[willowbilly]

Yesterday my wife got a flat tire on her 2016. The tire was the original tire on the stock rim, and had never been off the vehicle. The tire had 23;000 of use.

I took it to my local Honda dealer for repair. When the repair was completed, I was shown a piece of metal that was found inside the tire. It was about 2 1/2 inches long and 3/4 of an inch in diameter.

The metal was sharp on one end and had made a small puncture in the tire, from the inside out. When I pointed out to the mechanic and the service rep that that piece of metal was obviously inside the tire since the vehicle was new they didn’t believe it. I then asked them to explain how it got inside since there was no hole in the tire on the outside anywhere. (Other than the pinhole leak)

I am at a bit of a loss as to what it was. As near as I can tell it is a piece of aluminum slag from the manufacture of the rim. I don’t know if this is a common occurrence, or this is a one in a million incident?

The flat tire occurred on the highway at highway speed. Luckily it didn’t result in a complete blowout which could’ve been a more dangerous situation. It makes me wonder a little bit about quality control, at least at the portion where tires and rims are mated.

The dealer did charge me $20 to repair the tires. I’m curious if anyone else is ever experienced a similar event.

 

[Mike728]

Can you share a picture of this piece of metal? I find it hard to fathom that you could puncture a tire the way you're explaining. Also, I would imagine anything inside the tire would have been audible, at speed.

 

[319625]

Can you share a picture of this piece of metal? I find it hard to fathom that you could puncture a tire the way you're explaining. Also, I would imagine anything inside the tire would have been audible, at speed.

Same.
Also op had 23,000 problem free miles.

 

[Carbuff2]

I've heard of road debris that totally entered the inside of a tire from the outside.

I also find it hard to fathom that you could puncture a tire the way you're explaining. Aluminum slag? IMO that would be a blob, not something sharp.

 

[Wrascal]

Sorry WB, I don't believe your theory; whatever the object was it entered from outside the tire.

 

[rocky]

Agreed. External object. No chance of left over "slag". Just look at the manufacturing process (probably plenty of you tube videos out there) will convince you your theory does er ... um.... hold water....

 

[BigD]

My concern would be, if that piece of sharp metal 2 1/2 inches long and 3/4 of an inch in diameter had been in there for the entire 22,000 miles, the inside of the tire would be severely damaged all over and not in just one spot. The insides of tires have very little in the way of rubber protection, and most of the time you can actually see the cords.

I suspect the dealer is pulling your leg. The tire had a flat, and had a hole of some sort, but he surely did not ind that 2 1/2 inches long and 3/4 of an inch in diameter chunk of sharp metal inside the tire.

 

[newbie99]

Like others, I too am concerned about your found "metal 2 1/2 inches long and 3/4 of an inch" inside the tire's hallow cavity. Very strange and I bet very rare. Probably more rare compared to winning the lottery. LOL! Luckily, you found it at such low miles. Doing more miles would have created too long of unbalanced tire weight usage and wore out that hub's seals / bearings as well. Ouch! So in a weird way, you are lucky to find it now - without too much long term collateral damage. After patching the tire (without metal inside it), I hope they also re-balanced the tire. Thus, bringing that tire/rubber back to normal operating specs. Again... I wouldn't worry about this 1 Quality Control incident. Sometimes, bad things happen to good people. We simply fix and continue to enjoy the ride....