A front tyre and a rear tyre fail in completely different ways, and knowing which has gone changes what you do with your hands. When a front lets go the car drags hard towards the failed corner and the steering turns heavy and vague in the same instant. That pull is immediate, because the front wheels do the steering and most of the braking. Hold the wheel firmly with both hands and come off the accelerator rather than stamping on the brake.
A rear burst announces itself far more quietly and is more dangerous for it. The back of the car starts to move about, the steering still feels normal, and plenty of drivers blame the road surface for the first few seconds. Brake hard at that point and you load the front axle and let the rear step out further. Ease off, let the speed bleed away, steer as little as you can and choose your stopping place late rather than early.
Once you have stopped, the tyre is scrap whichever end it was on. Tell us which corner when you ring, because a front and a rear are not always the same size.
The difference between a burst tyre costing you an hour and costing you an afternoon is who you ring first. A mobile fitter does both in one visit: call us and a fully-equipped technician heads straight for where you are stopped in SW18, with the replacement already on board and a live ETA the moment the van leaves. The wheel comes off in Southfields, not on a ramp in Battersea. Nothing is towed out of Southside or East Hill; the work finishes there. The SW18 postcode and a street in East Hill: that is enough.
Burst tyre replacement in Wandsworth is part of our wider 24-hour emergency callout across London and the home counties cover. For burst tyre replacement in Wandsworth, call 07717 389637 or get a price for your tyre.
The stretch of the A3 running into the gyratory gives very little warning and even less room, and the same goes for coming down East Hill with traffic stacked behind. Neither is a place to be inspecting anything. Get into whatever space you can reach, leave the hazards on, and we come to that spot rather than asking you to move again.
The car pulled hard to one side and the driver fought it down to walking pace instead of braking into it. By the time we arrived the tread had gone and the sidewall was in ribbons, but the rim was untouched.
A driver felt the back of the car moving on East Hill, blamed the road and carried on for a few hundred metres. The tyre came off the rim on the way and the wheel lip was flattened, so it became two purchases.
A failure on the South Circular left a driver choosing between halting in a live lane or rolling slowly to a wider spot. Slowly was right. A ruined tyre is already ruined, and getting clear of moving traffic is worth more than the wheel.
A rear, for most drivers. A front announces itself so loudly that you react at once, whereas a rear feels like a change in the road surface and gives you no reason to slow. The back axle keeps the car pointing straight.
No. Braking throws weight forwards and makes whatever the car is doing worse, particularly with a failed rear. Come off the accelerator, hold the wheel straight, let the speed fall, then brake gently once you have picked where to stop.
Only where both ends run the same size, and plenty of cars do not. Even then it is a poor trade, since you strip a sound tyre off one axle and leave that one mismatched. We bring the correct size to you.
Often it is, and we check rather than assume. The rim lip is what suffers, and a flat spot or a bend there will stop a new tyre sealing. Stop early enough and the wheel is usually fine.
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