Cruising along the motorway this morning my 944 experienced a rapid let down!
The offside rear tyre punctured and flatted incredibly quickly whilst round a long left hand bend.
At first all I heard was a buzzing sound usually associated with a tyre making contact with the wheel arch. Futhermore it was only buzzing when making adjustment to the steering wheel - which made me think that one of my arch liners had come loose.
Thankfully I was able to make a hasty route to the hard shoulder through the traffic.
Upon inspection of the front wheels and arches I saw nothing amiss, but walking to the rear I saw the culprit: a completely flat, yet intact rear tyre!
I was amazed. Losing all tyre pressure at speed so rapidly had not seriously effected the car. I would have thought that the 944 would have snaked & squirmed about on that bend, but the converse was true. Thankfully this puncture didn't end in an armco!
Changing a wheel on the shoulder with back to the traffic is not a pleasant experience, I'm grateful for the two traffic officers who pulled up their large 4x4 behind me to "make some safety for you". Props to the real cops!
In a matter of minutes I'd fitted the skinny spare and headed off down the motor way wondering where I could get a repair before I headed back home later in the day.
Google once again provided the solution in a small tyre shop in Hamble. These are the types of small business owners who still make the effort for customers.
The rear Nankang tyre wall was too badly damaged for further use, so a new pair of tyres were needed. I decided that I'd buy a new set for the front. The challenge was proving to be what the correct size was to fit due to the fact that I'd recently fitted 16" staggered Turbo Teledials to my Lux.
Despite the fact that the front alloys are 7.5" and the rear 8"; the wheels had come shoed with 225/55s all round.
With the doubts we had about what to fit I called JM Garage to pick their brains. Jon suggested I fit 205/55 tyres up front. He also said when I change tyres in future I should fit 225/50s out back. What a relief that the guys at JMG are so helpful!
With that settled the owner jumped in his van and headed off to a tyre supplier to collect a pair of Kumho KU31 tyres for my 944 and an hour later had them balanced & fitted.
Immediately I could feel the steering was lighter with the slightly narrower tyres up front. What was even more noticable was the smoothness of the ride at motorway speeds.
When I'd bought these wheels I'd had them balanced at a local tyre shop but the fronts still vibrated at speed. Annoyingly so.
The chap in Hamble had removed more than 300g of weights from the one front wheel and a similar amount from the other. He had only needed 60g to correctly balance the wheel. That's a huge difference.
In a strange roundabout way the puncture has remedied a couple of problems and inadvertently enhanced the ride quality even more.
The offside rear tyre punctured and flatted incredibly quickly whilst round a long left hand bend.
At first all I heard was a buzzing sound usually associated with a tyre making contact with the wheel arch. Futhermore it was only buzzing when making adjustment to the steering wheel - which made me think that one of my arch liners had come loose.
Thankfully I was able to make a hasty route to the hard shoulder through the traffic.
Upon inspection of the front wheels and arches I saw nothing amiss, but walking to the rear I saw the culprit: a completely flat, yet intact rear tyre!
I was amazed. Losing all tyre pressure at speed so rapidly had not seriously effected the car. I would have thought that the 944 would have snaked & squirmed about on that bend, but the converse was true. Thankfully this puncture didn't end in an armco!
Changing a wheel on the shoulder with back to the traffic is not a pleasant experience, I'm grateful for the two traffic officers who pulled up their large 4x4 behind me to "make some safety for you". Props to the real cops!
In a matter of minutes I'd fitted the skinny spare and headed off down the motor way wondering where I could get a repair before I headed back home later in the day.
Google once again provided the solution in a small tyre shop in Hamble. These are the types of small business owners who still make the effort for customers.
The rear Nankang tyre wall was too badly damaged for further use, so a new pair of tyres were needed. I decided that I'd buy a new set for the front. The challenge was proving to be what the correct size was to fit due to the fact that I'd recently fitted 16" staggered Turbo Teledials to my Lux.
Despite the fact that the front alloys are 7.5" and the rear 8"; the wheels had come shoed with 225/55s all round.
With the doubts we had about what to fit I called JM Garage to pick their brains. Jon suggested I fit 205/55 tyres up front. He also said when I change tyres in future I should fit 225/50s out back. What a relief that the guys at JMG are so helpful!
With that settled the owner jumped in his van and headed off to a tyre supplier to collect a pair of Kumho KU31 tyres for my 944 and an hour later had them balanced & fitted.
Immediately I could feel the steering was lighter with the slightly narrower tyres up front. What was even more noticable was the smoothness of the ride at motorway speeds.
When I'd bought these wheels I'd had them balanced at a local tyre shop but the fronts still vibrated at speed. Annoyingly so.
The chap in Hamble had removed more than 300g of weights from the one front wheel and a similar amount from the other. He had only needed 60g to correctly balance the wheel. That's a huge difference.
In a strange roundabout way the puncture has remedied a couple of problems and inadvertently enhanced the ride quality even more.
Glad we could help and thanks for the mention!
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