Any car that spends time parking in a city will have at least one intimate encounter between it's wheel and the curb. No matter how good the driver, it happens. If you're going to come in and comment "i've never done that", well, your day will come.
While I'm never surprised when a wheel gets curbed, this one was a shock even to me.
I got a call about the BMW X5 this morning, the tire pressure light was on. Right front. Sure enough the right front tire was low and from my flashlit view, there was no foreign object embedded in the tread. Off to Stokes I went.
10 minutes went by and our guy came out with the news, the front right wheel had been curbed and bits of concrete and curb paint was lodged between the rim and tire causing a slow leak. It could be cleaned out and reinstalled without a problem. There was no charge for the repair.
I'd never seen that happen before. Any of you?
Mike Magrath, Vehicle Testing Assistant
70ss454_man says:
02:40 PM, 12/19/08
Yes, in fact I have
shaddai says:
02:50 PM, 12/19/08
Nothing like that, but a coworker had a label on the bead of a tire that caused a similar slow leak. The vehicle came like that from the factory.
cjasis says:
03:13 PM, 12/19/08
Nope.
MS3lvr92 says:
03:22 PM, 12/19/08
Nope, never have. I hate when my wheels are all curbed up. All the rims on my Mazda 6 are curbed up on the sides because the rims protrude a bit from the tire sidewall.
dragonflight says:
05:50 PM, 12/19/08
This picture makes me feel infinitely better about the ~1" (along the circumference) rash I got from slipping and sliding this week... my only curb rash thus far.
Wondering if all these low-profile tire/wheel combos make it even easier for metal to meet concrete?
jederino says:
06:20 PM, 12/19/08
I purposefully purchased tires that extend beyond the rim, and it seems to help.
CommonSense01 says:
12:57 PM, 12/20/08
I wish i had this, compared to the gauges on my car. I have a q7 with optional 19 inch wheeels, and they protrude out alot, maybe half an inch past the tire and the center is horribly gauged out. Does anyone know if this can fixed? maybe filled in and buffed out with some osrt of a compound?