I love flat tires!
#1
10-01-2006, 03:51 PM
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I love flat tires!
Well my weekend got off to a great start - on Thursday/Friday my firm held its annual management retreat at the Rimrock Hotel in Banff so I took the opportunity to take the Z out for a spin in the mountains.
Saturday morning I got out for a round of golf with my brother, at course in Airdrie just north of Calgary. There is a nice paved backroad which acts as a very quick shortcut from my house to Airdrie. So far so good, right?
On my way back from golf and on the backroad, I proceed to pass a car, and almost immediately I can hear a lot of noise coming from my right front wheel well. There is barely any shoulder on this particular road, and with the traffic behind me I had to travel another half a kilometre before I could turn off. Sure enough my car front tire was flat. I was expecting that with a 35 series sidewall that my PIAA wheels were doomed, but thankfully that wasn't the case. Was able to catch my brother on the phone just as he was reaching the Calgary city limits (he had taken a different route) and he was able to double back and find me.
His aircompressor wasn't able to inflate my tire because upon a further hand inspection of the inside sidewall there were a few huge tears in the sidewall. I'm sure the half of kilometre of post flat tire travelling contributed to the damage to the tire. But that explains why I couldn't fill the tire!
To make a long story short, we drove back to Airdrie, found a Canadian tire, bought a torque wrench and a socket extension to reach the lugs, drove back to the car and put on the emergency spare.
My car looks so cool now!!!
In the meantime, I thought I'd take this opportunity to swap out all of my wheels and throw my OEM 18's back on for now (the car has to go to the dealership for its scheduled maintenance and I don't want the dealership to get their paws on my Super Rozzas and risk damaging them) but now that my car is lowered my trolley jack doesn't fit. Aarghhh!
Am going to go to Cdn tire to see if they carry a trolley jack that can fit under the car (the emergency jack that comes with my Z is a pain in the **** to use).
Is anyone aware of any specific brands of trolley jacks that work well with lowered cars? I will do a search as well but thought I'd poll my fellow forum members.
In the meantime, I'm out one Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. Since I'm garaging the car for the winter I might just wait til next spring to empy my wallet. I took out a tape measure and my wheel seems to have a uniform diameter so I'm pretty sure it's not bent.
I guess the good thing is that my mishap didn't occur on the highway on my way to/from Banff when I was travelling at er...um... much higher speeds...
What a weekend!
Cheers.
Saturday morning I got out for a round of golf with my brother, at course in Airdrie just north of Calgary. There is a nice paved backroad which acts as a very quick shortcut from my house to Airdrie. So far so good, right?
On my way back from golf and on the backroad, I proceed to pass a car, and almost immediately I can hear a lot of noise coming from my right front wheel well. There is barely any shoulder on this particular road, and with the traffic behind me I had to travel another half a kilometre before I could turn off. Sure enough my car front tire was flat. I was expecting that with a 35 series sidewall that my PIAA wheels were doomed, but thankfully that wasn't the case. Was able to catch my brother on the phone just as he was reaching the Calgary city limits (he had taken a different route) and he was able to double back and find me.
His aircompressor wasn't able to inflate my tire because upon a further hand inspection of the inside sidewall there were a few huge tears in the sidewall. I'm sure the half of kilometre of post flat tire travelling contributed to the damage to the tire. But that explains why I couldn't fill the tire!
To make a long story short, we drove back to Airdrie, found a Canadian tire, bought a torque wrench and a socket extension to reach the lugs, drove back to the car and put on the emergency spare.
My car looks so cool now!!!
In the meantime, I thought I'd take this opportunity to swap out all of my wheels and throw my OEM 18's back on for now (the car has to go to the dealership for its scheduled maintenance and I don't want the dealership to get their paws on my Super Rozzas and risk damaging them) but now that my car is lowered my trolley jack doesn't fit. Aarghhh!
Am going to go to Cdn tire to see if they carry a trolley jack that can fit under the car (the emergency jack that comes with my Z is a pain in the **** to use).
Is anyone aware of any specific brands of trolley jacks that work well with lowered cars? I will do a search as well but thought I'd poll my fellow forum members.
In the meantime, I'm out one Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. Since I'm garaging the car for the winter I might just wait til next spring to empy my wallet. I took out a tape measure and my wheel seems to have a uniform diameter so I'm pretty sure it's not bent.
I guess the good thing is that my mishap didn't occur on the highway on my way to/from Banff when I was travelling at er...um... much higher speeds...
What a weekend!
Cheers.
Last edited by BMC; 10-02-2006 at 08:51 AM.
#2
10-01-2006, 04:41 PM
#6
10-01-2006, 05:43 PM
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Originally Posted by RBull
Wow that's a huge gash. Good thing you weren't travelling faster and there were no incidents involved. Wonder what caused the damage??
Gotta love the look of that spare although there is a bit of wheel gap.
Gotta love the look of that spare although there is a bit of wheel gap.
. It's just a pity that the offset on the spare tire isn't aggressive enough - it would have proved to be a killer look if it was even with the wheel well. ha ha ha
#7
10-01-2006, 05:47 PM
Bad luck Joel 
. At least your rims are ok.
A suggestion for using your trolley jack. You probably only need an extra 1 1/2" more clearance to get your jack under the car, right ? All you need are a couple of pieces of 2 x 12" by 18" long pieces of lumber at home. I cut an angle on one end and use that to drive up on just to get that extra clearance to use the jack. Additionally, I always keep a piece in my trunk, in case I get a flat on the road some where. I place the emergency jack on it so it is more stable on the gravel shoulder. Makes it a bit safer.
. At least your rims are ok.A suggestion for using your trolley jack. You probably only need an extra 1 1/2" more clearance to get your jack under the car, right ? All you need are a couple of pieces of 2 x 12" by 18" long pieces of lumber at home. I cut an angle on one end and use that to drive up on just to get that extra clearance to use the jack. Additionally, I always keep a piece in my trunk, in case I get a flat on the road some where. I place the emergency jack on it so it is more stable on the gravel shoulder. Makes it a bit safer.
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#8
10-01-2006, 06:35 PM
#10
10-01-2006, 07:22 PM
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Originally Posted by GEE35X
Bad luck Joel . At least your rims are ok.
A suggestion for using your trolley jack. You probably only need an extra 1 1/2" more clearance to get your jack under the car, right ? All you need are a couple of pieces of 2 x 12" by 18" long pieces of lumber at home. I cut an angle on one end and use that to drive up on just to get that extra clearance to use the jack. Additionally, I always keep a piece in my trunk, in case I get a flat on the road some where. I place the emergency jack on it so it is more stable on the gravel shoulder. Makes it a bit safer.
. At least your rims are ok.A suggestion for using your trolley jack. You probably only need an extra 1 1/2" more clearance to get your jack under the car, right ? All you need are a couple of pieces of 2 x 12" by 18" long pieces of lumber at home. I cut an angle on one end and use that to drive up on just to get that extra clearance to use the jack. Additionally, I always keep a piece in my trunk, in case I get a flat on the road some where. I place the emergency jack on it so it is more stable on the gravel shoulder. Makes it a bit safer.
A fellow on the my350z.com forum found one of these with a 2 ton rating:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=91788
The lifting range starts at 2 3/4" and would eliminate the need for ramps/wood.
I guess I'm off to Home Depot to pick up some wood! Thanks again!
Originally Posted by Chico
That sucks Joel. The tire is the easy part to fix. Get your wheel checked before they mount the new tire to make sure there is no run-out or is bent. If the barrel is not forged, it might have been damaged but a good shop can easyly straighten it out. Keep us posted bro.
The tire is the easy part to fix. Get your wheel checked before they mount the new tire to make sure there is no run-out or is bent. If the barrel is not forged, it might have been damaged but a good shop can easyly straighten it out. Keep us posted bro.In the meantime I still have my OEM 18's and rubber so I'll mount those on the car as planned for now.
Are any of you running Michelin PS2's? How do you like the tires? Any other tire suggestions? Any one running Toyo Proxes T1-R's? I used to have Hankook tires K104's on my former G sedan which seemed to hook up really well and were priced a lot lower than the premium brands.
My rears will need replacing next spring so at that time I might as well buy new rubber for all four corners - any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
#11
10-03-2006, 06:49 PM
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Well I have the OEM wheels and rubber back on the Z, but after getting used to the deep dish Super Rozza's and the wider 245/275 rubber and the more aggressive offsets the Z now looks a little...wimpy.
Oh well, one more month and the snow will fly, so I may as well stick with the stockers for now because I'll be garaging the car for the winter.
For those looking for competitive tire prices, try www.tires-easy.ca or www.tiretrends.com - Tires Easy has competitive pre-shipping prices (in case of the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S there was a $50 difference compared to Tire Trends) BUT once you include shipping it is a different story. After shipping, Tire Trends came within $30 of Tires Easy and this was an "all-in" price. Tires Easy would ship from outside of Canada so you would have to contend with duty/customs etc.
That being said, my friend found the cheapest price for a replacement Bridgestone S-03 for his Carrera4S using Tires Easy.
_____________________
One other addition to my flat tire sob story - when I took the pictures of the flat, I leaned the tire against my garage door, with the good side of the wheel against the door. Later on that evening, I opened the garage door, having completely forgotten about my wheel. So, before I could react, my wheel fell over, landing on the driveway on the "good side" and in doing so, I gave a couple sections of the lip some curb rash, or should I say "driveway rash". Aarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - I'm such an IDIOT!!!
Fortunately I found someone in Calgary who assures me he can fix the curbage on polished lips to the point where you can't even tell where the original damage was incurred. He worked miracles on my buddy's TechArt wheels so I'm looking forward to restoring the wheels to their original, uncurbed condition.
(My wife of course thinks I'm making too big of a deal out of this, but then again she rates cars on how "cute" they look....
)
Oh well, one more month and the snow will fly, so I may as well stick with the stockers for now because I'll be garaging the car for the winter.
For those looking for competitive tire prices, try www.tires-easy.ca or www.tiretrends.com - Tires Easy has competitive pre-shipping prices (in case of the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S there was a $50 difference compared to Tire Trends) BUT once you include shipping it is a different story. After shipping, Tire Trends came within $30 of Tires Easy and this was an "all-in" price. Tires Easy would ship from outside of Canada so you would have to contend with duty/customs etc.
That being said, my friend found the cheapest price for a replacement Bridgestone S-03 for his Carrera4S using Tires Easy.
_____________________
One other addition to my flat tire sob story - when I took the pictures of the flat, I leaned the tire against my garage door, with the good side of the wheel against the door. Later on that evening, I opened the garage door, having completely forgotten about my wheel. So, before I could react, my wheel fell over, landing on the driveway on the "good side" and in doing so, I gave a couple sections of the lip some curb rash, or should I say "driveway rash". Aarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - I'm such an IDIOT!!!
Fortunately I found someone in Calgary who assures me he can fix the curbage on polished lips to the point where you can't even tell where the original damage was incurred. He worked miracles on my buddy's TechArt wheels so I'm looking forward to restoring the wheels to their original, uncurbed condition.
(My wife of course thinks I'm making too big of a deal out of this, but then again she rates cars on how "cute" they look....
)
#12
11-18-2006, 05:11 PM
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Sheesh, I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since my flat tire incident. Well I finally got off my butt and arranged to have the replacement rubber mounted on my Super Rozza's.
For the Calgary members - I highly recommend Harper's Tire in SE Calgary. They did a great job. They use the Hunter GSP9700 and were very careful with my wheels. In fact, one of the service guys commented on the rash that I had inadvertently incurred (see previous post) and when I told him about how it happened, he had a good chuckle. I told him that it definitely didn't happen from a poor parking job, but rather from pure stupidity on my part.
I went there on the recommendation of my buddy, who also suffered a flat, albeit on the TransCanada Hwy earlier in the summer, while driving his 96 Carrera 4S. He wasn't so lucky with his wheel - when Harper's tried to balance it, they noticed the OEM Porsche wheel went very slightly out-of-round. Needless to say he's not too happy. It's driveable, but he's not going to take chances and will either have to find someone who can fix it, or buy a new wheel altogether. (I told him this is a great time to buy some Gemballa's for his C4S!).
They also did a nitrogen fill, which was an added plus. This evening's project will be to take off my OEM 18's and put the Super Rozza's back on the car. I think my Z will be very happy after being reunited with 4 of its friends.
PS. I drove by Hyatt Infiniti (for the non-Calgarians, this is the only Infiniti dealership in town, fortunately or unfortunately). They had a few 2007 G sedans. Just outside of the dealership was what appeared to be a Silverstone G35S. Inside was a G35X. I was really impressed with the aesthetics of the car, and it was nice to see the dual exhaust pipes. I sat in the G35X and was wowed by the interior. Definitely feels more upscale. It was good to see that they moved the seat controls to the driver's left side!
I'd sure love to see the '07 G sedan sporting some aftermarket wheels and a mild drop. It would look mean!!!
For the Calgary members - I highly recommend Harper's Tire in SE Calgary. They did a great job. They use the Hunter GSP9700 and were very careful with my wheels. In fact, one of the service guys commented on the rash that I had inadvertently incurred (see previous post) and when I told him about how it happened, he had a good chuckle. I told him that it definitely didn't happen from a poor parking job, but rather from pure stupidity on my part.
I went there on the recommendation of my buddy, who also suffered a flat, albeit on the TransCanada Hwy earlier in the summer, while driving his 96 Carrera 4S. He wasn't so lucky with his wheel - when Harper's tried to balance it, they noticed the OEM Porsche wheel went very slightly out-of-round. Needless to say he's not too happy. It's driveable, but he's not going to take chances and will either have to find someone who can fix it, or buy a new wheel altogether. (I told him this is a great time to buy some Gemballa's for his C4S!).
They also did a nitrogen fill, which was an added plus. This evening's project will be to take off my OEM 18's and put the Super Rozza's back on the car. I think my Z will be very happy after being reunited with 4 of its friends.
PS. I drove by Hyatt Infiniti (for the non-Calgarians, this is the only Infiniti dealership in town, fortunately or unfortunately). They had a few 2007 G sedans. Just outside of the dealership was what appeared to be a Silverstone G35S. Inside was a G35X. I was really impressed with the aesthetics of the car, and it was nice to see the dual exhaust pipes. I sat in the G35X and was wowed by the interior. Definitely feels more upscale. It was good to see that they moved the seat controls to the driver's left side!
I'd sure love to see the '07 G sedan sporting some aftermarket wheels and a mild drop. It would look mean!!!
#13
11-18-2006, 05:31 PM
Originally Posted by BMC
Sheesh, I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since my flat tire incident. Well I finally got off my butt and arranged to have the replacement rubber mounted on my Super Rozza's.
For the Calgary members - I highly recommend Harper's Tire in SE Calgary. They did a great job. They use the Hunter GSP9700 and were very careful with my wheels. In fact, one of the service guys commented on the rash that I had inadvertently incurred (see previous post) and when I told him about how it happened, he had a good chuckle. I told him that it definitely didn't happen from a poor parking job, but rather from pure stupidity on my part.
I went there on the recommendation of my buddy, who also suffered a flat, albeit on the TransCanada Hwy earlier in the summer, while driving his 96 Carrera 4S. He wasn't so lucky with his wheel - when Harper's tried to balance it, they noticed the OEM Porsche wheel went very slightly out-of-round. Needless to say he's not too happy. It's driveable, but he's not going to take chances and will either have to find someone who can fix it, or buy a new wheel altogether. (I told him this is a great time to buy some Gemballa's for his C4S!).
They also did a nitrogen fill, which was an added plus. This evening's project will be to take off my OEM 18's and put the Super Rozza's back on the car. I think my Z will be very happy after being reunited with 4 of its friends.
PS. I drove by Hyatt Infiniti (for the non-Calgarians, this is the only Infiniti dealership in town, fortunately or unfortunately). They had a few 2007 G sedans. Just outside of the dealership was what appeared to be a Silverstone G35S. Inside was a G35X. I was really impressed with the aesthetics of the car, and it was nice to see the dual exhaust pipes. I sat in the G35X and was wowed by the interior. Definitely feels more upscale. It was good to see that they moved the seat controls to the driver's left side!
I'd sure love to see the '07 G sedan sporting some aftermarket wheels and a mild drop. It would look mean!!!
For the Calgary members - I highly recommend Harper's Tire in SE Calgary. They did a great job. They use the Hunter GSP9700 and were very careful with my wheels. In fact, one of the service guys commented on the rash that I had inadvertently incurred (see previous post) and when I told him about how it happened, he had a good chuckle. I told him that it definitely didn't happen from a poor parking job, but rather from pure stupidity on my part.
I went there on the recommendation of my buddy, who also suffered a flat, albeit on the TransCanada Hwy earlier in the summer, while driving his 96 Carrera 4S. He wasn't so lucky with his wheel - when Harper's tried to balance it, they noticed the OEM Porsche wheel went very slightly out-of-round. Needless to say he's not too happy. It's driveable, but he's not going to take chances and will either have to find someone who can fix it, or buy a new wheel altogether. (I told him this is a great time to buy some Gemballa's for his C4S!).
They also did a nitrogen fill, which was an added plus. This evening's project will be to take off my OEM 18's and put the Super Rozza's back on the car. I think my Z will be very happy after being reunited with 4 of its friends.
PS. I drove by Hyatt Infiniti (for the non-Calgarians, this is the only Infiniti dealership in town, fortunately or unfortunately). They had a few 2007 G sedans. Just outside of the dealership was what appeared to be a Silverstone G35S. Inside was a G35X. I was really impressed with the aesthetics of the car, and it was nice to see the dual exhaust pipes. I sat in the G35X and was wowed by the interior. Definitely feels more upscale. It was good to see that they moved the seat controls to the driver's left side!
I'd sure love to see the '07 G sedan sporting some aftermarket wheels and a mild drop. It would look mean!!!
-- Sounds like Harper's tire is the place to go for service......Nice to know you can rely on them and they take good care of your wheels.....especially expensive one's like the Rozzas.. The Nitrogen refill is a good thing and will help a lot with rusting and leakage.
Yes the '07's are great.....I've not seen them up close yet but I can tell they're really pimp.....There are a bunch here in the east waiting for their orders including Shane (Canuck) for his Garnet Sport and Wayne (GEE35X) for his Platinum Ice X.....Should be any week now......
It won't be long b4 someone slams an '07 and installs a hot set of wheels..
Is it spring yet? (haha - I wish.
)C.
#14
11-18-2006, 08:24 PM
Sorry to hear about your wheel / flat problems...
I have 20" wheels with a 1" drop via H&R Springs and am running T1R's. I love the wheel/tire/suspension setup, but ran into the same issue that you did with using a trolley jack when it recently came time to put my snows on.
I was going to borrow my neighbour's ramps, but instead removed the disc at the top of the jack (round with a few smooth notches), and found that I had gained enough clearance to slip the jack under.
I don't think this compromised the integrity of the jack - but would welcome any comment/speculation in the interest of safety.
As for the T1R's, I love them, no complaints at all.
Good Luck,
Mike
I have 20" wheels with a 1" drop via H&R Springs and am running T1R's. I love the wheel/tire/suspension setup, but ran into the same issue that you did with using a trolley jack when it recently came time to put my snows on.
I was going to borrow my neighbour's ramps, but instead removed the disc at the top of the jack (round with a few smooth notches), and found that I had gained enough clearance to slip the jack under.
I don't think this compromised the integrity of the jack - but would welcome any comment/speculation in the interest of safety.
As for the T1R's, I love them, no complaints at all.
Good Luck,
Mike
#15
11-18-2006, 10:33 PM
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Originally Posted by Mikester
Sorry to hear about your wheel / flat problems...
I have 20" wheels with a 1" drop via H&R Springs and am running T1R's. I love the wheel/tire/suspension setup, but ran into the same issue that you did with using a trolley jack when it recently came time to put my snows on.
I have 20" wheels with a 1" drop via H&R Springs and am running T1R's. I love the wheel/tire/suspension setup, but ran into the same issue that you did with using a trolley jack when it recently came time to put my snows on.
Originally Posted by Mikester
As for the T1R's, I love them, no complaints at all.
