458 Pirelli P-Zero Catastrophic Tire Failure on Highway in 458 *photos*

Wow, glad you and the car are (mostly) OK. And kudos for the great attitude about a near disaster!

 

First, glad you are ok

That must of been quite a shock!

I have a theory as to what occurred.

Based on this image zoom:

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I noticed the "red" marked area, the rubber is quite 'roughed up' but the "yellow" marked area is smooth.

The "red box" is the DOT date code, appears to be 1119, or eleventh week of 2019, that is when the tire was manufactured.

What would cause the tire to be roughed up on the "shoulder" but not inward.

Also notice, the "tear line" follows the wheel, that is a big clue as to what occurred.

Two possibilities:

(a) a lot of positive camber, besides that being intentionally aligned that way, positive camber can be caused by control arm problems, bad wheel bearing, bad ball joint, sagging spring, and other suspension problems;

(b) low pressure, tire pressure under 22 pounds would cause the tire to "ride on the shoulders", both in and outside shoulders and other than neutral camber, the tire "lean" will dictate which tire shoulder is worn (negative = inside tire shoulder; positive = outside tire shoulder)

In either case, for the blow out shown, it would likely take several hundred miles of driving that way, maybe even more than a 1000 miles before the tire would sufficiently fatigue and destruct.

I would encourage you to have your dealer thoroughly inspect the suspension at all 4 corners to ensure your car is coherent.

Let us know what you find.

 

Glad you're ok. Period. Given it was at high-speed in Hw, the rest is minor...

 

Glad you're okay.

What tire pressure do you typically run and how often do you check it?

My vote also goes to low tire pressure causing the failure.

Ray

 

I once had a Michelin self destruct on my wife's minivan several years ago. The tires were fairly new, and no uneven wear. The best part is that I know 100% that it wasn't due to low tire pressure because we were leaving for a vacation that day, so I checked the cold pressures on all the tires before we left, and they were perfect. 10 minutes into the trip, on the highway, the sidewall self destructed. No puncture, and no low pressure. I'm guessing it was just a factory defect on the sidewall.

 

What does the date code on the tyre say? Age is not determined by when you bought the tyre, but rather when it was manufactured.

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The PZero(not PZ4) is known for developing cracks in the sidewall on cars that see little and infrequent use. They are also notorious for flat spotting. But even after two years it is not uncommon to see small cracks due to static noading and drying.

I would never run a PZero for this reason and events like these are the result. Garbage tyres with poor quality control. Some speculate that this is one of the issues associated with Pirelli going Chinese a few years back. They are manufactured in Italy, but it is ChinaChem who's behind the wheel.

See what you can get out of Pirelli and move on. Get a set of MPS4S shoes.

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Glad you’re okay, very scary...would have been quite different Outcome on a tree-lined country road at 125mph.

(@JTSE30 your sleuthing skills are fantastic! )

 

Glad your ok! I had a tire pop on me in a work car and was quite scary

Forgive me for not reading it all, is the rim ok??

 

Get this set instead.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Michelin&tireModel=Pilot+Sport+4S&frontTire=335YR0PS4SXL&rearTire=935YR0PS4SXLV2&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes

 

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?tireIndex=0&autoMake=Ferrari&autoYear=2010&autoModel=458+Italia&autoModClar=&frontWidth=235/&frontRatio=35&frontDiameter=20&frontSortCode=59853&rearWidth=295/&rearRatio=35&rearDiameter=20&rearSortCode=60157

shows available in November, but Kumho's are available now...

otherwise you would need to hunt around to see if any tire dealer has them, might check Canadian tire dealers, they may have them

 

That is disappointing, what exactly did you say to them? That is probably what sent you to their legal department.

However, given your photos, I think the failure is not in the tire, it is either one or more broken suspension components or severe underinflation... The tire simply did the best it could given the conditions it was subjected to. Any tire by any manufacturer would of failed at some point given the situation I believe occurred.

Even if Pirelli said "here's a new tire", it is imperative you do not drive the car until your Ferrari dealer has fully inspected the suspension and corrected all problems. Until you identify and correct the original problem that caused the tire to fail, it will happen again.

Now, for instance, if the tire had delaminated (treads fell off) then that would be a warranty replacement as that would have nothing to do with a suspension failure...

 

No sure what in those photos make you think it's the case. Also for a suspension to be the cause, it would have to be SEVERELY damaged and pretty much render the car undrivable.

Like I said, the PZero has know to quickly show sidewall cracks, so that has to be taken into consideration. If it was caused by low pressure, it would also mean the car was very compromised to start with, looking at how "high" up the sidewall the failure is.

This look like a classic sidewall failure due to a weakness in the tyre.

But of course the alignment should be checked after this incident.

I do think you are being a bit presumptions when you so absolutely say that it HAS to be low pressure or a major problem with the suspension.

I don't like Pirelli for exactly their issues with weak sidewalls.

 

No surprises there. They don't give a hoot.

 

I have no idea what happened, but, that does not change anything I wrote.

I specifically indicated the car must be examined and verified in good working order.

However, from the picture I zoomed in, I would say I have a high likelihood of being correct in my assumptions. The distortion in the surface of the tire is not the result of a defect in the tire construction (if it were the tire would much more likely wear unevenly, even to "come off in chunks" rather than a continuous abrased appearance). If the sidewall was going to "give way" it would do so regardless of the tire surface condition. What led the tire surface to distort in that manner suggests the problem that occurred.

Had the tire surface wear been entirely consistent across the tire I believe a defect in the tire would be the more likely cause.

 

JTSE30 I see where you are going and understand your thought process.

Wouldn't one also want to see the condition of the other 3 tires?

The owner could be an aggressive driver and what we are seeing on the one tire is simply the results of a previous spirited drive.

I am also curious if the Dealership finds any foreign objects or signs of puncture during their inspection.

Ferraricognoscenti , wouldnt the Dealership have had to mount a tire on your rim to established that the alignment was OK?

I’m intrigued as well what the actual failure ends up being.

A

 

Im glad to see you and car to be fine.

I can see your frustration with Pirelli.

But you haven't responded to the theories that could have caused this.

Have you played around with the alignment ? Have you done any modification ? Did the tires have flat spots ? These will all have effects on the tires.

IMO best to comment on that before worrying about others safety with regards to Pirelli dont you think ?

 

Then the next step would be to work with the company the tire was purchased from and see if they can help, they should have more authority to deal with Pirelli since they directly purchase from them, if nothing else, get you a new tire at no cost.

 

Did Ferrari of Washington also check the tire?

Looks like maybe it had a puncture (nail/screw):

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