New tyre blowout. Advice needed please

kernowgaz

Hi guys,


On the 15th April 2014 we had 4 new Avon tyres fitted to our Peugeot 807. On Tuesday the 1st July, just six weeks later, my wife was driving with a friend in the passenger seat through Truro, Cornwall. The car was travelling at 30 mph and the conditions were dry and clear.

Suddenly the front off side tyre blew out, the engine cut out and the car rolled to a stop. The rapid deflation of the tyre and deceleration of the car caused all the curtain airbags, seat side airbags and seatbelt pretensioners to operate. Fortunately there were no injuries, other than friction burns caused by the seatbelts, and there were no other vehicles involved. The car had not hit or driven over anything in the road, there was no curb or centre reservation on the offside of the vehicle and there are no pot holes on that section of the road.

My wife called the RAC to assist with fitting the spare wheel and to examine the vehicle to ensure it was still safe to drive. The RAC technician could find no reason why the tyre had failed. The next day my wife took the car to our local Peugeot garage to have the car examined and get estimates for any work required. The Peugeot technicians could find no cause for the tyre to fail and suspected there could be a manufacturing defect. On further examination of the vehicle it was noticed that the rear offside tyre had a bulge in the side wall which raises the concern that there maybe a faulty batch of tyres.
The parts and labour to repair the car, including 2 new tyres, is estimated at £3567 inc VAT. Ouch.

We arranged to have the tyres removed from the vehicle and taken to the Camborne Halfords Autocentre where an investigation into the defective tyres was initiated in accordance with the BTMA complaints procedure. The 2 tyres were sent to Cooper Tires for inspection. We have since received a response from the manufacturers stating there are no grounds for an allowance and the faults were caused by accidental penetration and fracture damage to the sidewall.

Given the age of the tyres, the unexplained failure and the fact that neither the RAC technician or the Peugeot technician could find any physical evidence of the tyre failure, we would like to know if it would be advisable to have an independent inspection and how far should we take this. Thanks in advance.

molerat

To get any further with your complaint you will need to get an independent report on the cause of failure, as you seem to be an RAC member they should be able to point you towards someone suitable.

Bantex_2

Never heard of a flat tyre setting off all the airbags.

Sure your wife didn't slam into a kerb or something and has not told you?

phill99

You could have them independently tested.

But the onus of proving a manufacturing fault is diwn to you. Bear in mind that a tyre can be traumatised, but not actually blow/bulge at the same time. The tyre could have easily gone over a pot hole or a stone etc in the road a month before, but may not have manifested itself until the trip to Cornwall.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I am surprised and slightly alarmed that a puncture should cause the airbag system to trigger as these are last resort devices.

Presumably some sensor decided that the puncture was an accident and killed the engine as part of triggering the air bags. It raises the question of whether the accident system programming was fit for purpose.

As another line of enquiry, I should make a complaint to Peugeot.

gilbert_and_sullivan

It sounds like it was the OSF tyre that blew out, and the OSR tyre has a sidewall bulge.

Thats too much of a coincidence, sounds like an impact with something caused this and the rear tyre didn't blow for some reason or combination of, as such it should have been a straightforward insurance claim.

Not surprised the RAC bloke couldn't find the reason for tyre failure, he's hardly qualified to do so.

motorguy

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

It sounds like it was the OSF tyre that blew out, and the OSR tyre has a sidewall bulge.

Thats too much of a coincidence, sounds like an impact with something caused this and the rear tyre didn't blow for some reason or combination of, as such it should have been a straightforward insurance claim.

Not surprised the RAC bloke couldn't find the reason for tyre failure, he's hardly qualified to do so.

+1

Sounds like too much of a coincidence that the two OS tyres had problems.

It definitely points towards something being hit on the road, and would more reasonably explain the airbags going off.

Slowly_does_it..

Having recently been in an accident that had enough force to knock a rear tyre off the rim, as well as a fair amount of other damage, I seriously doubt it was just a blow-out that caused your airbags to go off. Airbags going off would make the computer also turn the car off, my car did not set off the air-bags, and my engine ran until I turned it off.

You also mention both off side tyres have issues, this to me definitely sounds like the car has hit a large brick, an open manhole, something.

Inner_Zone

kernowgaz wrote: »

Hi guys,


On the 15th April 2014 we had 4 new Avon tyres fitted to our Peugeot 807. On Tuesday the 1st July, just six weeks later, my wife was driving with a friend in the passenger seat through Truro, Cornwall. The car was travelling at 30 mph and the conditions were dry and clear.

Suddenly the front off side tyre blew out, the engine cut out and the car rolled to a stop. The rapid deflation of the tyre and deceleration of the car caused all the curtain airbags, seat side airbags and seatbelt pretensioners to operate. Fortunately there were no injuries, other than friction burns caused by the seatbelts, and there were no other vehicles involved. The car had not hit or driven over anything in the road, there was no curb or centre reservation on the offside of the vehicle and there are no pot holes on that section of the road.

My wife called the RAC to assist with fitting the spare wheel and to examine the vehicle to ensure it was still safe to drive. The RAC technician could find no reason why the tyre had failed. The next day my wife took the car to our local Peugeot garage to have the car examined and get estimates for any work required. The Peugeot technicians could find no cause for the tyre to fail and suspected there could be a manufacturing defect. On further examination of the vehicle it was noticed that the rear offside tyre had a bulge in the side wall which raises the concern that there maybe a faulty batch of tyres.
The parts and labour to repair the car, including 2 new tyres, is estimated at £3567 inc VAT. Ouch.

We arranged to have the tyres removed from the vehicle and taken to the Camborne Halfords Autocentre where an investigation into the defective tyres was initiated in accordance with the BTMA complaints procedure. The 2 tyres were sent to Cooper Tires for inspection. We have since received a response from the manufacturers stating there are no grounds for an allowance and the faults were caused by accidental penetration and fracture damage to the sidewall.

Given the age of the tyres, the unexplained failure and the fact that neither the RAC technician or the Peugeot technician could find any physical evidence of the tyre failure, we would like to know if it would be advisable to have an independent inspection and how far should we take this. Thanks in advance.

There is clearly more to this than is being revealed.

Weird_Nev

Yup, agree.

1) Sudden deflation of tyres alone does NOT cause sufficient deceleration or even shock to set off all the airbags.

2) If a manufacturing defect, why both tyres, both on the offside of the vehicle?

3) "The RAC technician could find no reason why the tyre had failed. The next day my wife took the car to our local Peugeot garage to have the car examined and get estimates for any work required. The Peugeot technicians could find no cause for the tyre to fail and suspected there could be a manufacturing defect." - With respect to them, none of these people are qualified to make such a call. They're mechanics, not tyre engineers.

4) The tyres have been inspected and this found: " accidental penetration and fracture damage to the sidewall."

The tyres have been driven into something, HARD, and this caused the damage and subsequent failure, is a FAR more likely sequence of events than a 'random' manufacturing fault and defect causing the damage.

10 weeks is plenty of time to do such damage to tyres. Either there was a large defect in the road which did the damage all in one hit, or else someone drove the car into a pothole or kerb, failed to check for damage, and didn't appreciate that doing that could fatally weaken the tyres leading to blowouts down the line.


I suggest that you have taken this as far as it can go without throwing good money after bad. The tyre companies, on being advised of a potential failure to a batch of tyres, would take that up. £4k is chicken feed to them in the light of a series of fatal accidents which they were in a position to prevent by way of product recall.

Time to do a bit of soul searching as to how these tyres were damaged... if there genuinely is no reason that you know of, then it's just one of those incidents and you can be glad no-one was hurt.

JustinR1979

kernowgaz wrote: »

my wife was driving with a friend in the passenger seat

Here is the cause.