It is a scary thing to have happen. Congrats on reacting with enough car control not to make a bad situation worse. Hope you can figure out what happened. Please keep us updated!

 

An air leak would cause the tire to completely disengrate????

 

I think what the others are thinking is that there was a loss of air. The rim then began riding on the rubber causing the burning smell. Once the tire gets cut through by the wheel's rim, that's where all hell breaks loose. It's a good guess, but I have no idea if it's actually what happened.


I'm glad you are OK man, it could've been a lot worse.

 

How often do you check your tire pressure?

Looks like the psi was too low, heated up and bursted. could happen to any
tire, not just Potenza's.

 

wow, that looks terrible. glad your ok though

 

This would be typical of the S03. It has such a stiff sidewall that when air pressure is low the tire does not appear to be low.

I went to the drag strip one night and went to air down my S03's and the right rear had 16lbs and didn't look a bit different than the left one with 35lbs.

I've heard other stories similar to yours with the S03's, maybe they will speak up!

 

chops- I don't know about that. I've been running S03's for several years pretty
much since Bridgestone introduced them into the market and never have I had
any problems with them. one will have to make it a routine to check tire pressure
on a regular basis while using performance tires especially on a car with a lot of
neg camber.

If it was punctured while driving and developed a leak, again, it can
happen to any tire.

 

The tire pressure monitors do work, but I notice a delay. Mine go off all the time because I run 38psi, and on a cool morning temp drops and psi drops below 35, thus setting off the warning light, but not before I get at least 4 blocks away from my house.

 

thats crazy.....

 

I don't know what the effect of heat is on that alloy but I'd want to know the strength wasn't compromised before using that wheel again.

 

For the rim to cut thru the tire the air would have to be almost completely gone. It seems he'd notice such a significant leak. I'd contact Infiniti and tell them you almost died. Go in wearing a neck brace.

 

It is quite possible that you hit some debris and it put a small puncture in the tire. as the air leaked out the tire temp went way up that is why you smelled burning rubber it was the tire getting very hot from the added friction caused by the tire going flat. With a fairly rigid sidewall you may have not felt the tire going down. Once the tire gets to the point that you can smell it burning in the car at highway speeds it is much to late. The tire was finished and the only thing left was for it to come apart. Sorry to say i believe that a puncture and subsequent loss of air while driving on the low/flat tire caused the problem.

 

Your explanation does sound very plausible, but I still think it wouldn't hurt to have some Bridgestone guys check it out .

 

Thanks for all the input. I'm glad that I posted this and got the collective thoughts of this forum.

I think you guys are right. A slow leak probably lead to the rim cutting through the tire is the most likely explanation. I've incurred flat tires before while driving. This wouldn't have been so bad if the tire didn't fall apart. I've sent an email to Bridgestone customer affairs with links to the pictures, so we'll see what they have to say. I'll send an email to Nissan USA as well.

When I finally made it to the gas station, the rim wasn't hot at all. It was warm, but no hotter than after my usual commute home. But I'll definitely keep a close eye on it for awhile.

I tried to clean the rim up a bit. I smoothed out the damage a tiny bit, not wanting to remove much metal. If it won't hold air with a tire on, then I'll take it to the rim fixers.

 

That is def a defect...hitem up for warranty as well as rim repair.