What to expect when a tyre blows out?

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406 V6
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What to expect when a tyre blows out?

Post by 406 V6 »

Hi thought i would ask - once more - the wise advice of the forum users (i wish i could return more for the all the good help i get[:(]).
What could i expect, in terms of the lose of control and corrections needed on a hydraulic (C5) and on a normally sprung car (406) at around 120~130kms/h (70~75mph)?
Thank you [:)]
oilyspanner
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Post by oilyspanner »

Had one go on an old Renault 5 at about that speed, just felt a rumbling from the front, car steered reasonably well as I slowed to a stop. Hydraulic Cits used to be sold on their blowout behaviour, very little happens[:D]
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Post by nick »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by oilyspanner</i>

Hydraulic Cits used to be sold on their blowout behaviour, very little happens[:D]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Yes, I once drove around 6-7 miles in my Xantia with a totally flat rear tyre without realising [:I]
406 V6
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Post by 406 V6 »

I remember someone from the forum telling he raced a guy thinking that he was pushing him, but it was just a flat tyre at 80mph[:P]
And the CX that is deliberatly blown in a test circuit...
It's just that i still have my doubts that the C5 behaves like a good old HP Cit. As for a regular car (406)...
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Post by madasafish »

I had a rear go at 70mph in a Triumph 2.5PI: steered normally with lots of rumbling. Stoppped and changed wheel...
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Post by Paulmi16 »

Brown trousers?
Paul.
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Post by np »

I had a rear tyre go in Italy on the motorway doing 70 mph with the caravan on the back.Drove for around 12 miles before i had to find out what the noise was.The tyre was only half on the wheel.Looking at it there was a big hole in the side wall.Funny though,as we were driving at 70mph like that,but once i had stopped to investigate,i had to pull up the motorway a bit to a bigger bit of hard shoulder.I could only do about 10mph as the car was undriverable.
I`m sure that if i did`nt have the Xantia,& had a "normal" car,our honeymoon would have been tragicly cut short.
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Post by alan s »

On the old hydraulic Cits, you usually knew you'd blown a tyre or had a flat when the chunks of rubber that used to be the tyre went flying past the window.
I suppose the thing with the old Cits; D to BX (can't speak for the XM and Xantia) could all be driven on 3 wheels so as a result, the main purpose of tyres was to stop the rims getting damaged when travelling over hard surfaces such as tarmac. You would have to believe that the balance being so well proportioned could have a bearing on the way the car would perform if one wheel went beserk.
The guy in the CX who had the flat doing close to 80MPH because he thought the other driver was having a go at him was my late father in law who was 75 or so at the time and for the record, he eventually died of old age; something I always told him I didn't think he'd do based on the way he drove a car.
Only owned one Cit in his life (this old CX) and raved about it until the day he died.
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Post by ssray »

when i picked up my bx estate, on the m25 the front wheel fell off and it nose dived into the ground, i was doing about 40mph i stopped and drove to the side of the road on the front disk, no damage as such bolted the wheel back on(wheel trim kept studs together) drove home SLOWLY and checked everything the next day all appeard ok bar needing a torque wrench.
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Post by 406 V6 »

Alan, I apologise for my lack of respect towards you father in law.
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Post by James.UK »

I have had 3 tyres blow-out on me over the years. First was a front one on a Triumph 3T motorbike (350cc twin) at erm high speed [}:)] result was 8 months in hospital two years on crutches, and painfull hip joints therafter, finaly sorted by hip replacements 4 years ago. [:)]
2nd was front offside on an XJS 5.3 V12 auto when taking a long left hander at speed (chasing my boss at the time, he was also in an XJS) car heeled over hard and understeered like mad, but thanks to power steering I held it ok and managed to pull over and change the wheel with no further damage. We had only bought the car some 3 hours earlier, I should have checked the tyres more carefully. [:I]. Had I been driving a taller slaoon car It would have rolled over. [:0] [:(!]
3rd was on the m56 going home after work in a manual 2litre mk3 ford cortina belonging to one of the 3 passengers, doing 75 - 80 ish. Again it was offside front (drivers side) the nose dipped a bit, weight seemed to shift, a loud noise started and the car began to vibrate badly, car remained traveling in a straight line, I put the hazards on, braked very very gently using hand brake and footbrake and pulled onto the hard shoulder, changed the wheel, and continud the journey. Strong smell in the car though. [:D] lol...
I think power steering was the main contributer to maintaining control in both cases, not sure what would have happened if the car steering had suddenly jeked out of my grip??? ooeerrr [:0] [:(]
.
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Post by adamskibx »

The older hydraulic Citroens did not deviate from a straight line even in the event of a front tyre blowout. The DS, GS, SM and CX are the ones I can think of; they use a steering system that is known as 'centre point steering', whereby the axis of rotation of the wheel when steering went directly though the centre of the tyre, thus deviation was not significant enough to be noticable due to the fact that there was no leverage for the increased friction of the blown tyre to try and rotate the wheel, and therefore no nasty feedback or deviation at all. Thats one of the reasons the brake disks were inboard on these cars-so no disk and caliper to increase distance between tyre midpoint and the axis of steering rotation. On newer Citroens however, the introduction of Mcpherson struts and outboard disk brakes means that the steering is like any other car. I dont think there would be any difference between a C5 and the 406 due to similar steering and probably similar ride quality.
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Post by Kowalski »

Modern cars have the ball joints inside the wheel, with the Macpherson strut inclined inwards, in addition to this the hub carrier pushes the ball joint further inside, so you get 'centre point steering'. If it wasn't like this you would get absolutely horrible torque steer on your front wheel drive car, in fact this is part of the reason why getting the correct wheel offset is a must when you fit wide alloy wheels.
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Post by turbolag »

when the tyre blew out on my bro's Rover 416 at 60ish MPH, it slewed and span and he was lucky not to be wearing a nice set of fluffy wings now.
When a tyre blew out on my Stepmums old CX she drove 30 miles before realising anything was wrong...
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Post by yangreen »

My girlie had the right rear blow on her AX when on a motorway blat. All she noticed was a thumping from the rear. She managed to drive a mile to the exit and get off and wait for me to come and save her. I've also seen someone else have a blow out on the motorway in a Fiesta. They pulled over and that was it.
Now I imagine a front blow out is a totally different kettle of fish!
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