I was driving to work a while ago and noticed the car was pulling to the right. As it turned out, the right front tire was flat and had a running crack all around the sidewall. I don't know if the tire was low for a while or whether I had run over something that morning. But with the 40 series tires on my '04 I didn't really notice any adverse affects until the tire was about dead.
It's harder to tell visually when a low profile tire is low on air, and also when driving unless you're pushing it. I've been keeping an eye on the tire pressure ever since.
Anyway this was all news to me. I suspect maybe not so much for you guys.
I have a feeling that your tire had just failed when you felt it pulling and stopped. It might have not lost much, or at least all, of the air before that. With a full-flat and a crack running all around the sidewall, you would have lost the tire fairly quickly and been grinding your rim into the street.
I think that the sidewall stiffness of a particular tire would be more of an issue than the profile as far as feeling it, but the miata is so sensitive to steering that a significantly low tire should be noticeable at the steering wheel with any normal tires.
Visually, there is more rubber distortion to see on a higher profile tire, but it was very obvious when my rear 215/40/16 was flat.
My experience, you do really have to watch them. With stiff sidewalls, I agree, even a low tire can feel close to normal. I'm fanatical about tire pressures anyway so it's not so bad but I still get caught by surprise sometimes.
One real surprise was when my steering became very sloppy and I pulled over to find one front lug nut missing and the other three could be turned by hand.
Aborted wheel theft? An attempt on my life? Me getting so scatterbrained that I forgot to tighten the lugs? None sound very good, but I'm still hoping it was the first one......
I want to believe that. But the crack could have been from running on a flat for an extended period. It's a good 10 miles from where I noticed the car pulling to the garage I stopped at near work. Maybe it was flat when I first got in it. I don't know. What I do know is when I tried to put air in it I got hit in the face with a blast of nasty compressed air. I probably drove with zero pressure for ten miles at highway speed. The good thing is the rim is holding air just fine with the new tire and there's no shimmy, so the rim appears to be intact. I don't care about the tires all that much, but I'm not anxious to replace those Racing Hart rims. I don't think I want to know how much they'd cost to replace.
Yikes! I should have said, "probably would have lost the tire". I had a low rear tire that I ran on another car long enough to cause a ring on the sidewall, so that is very possibly what happened.
From Mazda, probably no more than $1000.00 or so per wheel.......
But I was looking for a new car and my wife and I showed up with my golf clubs (another sickness, don't ask) to see if they would fit in a Miata. They did, so we took that immaculate MSM for a test drive with the top down on that beautiful summer day and we laughed out loud how much fun it was to drive. Even now, I look out over those beautiful fenders going down the road and I feel sorry for all the normals stuck with boring cars. Just driving it to work puts a smile on my face.
I guess it was lust.
When we bought the wife's Protege5 the salesman attached our license plate for us. A year later we got new plates and we discovered that the screws he used were too long and made 1/4" deep dents in the metal. The dealer's story was (obviously) that we had no evidence that the salesman did it. Apparently our argument, that we are genetically incapable of being that f*****g stupid, does not constitute legal proof.
During the negotiation the new salesdroid started yammering about their top-notch service and we burst out laughing. I listed their sins and said we would not even consider the MSM unless we got a smoking deal.
I still hate them, the d********s.
Btw, if you know what all the *****'s mean you have a filthy mind.
Also, if anyone knows of a Mazda dealer in the Tampa area who isn't a total f****ng douchebag, I'm all ears. :-)
You know that you have a profound admiration for me deep down and would miss me deeply if I left r.a.m.m. for any reason, you just won't admit it......
Well, last time I tried to vote, they told me "YOU cannot vote. You look completely alive to me! However, if you plan to vote republican, we can give you a death certificate."
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