Blowout on the Beetle

Had a tire blow out on the Beetle yesterday at 75 mph. Kind of exciting there for a minute or so. Brought it to a safe stop and changed to the donut spare (I hate those things and a full size won't fit in there). Shredded the tire but the rim was okay. Had to change it on the road as there was no shoulder and now where close to pull off. Way out in the toolies. Made sure to move off the road whenever a car did come by though. Full set of Michelin Defenders put on (225 /50 R17 slightly oversize but no issues), no one had the correct size.



Check your spares for proper inflation as mine was low. I carry a 12V pump though so no issues.

wonder what you hit.... I ran over a baby squirrel today. icy roads, was not going to avoid it.

No telling. I saw the low pressure warning come on seconds before it went.

must have been something good. contis arent known for bad tires. looks like you got good tread too. Yeah im glad i have a full size spare and the mag will fit in the spare hole. Strange that it says limit 55 on it. its a regular tire. not a temp use one.

The donut doesn't seem to be a regular tire. It is noticeably smaller than the other regular tires. I drove back home 160 miles at 50 mph. Not much traffic soo it wasn't too bad other than taking forever. Fortunately Discount tire was open and took care of replacing all 4 in about 45 minutes! My 2013 Passat had a donut but I replaced it with a full size wheel and tire I bought from someone on here. It fit in the spare wheel well. I tried the flat tire in there and it won't fit at all, so I guess swapping one out won't work in this case. Stuck with the donut. I haven't driven anywhere except back home so far but the Michelin Defenders seem excellent so far. 80k miles and 8 year replacement warranty on them.

I've been running my VW's on Michelin's for years. Just keep buying them because I've had such good luck. Usually pretty good all around. Do get the road hazard warranty which I have used a few times.

Glad that you are ok. Didn't see if it was front or back. I've never had a front blow at highway speed.

Have a silver '03 Beetle (AVH gasser 5sp) that has a full size spare from the factory. No sure when they went to the temporary spare.

Driver side front. I had no issues bringing it to a safe stop. Kind of noisy though. I was on 27 around Kirvin when it blew.