Well, this is a first for me

On my way into work this morning, a car in the middle lane ran over some debris that flew in front of me and blew my tire out the second I hit it. I had no time to react and nowhere to go. I was on a 4 lane bridge in the left lane at the time and didn't lose control luckily.

I was completely shocked when I pulled my tire and wheel off to see this damage below. I'm blown away that the wheel ruptured like this. Would an aftermarket wheel have faired better or worse in this situation?

And I have no clue what I hit. Too much traffic on the bridge to be able to see it or go back to it. Hell of a morning so far!

 

Holy crap! I guess it's just lucky you didn't get hurt!

 

Kind of looks like what ever it was you hit got picked up into the wheel. I see it looks like there is some inside rim damage opposite the huge hole. Are the dark marks on the tire from removal? If you had a stronger aftermarket wheel it probably would have deformed. However something has to give. If you expand one spot you may have turned your wheel into and egg shape and the wheel would then potentially contact the brake caliper. Either way chances are you would be replacing the rim. Good job keeping it upright!

 

yikes! is that a TRD style or Off Road style wheel? and yeah, good job maintaining control. Many folks have no idea what its like to experience blowing a tire at/near highway speeds.

 

It's the Off Road wheel. Thanks! I was going 55 mph. Definitely my first higher speed blowout like that, I'm feeling lucky I was able to avoid smoking the guard rail immediately to my left.

 

So my dealership parts dept. just quoted me north of $500 for one replacement wheel... That seems a little ridiculous to me, am I wrong?

 

OEM wheels can be pricey. You could get a set of TRD wheels for around 700-800 a few months ago. You'd be better off buying a set of Off-Road take-offs which are often listed on here for a decent price. Or, maybe seek out ebay? Here's one for less than $200 with shipping.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1751930861...MI4t3s1d-O9wIVpDizAB2Klw3lEAQYAiABEgJOyvD_BwE

 

Wow, have you inspected everything else in that area for damage?

 

Yeah everything looked fine, and seemed fine when I drove it home on the spare. I'm going to have it looked over regardless, so fingers crossed.

 

I have never seen a wheel get a hole punched in it like that, amazing. Glad you held on to it, that could have been ugly.

 

Well... the tire looks okay... is it? Are you looking at a replacement rim only?

 

I had to ride the flat longer than I would have liked in order to get off the bridge and somewhere safe enough to put the spare on, so short answer is I hope so. I looked for damage on it, and it looked fine so we'll see.

 

Plenty of take off with less than 1k miles all over the internet. I don't see a reason to pay stealer prices.

Glad you're ok!

 

Never seen anything like that before - glad you handled it okay. Assume it was a front wheel?

 

Yep, front driver's side

 

Wow! I wonder what it was, wonder what it would have done to a steel wheel. Good thing that’s all the damage!

 

I have seen this type of damage on a Polaris RZR, where a rock got wedged behind the rotor. I would assume this was the same type of failure.

Steve

 

Wow that's incredible. Glad you were able to keep control and not get hurt. Good luck with getting it all fixed up.

 

I had a rim that looked like that when one of my brake caliper bolts backed out and my caliper smacked the inside of the rim when I used the brakes. I would be very surprised if your brakes are unscathed. Scary stuff!

This was on a 2002 Ranger back in 2006 or so.