. You can see I drift over slightly to the right.

Tissot, see above on recorder, I'll be doing about 15,000 miles between now and February, winter tyres are worth it for me.

Twowheelsonly, will check to see if there is a date anywhere, thanks.

Swe-Fi, thanks for the info, I was looking for Hakkapelitta's last year but couldn't find them at all. Do you reckon W+ isn't a good tyre and maybe I should go for another type?

Unkel, I just like to go on recommendations and always like to have a history of questions etc I've asked on boards as a way to check back etc in the future. I thought the posters grudge against them being made in Russia now was more a gripe against taking work away from Finland as opposed to the fact it's in Russia, thought it sounded like he'd have the same feeling no matter where the production was moved to.

garancafan, pressure needed slight adjustment from fitters levels but the AA guy checked the pressure and he said it was the same as what the service station's gauge read.

argosy2006, I was well aware of the red car and didn't nearly take him out at all.



So any suggestions what I should do now? I still need winters and I want 4 that I can rely on and not be worried about the same happening again. Would this be reason enough to get a whole replacement set I wonder or should I just seek to get another Nolian W+ and hope for the best? I want the best tyres I can get for my usage!

swe_fi

Cormie I just realised something from your picture, the pattern is different from the Nokian webpage which again would lead me to believe this is old stock.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3417/imag0050kv.jpg

vs here

http://www.nokiantyres.com/tyre?id=15706037&group=1.01.02&name=Nokian+W%2B

And the Eirtyres web page shows the what I assume is the "new" pattern, they may have a disclaimer saying something like "spec may differ from picture bla bla" or something though

Don't think there is anything wrong with these tyres if you get a fresh set to be honest. For the limited so called winter you get here you probably won't notice that much difference even if you bought a test winner. I know the new pattern ones will be more quiet then the one in your picture and will be better at moving water due to the shape.

Get on to the Eirtyre first, if you don't get replacements get on to Nokian, they would not like this for sure and pretty sure they would sort you out somehow. Stick to about 2.5 to 2.6 bar pressure though in all tyres.

cormie

Interesting, thanks for that! I've just popped eiretyres off an email so will report back on what they can offer me. Interesting you'd suggest 2.6 bar on all tyres as opposed to what is recommended in my van manual of higher pressure on the back. Can I ask why you say this?

Thanks again!

holystungun9

i read the title way to fast. Nice vid though

swe_fi

Sorry maybe a little bit higher at the back of a fully loaded Astra Van like max 2.8-9 i'd say. I base this on experience from winter tyres living in Sweden, you'd have only slightly higher pressure at the back.

I did some digging and these tyres appears to have scored good on reviews, if that means anything. Hard to say on Irish roads.

http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/automobile/themes/car-tires/winter-tires/contiwintercontact-ts-800/contiwintercontact-ts-800,tabNr=2.html

Also I had a read in a swedish forum reg Delti (which Eiretyres is part of as you may know) and some people were saying they had received 2 year old tyres, but the manufacturers claim that a tyre can be considered new up to 4 years. Those are just quotes not gospel :-) all I am saying by that is that Eiretyres may give you some argument along those lines if you bring up the age of the tyre. I would be very interested to see how you get on here.

Take the soft approach first, they may sort it out straight away with no hassle. It does happen sometimes if you are nice :-)

I didn't know I was so passionate about tyres!

cormie

Well that was quick, email to them at 2am, reply at 7am

Dear sir



Thank you very much for your e-mail.
We are very sorry to hear you have reason to complain about the
quality of our products. We can assure you our company is trying to do

its best to keep customers content and that is why the faulty
merchandise can be replaced or refunded.

Our claim procedure states that the faulty tyres will be collected and they
will be forwarded to the manufacturer where a number of tests will be made

upon them. Meanwhile, you can choose to have replacement tyres or a full refund.
If the tests result will reject your claim, you will be charged for the refund/replacements.

If you decide to start the claim procedure we will send you a form by e-mail and as

soon as the filled and signed form is back to us, we will send the couriers to collect the faulty tyres.
The form can be sent by fax or in a scanned format by e-mail.

Please let us know if you want to claim the tyres and whether we should

send replacements or a refund.

We hope this unfortunate situation will not prevent you from doing business
with us again in the future and that this way, you will give
us the opportunity to improve your opinion about our company.

Please do not hesitate to get back to us in case we could provide further information.

Kind regards

Interesting proposition. If I send all 4 off, especially the 3 that still seem ok, and they pass whatever test, then I'll have to foot the bill and it doesn't mention anything about being able to get the tested 3 back. It also means I'll have to get any 4 they send, refitted, but will first have to get 3 Nokians off the rims, which I'll probably have to pay somebody to do also?

Thanks again swe-fi, you seem to be getting quite into this I must say them continentals are actually available from eiretyres too: http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?details=Ordern&cart_id=46313930.124.14634&typ=R-122086&ranzahl=4&Breite=175&Quer=70&Felge=14&Speed=T&weiter=40&kategorie=6&Ang_pro_Seite=20&Transport=P&dsco=124&sowigan=Wi so maybe I could get them as a replacement. Interesting about the lower pressure for Winters, any idea why? I thought it was best to have more narrow tyres for winter?

Jumpy

cormie wrote: »

Ghost Train, definitely would be safer at lower speeds of course, but I was going a safe speed for the conditions and this could have just as easily happened on the Autobahn where the speed I was going would be considered cruising. I don't know what the outcome would have been had I been going a further 20kmph faster, but I'm glad of the outcome of this anyway

I understand your reasoning, but how is it that you consider 140km/h in the wet a safe speed for the conditions?

It depends a lot on the car you are driving, which I cant really see from the video.

cormie

Opel Astra G Van, 1.7DTI. Of course it depends on other variables too but again, I'd prefer not to derail the thread

Anyway, I wrote back to that mail and proposed the following:

1) You collect 4 tyres including rims via courier.
2) You arrange for Nokians to be removed from rims and rims prepared for new tyres.
3) You fit replacement tyres to rims and dispatch to me.
4) The Nokian tyres then go for testing. Meanwhile I can continue driving on my rims with new replacement tyres.
5a) If the Nokians pass the test, I pay for the replacement tyres, but I also get the 3 intact Nokians back and would probably buy a 4th to have for future use.
5b) If the Nokians fail the test, no further action needs to be taken from me and I will not have to pay for the replacement.

See how I get on with that