This weekend I had a incident with 2 of those rock hard 3-4 inch high hemispherical "warts" they put on a road to seperate lanes sometimes where its more dangerous for moving into another lane on a curve. Its hard to explain how it happened, but somehow I drifted a bit too far to the right and hit them with the right rear tire. Only visible damage to the wheels/tires is some curb rash on the right rear wheel, and on the right rear tire, there is a bubble in the sidewall, and in another part of the sidewall, there is a tear in the rubber only. The structural elements beneath the tear seem A-OK. The tire kept pressure on the way home (~1 hour away). I have not driven it since because im not sure if i should replace the tire right away. Anyways, The other rear tire is in fine condition. They are the stock Bridgestone Potenza RFTs that come with the E92 335i Sport Package. There are ~9500 miles on both of the tires, with a couple of sprints up to 130 mph on the Autobahns in Germany in the 1st 1500 miles of the car, and ~200 minutes on the Motorsport Ranch track here in TX for a BMWCCA Drivers Education course. I plan on participating in more Drivers Ed events at the local tracks here as well. I am wondering if I should replace both tires, or just the damaged one (the bubble scares me more than the tear in the rubber for some reason). Though I do not know what tread depth threshhold on the undamaged tire that should be my deciding point. Does anyone know what I should do? I am going to replace the tire(s) with the same tires, as I do not mind thier ride. I was not offered tire/wheel insurance at the time of the cars purchase, but I will be getting it with any new tire(s). Can anyone give me other advice (ie, should i be more worried about the tear in the rubber, rather than the bubble?) Thanks in advance for any help/advice!
The bubble sounds bad, like the sidewall structure is damaged. I don't know how bad the tear is. I would at least replace the bubble tire. New tire tread depth is probably about 10/32 inch. I suppose if you've got substantial tread left on the other tire and you can find the exact replacement model, you could just replace the one damaged tire.
The tear looks to be just the rubber, and this flap of rubber that is torn away from the tire is about a inch or so long until the pivot point. The bubble and the tear are on the same tire. I did not measure the tread yet on the good tire (it was a incredibly busy weekend), but I will tonight. Hopefully the tread is good enough to keep. The Discount Tire near my place has the same exact tire in stock that I would need, so it looks like I will be going there pretty soon. Thanks for the info!
