Now I'm really pissed off

[Daved]

I have found a couple minutes ago that one of my tires have developed a BIG bubble on the sidewall!!! :mad WTF?

This is the second tire that gets a bubble on it, is it just the potholes or my Sumitomo's have something wrong with them?

[STL Avus M3]

I think bubbles occur when you pinch the sidewall. I would assume that you must have hit a couple of big ones.

[Daved]

You'right, I know the ocurr because of potholes but I was wondering if I can blame the Sumitomo's, it's impossible for me to avoid every f***king pothole, I might avoid 99 but then I'll go over just one and that's it, a new bubble is there. What can I do?

[Nunzio]

Was it an option to purchase road hazard protection on the tires ? I have had that on all my tires and it payed off enough to be worth it.

[STL Avus M3]

I doubt you get something from the manufactor because the damage is your doing. Looks like you have 3 options.
1. Avoid potholes
2. Get higher profile tires
3. Get some sort of hazard protection plan

Good luck

[Daved]

Was it an option to purchase road hazard protection on the tires ? I have had that on all my tires and it payed off enough to be worth it.
I wished. If it was an option, I would get it but that kind of stuff doesn't exist here on 17"+ tires.



I doubt you get something from the manufactor because the damage is your doing. Looks like you have 3 options.
1. Avoid potholes
2. Get higher profile tires
3. Get some sort of hazard protection plan

Good luck
1. I always try to avoid them but it's not enough, one one day or another I'll hit one.
2. I don't want to downgrade to 17s or 16s, they don't look good on E36s IMO.
3. Like I said before, it's not available here.

[Alin10123]

what's a bubble?

[Daved]

what's a bubble?
The tire has a bubble in the sidewall. This is called an impact break and typically occurs when the tire has hit a pothole or other object, pinching the sidewall between the rim and the object, causing damage to the tire carcass. Air pressure in the tire exposes this weakness, causing a bubble where the structural damage has occurred.

PS: I just googled bubble tire and came up with that.

[toopercentmlk]

sumitomos tend to have soft sidwalls, Michellin and Goodyear as well as other companys tend to have really stiff sidewalls which will put up with more abuse

[Rich V]

toopercent is correct in that many manufacturers make some hefty sidewalls. If you want some real strong sidewalls look for run-flats.

Something you will have to live with once you move up to larger wheels (18"+) is the fact that you WILL bend wheels and you WILL damage tires. That is just one of the reasons I went from 18's to 17's for daily driving.

[Daved]

Rich V, so you stopped bending rims and messing up tires when you got the 17s? Does that 1" make that difference?

The only 18" tires I can get here are Sumitomo's and Yokohama's, do you think I should switch to Yokohama?

[Rich V]

Rich V, so you stopped bending rims and messing up tires when you got the 17s? Does that 1" make that difference?


I've bent many 18" wheels and have yet to bend any 17" or 16" wheels. I've hit some pretty serious potholes with my 17" BBS RK's too.

That's not to say a 17" wheel can't be bent. I purchased a set of 17" wheels with one being quite badly bent.

[Matutino]

You should know that in Argentina your tires and rims (low profile) get all screw up.....you need to go and buy a Hummer or a 4x4.
Nothing that you can do there so just get new tires ;)

[Daved]

Ya lo sé, Matutino :(

I'm getting all my 5 rims fixed now, hope they turn out fine.

[doostin]

pop the bubbles, all will be ok! ;)

[Jim@tirerack]

The sidewall on Sumitomo tires is not soft. Low profile tires will damage more easily than a taller profile. Performance tires all have fairly stiff sidewalls but if you hit a pothole unfortunately bubbles happen. You can't run a run flat tire without a pressure monitoring system on the car. Otherwise you would never know when you are running on a flat tire. On top of the fact that most people who have run flat tires as OE do not like them. The ride is harder the tires cost a lot more and you would just be better off replacing tires when they get damaged.
Just my opinion but it is an deucated opinion.

[Daved]

Thanks for your opinion, Jim. I guess I'll stick with the Sumitomo's and try to drive a little more careful :)

[Jim@tirerack]

I just don't think I have a tire that is going to be more resistant to pot hole damage. The only thing that will help with that is going to a taller profile.
Good luck

[Daved]

I don't want a taller profile and I'm not sure if that wouldmake a big difference, I've even seen bubbles coming out from 15" tires too :( I wish the roads here weren't so shitty.

PS: Jim, have you ever shipped tires to Argentina? I was telling one of my friends the other day to get tires from the US because they're a lot cheaper than here so I was wondering if it's possible (and if the shipment cost won't kill us).