I was recently driving down I-75 at 70mph when a guy pulls up next to me and starts waving at me and trying to get my attention. I wave back thinking he just likes my car. This goes on for a few miles and he continues. So I put my window down and he hollars over at me (while traveling 70) that I have a flat tire on the front left side of my car. Now I have 17 inch run flats with very little side wall so I can understand his concern, but my low pressure indicator wasn't on so I waved, yelled thanks and continued on. He looked at me like I was an idiot and sped off. I don't know if there was some other motive involved, but the tire was fine. I pulled off at an exit with a Wal Mart and bought a small tire pressure gauge and checked the tires. They were all fine.

I checked because the owners manual says the tire pressure indicator may not work properly if the air pressure is lost over a long period of time.

 

hhhhmmm.. never haPPEN TO ME BEFORE.. maybe he like yr car alot and wan to cant get enough of it

 

They do that in miami all the time...sounds like they wanted to Jack your car:(

 

odd indeed...actually sounds a bit sketchy to me! Especially as a female, I would have done the same thing. If I ever believe there is something truly wrong with my car and don't need to pull over that second, I always look for a safe place with people to pull into.

 

That's kind of what I thought, so the low pressure indicator probably saved me from further problems.

 

Maybe the tire looked flat/low and the guy was actually being nice.

 

Not in my MINI but I did have some folks flag me down once. I was driving a rental and the tire was very low but not flat yet. They were walking and had noticed the tire while I was at a stoplight.

Sometimes they are just being helpful like those folks were but if it had been night and the street deserted I would not have rolled down my window. I'd rather risk having to replace my tire and rim then to risk my life or my MINI.

 

Ditto w/ NIko, Ambrosia & MINIBella... The guy was probably just trying to be nice, and didn't realize the run flats & sports tires look like that. However, I wouldn't have pulled off there, either, (maybe it's a girl-defensive thing the parents actually ingrained!)

In both of my MCS and my husband's two BMW, the run-flat indicator was pretty spot on. At least until I changed into snow-tires in Europe and didn't know enough (it wasn't in the manual!) to reset the runflat sensor. Wow, they were thinkin! Aren't MINIs just AWESOME?

 

I've heard of people doing this before as a scare tactic to try and get the person to pull off the road. They normally will stop with you to help with whatever issue they were yelling at you about, but turn around a rob you and take your car or worse. You did the right thing by continuing to drive.

Sure, he maybe was just a nice guy trying to help, but there is still a chance that he was not a nice guy.