Rep Power: 0

greetings all

new to the forum so here we go.

i own a 05 ex, got some new rims this summer and decided to use the factory rims to mount up snow tires on.

made a trip down I-5 for dinner, had a tire self destruct.

called the tire dealer on sunday and left a message.

long story short, 3 of the 4 valve stems were damaged during the mounting of the tires to the factory rims allowing air to leak. the dealer was able to correct the problem.
dealer said that snow tires have heavier bead and are more difficult to mount up. he explained that the be probably rolled over the interior portion of the valve stems and caused them to tear.

a catastrofic tire failure at 70mph is not fun....

my real concern here is the if there is a problem with the design of the rims that contributed to the failure, then it should be addressed by someone with alot more clout than me.

i am just concerned that someone else out there has either had the same failure. I just hope that no one has been injured or worse, lost someone they love.

if anyone has had heard of any similiar stories, please let me know....and the rest of us civic owners too......

i would like to see this problem resolved......period...

i have spoke with my insurance co. and they are very concerned also and are in the process of checking into any simularities with other clients....

any response is greatly appreciated...

m
kelso, wa

 
Rep Power: 812

wow this is the first time ever hearing that. i think this is really a terrible mistake or the installer was new and didnt know how to mount tires. there are thousands of shops mounting snow tires and its a routine and simple procedure. the machines do most of the work.

 
Rep Power: 308

Maybe they were the original stems @ 5years old and were weak from age ??

I always get new stems with each new set of tires.

 
Rep Power: 812

yeah i thought they are always supposed to replace the stems when doing anything with a tire like patch, mount, etc.

 
Rep Power: 314

That's general practice. Any time the tire comes off, the stem gets replaced.

 
Rep Power: 0

to gearbox, these guys do 1000's of tires every month, the manager has around 20 years of doing tires. he was the one who mentioned how he thought the valves stems may have been damaged. pretty scary when we walked out and gave the stems all a little wiggle and every one leaked except the spare.

he indicated that the EX rim has a thicker profile near the stem location than most other alloy rims do the off set, this would cause the interior portion of the stem to be in the way of the tire bead. also, he said that snow tires in general have a heavier bead portion of the tire than standard street tires, even a smaller inside dimension across the bead diameter, causing a much tighter fit to the rim. He said this could cause the bead to drag across the interior portion of the stem, possibly rolling the stem adn causing a tear.

my greatest concern is that this may be and issue with ex rim dimensioning vs snow tire bead interference, lead to valve stem failure. boom/ crash/ dead bodies...

my insurance co. is quite interested with the whole issue. they have paid out $$$$ on claims do to tire failure, including several deaths just this year.
i prefer to leave the crashing up to the insurance testing labs than using real people.

i think they may jump all over this....we will see

i will keep you up to date

later
mws
kelso, wa

 
Rep Power: 812

ive never had issues with the oem ex rims. thats a silly excuse if he is blaming the rim. and millions of people get snow tires put on every year. if it was so dangerous with a thicker bead and all those safety issues, nobody would do it and shops would refuse due to liability issues. and why if the manager noticed all these problems with YOUR specific rims, did he not tell you at the time they were installing it "look these rims have a problem and we cannot safely mount the tires"??

 
Rep Power: 0

all state is really interested in the whole prob. have a meeting with regional manager today. if it really a prob, the insurance ind. would be the ones to address it.

i will keep u up to date

thanks for your time
m sherman
k town washington

 
Rep Power: 389

DAMN. Thats all I got to say. In for the turnout!