I'm driving up in the Santa Cruz mountains. About after 2 hours, I hear a clankty-clank sound and then a loud ka-pow and I fear the worst. The engine feels fine and no smoke or additional sounds after that. I do notice the tire feels flat. I pull off to the side of the road, and yup - flat tire. No biggie happens all the time. When I get the tire off, I noticed I can't find any damage on the tire itself. I eagerly anticipate seeing where the hole is that caused the flat. The tire finally off, what do I see? A huge 1 inch hole INSIDE the rim and a piece of the metal actually fall out. As if a gun when off INSIDE the tire! The rotor, brakes, and wheel well are perfect. The car runs smoothly and with zero problems. The guys at the tire shop are all scratching their heads in amazement. What could possibly have caused this? Thanks in advance.
Some type of debris was between the control arm or up right and punctured the rim. The metal is bent inward from the photo. But that’s crazy that the debris could make a perfect circle
Some rock or nut or bolt got between the wheel and a control arm. Larger forces were applied rapidly. Something had to give. The wheel took the pain.
1991 Mondial t Cabriolet, stock rims. I checked suspension and control arm - no apparent damage or issue. Car drives fine even today. The Tire shop guys say they've seen nothing like that ever. I'm super confused. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes, that's what they hypothesized as well. Like something actually got caught in the wheel well because they noticed that scrape line as well! Appreciate the reply.
yes I saw that. and the tire didn't blow out, just the air leaked from the hole in the rim. the noise was the debris .
Looks like an entrance hole. Did it go through the tire? What was the fix? Did you weld the hole or replace the wheel?
we are on the 3rd rock from the sun...strange things can and do happen. If all suspension/brake/etc parts are accounted for you simply picked up a piece of debris (clag) that scraped its way around the inside of the rim till it caught one of the wheel spokes or the control arm thrusted upward and then decided to puncture the wheel. That or stray bullet.
No, didn't go through the tire - tire doesn't have a single hole. Strange huh? I am planning to buy another rim, and maybe repair the existing one and use it as a spare. Cheers
whats your plan for the wheel. Looks like you have a fairly rare/custom chrome finish. Can it be repaired or do you need to get a whole new set of 4?
I actually prefer matt, and I have a replacement already on the way. My plan is to refurbish all if them as I was always planning to do that anyways. Still very confused what sort if chain of events could have punched a hole that big in the inner rim! I mean even missing bolt seems like it wouldnt be blow a hole like that.
Let's examine how ridiculous that comment is. A rock would fragment and shatter upon impact instead of creating such a hole. Show me a nut or bolt that is so round, to cause a hole without jagged edges. Assuming for a micro-second it was a rock or nut or bolt, how on earth could it have enough kinetic energy to penetrate the wheel? What external mechanism would force the rock or nut or bolt through the wheel?
Lets us say it was a grade 8 bolt (120 MPSI tensile) and somehow it got lobbed into the wheel at walking speed. But the wheel is traveling at 75% of 80 MPH (60 MPH for the math challenged) which is 88 fps. So the lobbed bolt gets lodged between the control arm or ball joint nut, and gets squeezed between the grade 8 bolt holding the boll joint and the aluminium rim (40 MPSI). Which do you think takes the blow? The 120 M PSI ball joint nut or the 40 M PSI wheel when there is a somewhat round nut that will not distort under about 120 M PSI?
A technically admirable theory, but... 1 - if a nut penetrated the wheel from the outside in, it would be found when the tire was removed. Where is it? 2 - explain what the round "plug" is, shown next to the hole in the picture. 3 - calculate for us the required velocity said nut is required to have in order to puncture the wheel.
Mitch, If there is an explanation....you nailed it. If you look at the rim in the first picture.....you will see a rotational scar around the inside of the rim. That can't be a coincidence. That would lead me to believe something got caught in the rim, rotated and punched a hole in the rim. What is odd is that if the rotation scar is related...the bolt (assuming it is a bolt) moved inward and got jammed between something and the rim. It definitely would have left a mark on a suspension component or the brake caliper.
I don’t have a clue, but that is seriously strange ? Is that a plug about 1” to the right of the hole in the first picture ?
I think you were shot at by a high powered rifle and should go to the local police. Their forensocs lab shouldbe able to ascertain if it is a bullet hole. The slug is probably a remnant of the bullet, and appears to have been blackened by its impact with the inside of the tire, its velocity being slowed by penetrating the rim so as not to also penetrate the tire, and deforming it into the flattened slug. The scratches appear to be all around the inside of the rim and I highly doubt road debris would have the velocity to penetrate the rim that cleanly.
I vote for bullet hole. That reddish gold colour to the bottom of the hole is copper coating from the slug. I would think debris getting jammed in there would have made a more irregular shaped hole
While the hole resembles a bullet hole, I still can't figure out the angle of trajectory that would allow for a straight on hit like that. If ricocheting off the suspension, unless it was a steel core armor piercing bullet, I think it would have lost too much velocity and been too misshapen to continue on and penetrate the wheel. If it was an AP round, it definitely would have continued through the tire. I have a lot of friends in LE and military and we have shot a lot of items, with various bullet types, including cars, car doors, windshields and side glass. But only steel wheels, not alloy.
In the first post, the OP says the hole is 1" in diameter. That would tend to imply a handgun round. They will typically flatten some before penetrating metal. A full metal jacket rifle bullet will typically make a hole closer to the diameter of the bullet, as they don't deform much unless a soft or hollow point and even then, not that much. If it is truly 1" diameter, that is closer to a 12 gauge slug
I overlooked the 1” size, I guess. A 12 ga. slug or sabbot would be used in shotgun deer season. There must be some bits missing of the projectile, whatever it was. Sure is curious. I tried looking to see what season was open there now, but any ne-er-do-well that would aim at a vehicle isn’t likely to follow hunting regulations. I though about the trajectory....from above in the hills and passing between the spokes maybe? Or from behind at a low angle like from a ditch? It is shotgun season for deer in IL now, and it seems to be also in parts of Cali, but I couldn’t pinpoint the zone and dates for the Santa Cruz mountains on the sites I viewed.
