A low profile tyre has very little sidewall, and the sidewall is the only suspension a tyre has. On a tall profile tyre a square edge is partly absorbed by rubber deforming before anything reaches the wheel. On a 35 or 40 profile there is barely an inch of it, so the same edge goes almost straight through to the rim and the tyre gets pinched between the road and the rim flange. That pinch is what splits the casing.
Which makes ramps, tight turns and tunnel approaches a genuine hazard for anybody on large wheels. The failure often arrives in two parts as well, because the tyre splits and the rim buckles at the same point, so you are looking at both. It is also why a low profile tyre gives so little warning. There is not enough sidewall for a bulge to develop visibly before it lets go. If you have hit something hard on a car like that, it is worth stopping and looking at the rim edge as well as the tyre, because a flat spot on the flange is often the clearest evidence that the tyre over it has been hurt.
Tell us four things on the phone and the van finds you first time. Where you are stopped and which direction you were travelling; the make and model; the size off the sidewall of any tyre on the car; and whether you are somewhere exposed. Stopped on Goswell Road in the dark counts, and we will say so on the call. The wheel comes off in Whitecross Street, not on a ramp in Farringdon. Nothing is towed out of the Fann Street area or Aldersgate Street; the work finishes there. The EC1A postcode and a street in Aldersgate Street: that is enough.
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The ramps, tight turns and the Beech Street tunnel approaches make the Barbican awkward for any car and genuinely punishing for one on large wheels and short sidewalls. Aldersgate Street offers nowhere to stop and look afterwards, so the sensible moment is once you are back in an estate bay. Turn the wheels onto full lock and check the inner rim edges as well as the outer ones, because that is the face taking most of these hits and the one nobody ever sees.
A car on large wheels caught a raised edge on a ramp and lost the tyre and the rim shape together. Both had taken the same hit at the same point.
A low profile tyre near Beech Street had split on the inner face, where nothing showed from the kerb side. It came off the car before anybody could see it.
After one impact failure on the estate roads the opposite wheel showed a slight flat on the flange, which was worth knowing about before the next tyre went on it.
Because there is very little rubber between the road and the rim. A taller sidewall deforms and absorbs part of the impact. A short one runs out of travel almost at once, so the tyre gets pinched against the rim flange and the casing splits.
No. The pinch cuts the casing cords rather than making a hole through the tread, and it is usually in or near the sidewall, which is outside the repairable area in any case. The wheel needs looking at as well.
Always, on a low profile car. The same impact that splits the tyre commonly flattens or cracks the rim flange, and a damaged flange will not seal the next tyre properly. That produces a slow leak everybody mistakes for a puncture.
Less than on a taller tyre. There is not enough sidewall for a bulge to appear first, so the useful warning is the impact itself. If the car thumped hard enough to make you flinch, that is the moment to look.
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