Tire Problems of Honda S2000

While traveling on a freeway at approximately 70 mph, the right rear tire had a catastrophic failure. The vehicle began vibrating suddenly and violently. I was able to control the car and drove it to the shoulder of the freeway. An inspection showed the tire was slightly inflated. (the rim was not crushed into the rubber. ) I determined that the safest thing to do was to drive the car on the shoulder and take the first exit to get away from the high speed traffic where I changed the tire. The tire dealer claimed that the failure was due to riding on an under inflated tire. This is not so. Before this incident happened, I walked to my car from the right rear and I would have noticed an under inflated tire. About fifteen minutes after leaving that parking place the tire failed. My car is a Honda S2000 and I fuss over it all the time. The tires are well inspected when the car is washed and then tire shine is applied. The tire was not under inflated. The tire dealer could find no evidence of a puncture that would cause under inflation.

See all problems of the 2003 Honda S2000 🔎.

This story refers to the rear, right tire of a 2001 Honda S2000. I had replaced the rear tires less than two weeks prior to this incident with bridgestone potenza re050a pole position tires. I drove 120 miles from sw richmond, va to annandale, va. The primary highways I traveled during the trip included i95 n and i495 inner loop; and the conditions on i95 n were windy the entire trip. I frequently had to swerve to counter large wind gusts. A few minutes after exiting i95 to i495 (inner loop) I smelled burning rubber, then noticed my rear tire was smoking like crazy. I immediately pulled over to the side of the road, and managed to avoid oncoming rush hour traffic (very dangerous). My car also started to spin out, because by then the rear, right tire had collapsed while burning; but I somehow managed to safely stop the car. Two firestone dealers claim that a road hazard punctured the tire, which in turn leaked, collapsed and started to catch fire. Neither dealer could determine the location or cause of the puncture. This incident seems odd to me, because I felt no indication of a flat tire until smoke began to form. Following two previous tire punctures (on the last set of tires, once at each rear tire), I noticed the problem while driving, and before they caused a problem. The rear, right tire was completely ruined, because it started to smolder after collapsing, so I replaced the original, two-week-old tire with a brand new identical replacement. To this day I don't feel firestone adequately investigated what caused the tire to puncture, and I wonder if a road hazard really caused it.

See all problems of the 2001 Honda S2000 🔎.