Three weeks ago my boyfriend and I were in a car accident. Luckily it was not in my Mini, but my sister's boyfriend was driving. We had a blowout and rolled seven times going about 80 mph. My boyfriend and I were both ejected. He was the only one that didn't make it. He would have turned 20 in October. Because of this, I've been making a 60 mile drive to Fernandina to stay with his parents at least twice a week. The other morning, driving back around 5AM to get to work, I here the same pop I heard in the Suburban a few weeks earlier. I have a blowout! (on a luckily empty expressway.)

The Mini handled excellently throughout this ordeal. It jerked into the lane next to me before I was able to ease it around, but everything turned out fine, and if I had been a more experienced driver, I believe even that could have been avoided.

I purchased my car back in October. It's an '02 MC that only had 28000 miles when I got it. (It now has 45000). I was running Continental Touring tires...15 inch wheels. I got the bad tire off, and replaced it with the little wagon wheel they call a spare. While I'm working on it, still jacked up, I notice the front passenger wheel is.. deflating. Rapidly. I've had trouble with this tire before, I usually just have to fill it up every week.

I had been planning on getting new tires before July, too. But regardless, I get the car off the jack and I pump the other tire full of fix-a-flat. It started oozing out of hundreds of little pin holes. Literally, my tire had dry rotted to pieces. I kept filling it up, luckily I had three cans. I'd drive it for about a mile in the e-lane to make it firm up then fill it up again. The reason for the dry rot is that the previous owners mainly had it stored.

It finally worked well enough, and a ride that usually takes me around 20-45 minutes took me two hours. Going down the expressway at 45 mph with my e-flashers on. Halfway there a belt starts screaming like crazy. But, I made it back, and ordered wheels ( 18" white RacingHarts to make my Indi blue MC with white roof and stripes look even prettier) and tires (Hancook k106. )

It took a week to get my tires, and I had to drive nearly 200 miles on my donut and now two other rotted tires. My rear breaks also had started sticking at this point, and I had a dead cell in my battery, so I had to bump my car every time.

It's in the shop now getting breaks done, belt fixed, new battery... and my tires have already been put on (one of the old tires went flat on the way to the tire place). But they can't seem to get them balanced properly. I have 14 stick on weights on some of them, even. Double stacked, too... and they're still having trouble. Any suggestions on this?

Thanks for reading! Just had to share my story.

 

May I suggest seatbelts and regular car maintenance?

Sorry, that was abit rough. Sorry for your loss. Truely a sad story.

As for the wheels, some are just bad to start with, slightly out of round, and may never be able to be balanced. I had a 4Runner that I could never get the wheels to balance. Also could be the tires, I swear some companies make them square.

Hope it works out.

Nik

 

sorry to hear about your loss. I was having a shitty week aswell. But nothing like yours. Stay strong and thats a wonderfull thing your doing for his parents. my condolences

 

Hey, who said no seatbelts? You can be ejected regardless of what you do to prevent it, depending on the circumstances... and rolling an SUV at high speed seems to qualify.

I'm very sorry for your loss, and I hope that on the upside, your recently serviced Mini will serve you safely, with dutiful maintenance.

 

Sorry for your loss.

I'd like to add something here. You could/should have your tire place check the wheels for "run-out" to be sure that they are round and straight. The next thing is to be sure that they have the corrrect centerbore of 56.1mm. If the centerbore is anything else you need to get some shims to achieve the 56.1mm inside diameter so that the wheel will sit correctly on the hub.

MINIs use something called "hub-centric" wheels. Meaning that the wheels actually fit snuggly around a lip on the hub to center the wheel and to also take the load of the vehicle so that it is not the wheel bolts alone supporting it.

Having the wrong centerbore will often make wheels difficult or impossible to balance. If the centerbore is wrong and the tire shop does not tighten the wheel bolts correctly they can force the wheel to be off center and vibrate badly.

Good luck.

 

sorry to hear of your loss.

I am in the same position but also have the know how to spot potential maintenance items needing to be replaced soon. Looking for a used mini has been a challenge to say the least as most are driven hard or on the far extreme, undriven and stored as yours appeared to be. Under both circumstances, maintenance was always neglected even though mini offers free oil changes as such. go figure...

Your rim appears to be slightly bent or untrue. I would also recommend getting better tires than the hankooks even though they are probably the cheapest around. good luck an dthanks for sharing your story. Keep motoring!

 

My wheels are brand new, and very beautiful. However, what is wrong with the hankooks?

 

i am sorry about your loss. i cannot imagine what you have to be going through. stay strong, keep your head up. i recently lost a best friend (she was in a camaro accident) it is really hard...but what you are doing for his parents...i truely admire. good luck with your car!!

 

 

Sorry to here of your accident and string of bad luck. I recently had to have a front wheel replaced due to an accident with a curb. I ordered a new wheel from the dealer, had the tire mounted to it,and balanced. the wheel vibrated at 50 mph, had it redone, still no good. found a shop that had a special tire machine that they referred to as a "Center Balance Machine", which is needed to properly balance a wheel on a MINI, I was told Corvettes are the same along with a few other high-end cars. After they balanced the wheel, it was perfect, no shimmy or vibration at all. Hope this helps........