997 tyre problems

[fizzypigs]

In the last few months I've gone through 3 back tyres on my 997 due to punctures, 4 in the past 14 months. I drive around central London and do not work in the construction industry. My car is less than 2 years old and only has sub 10k miles on the clock.

Each time it is a nail/screw. The car is parked securely and I have taken to checking under the wheels before pulling away in case some idiots are being malicious - spotting nothing.

Am I very unlucky here or are others suffering with pirelli p zeros too?

[911wise]

Its got to be just bad luck I think a nail/screw will go through any tyre. I've had pzeros on a couple of tyres and thought they were excellent.

[fizzypigs]

There is unlucky and there is design problem. With it only ever affecting the rear tyres I am concerned that this is more than poor luck. I have been told that a puncture is due statistically every 50k miles. Therefore the 'chance' of three punctures only on the rear wheels, in in just a few hundred miles, is rather remote.

I am sure many users of the tyre are suffering no problem, otherwise pirelli would recall the tyres I guess. I'd be very interested in hearing from fellow sufferers to see if we can find a correlation.

[911wise]

If they were just deflating and a puncture was been diagnosed as the cause I would agree, but as your pulling a nail or screw out thats the problem. I dont know of any practical road trye that will stand been pierced by a screw or nail. If there was companys like BMW wouldn't bothere with their runflat system, they would just fit a tyre that didn't puncture.
As far as stats go I've never had a puncture (touch wood). So for the stat to be true someone somewhere else must be having my share.

[Vesuvius 996]

Could be bad luck.

Could be some jealous sh1tcvnt.


Man, I'd be as mad as hell either way. You can get them plugged for £15 at KwikFit and if you stand over them they do a good job (heavily regulated area!) - I have run some very fast cars with plugs and never had a problem.

Alternaively get some CCTV (and some pliers and blowtorch.................)

Edited by Vesuvius 996 on Saturday 6th January 20:23

[Pickled Piper]

Could be bad luck. I had a similar situation many years ago when I lived on a new housing development. There were discarded roofing nails and screws all over the place.

pp

[9hellheaven]

Its either you are very unlucky.. Or Your ex girl friend (or boy friend who happens to be a joiner) have got it in for you!
The only logical explanation is that you are picking nails up at a given point along your journey. Unless of course the tyre gives up straight away that would make it difficult to narrow it down to a specific place..
The tyre cant be at fault when it has a nail or screw in it.
If someone is placing nails or screws under your car its almost impossible to spot them I would think...look at the width of your rear (tyre)... Hope you get to the bottom of it..bloody dear do! Good luck 9HH.

[ross]

We had a phase of going through tyres, especially when we had alot of building work in our road in London / skips outside houses etc. I went through 3 on my GT3 and 4 on my 3 series in about 8 months. I think wide tyres are prone to this....thinking about it they do cover more road area than narrow ones...! that was about 18 months ago and haven't had any since. I began to think there was something strange happening, but was probably being 'fooled by randomess'...

[Dr S]

Had a similar issues two/three years ago. Apparently it happens most frequently when driving at a normal speed in town. Then the front wheels move the nail/screw in a way that it is easy for the rear wheels to pick it up and there you go... tough sh*t

[fizzypigs]

futher news on my tyres. I'm told by the OPD that I have a chunk of metal through my rear tyre. So it would appear that I'm just unlucky.....
Rather interestingly though the OPD then went on to tell me that there was a bit of a wait for p zeros. That was over a week ago. I wonder why there is a shortage?!!!!!!

Anyone with a new p zero for the nearside rear of a 997c2s could call porsche east london. tell them its for the unlucky &?@!.

As an aside I thought all you other pirelli drivers would be comforted to know that after reporting a potential safety issue with their tyres over a week ago they haven't bothered to get in touch. Nice.

[996C2]

I went through 4 rear tyres in 4 months mid last year, each time it was a nice shiny philips head screw. The last one resulted in a blow-out on the M4. After the 3rd one I thought someone was doing it on purpose so started parking a few streets away. There were a number of house renovations going on at the time with white vans dotted along the street - I'm pretty sure that's all it was. I live in NW London where there are 4 or 5 911s on every street, so if someone had something against them they'd need a big box of screws and a lot of time.

The tyres were all Pilot Sports.

Edited by 996C2 on Tuesday 16th January 20:59

[smtk]

MAGNETIC SWEEPERS
Ideal for use at construction sites for cleanup of nails, screws, metal shavings, and more. Extra wide 30" sweeper cuts cleanup time significantly

www.amazon.com/Grip-Magnetic-Sweeper-Pickup-Tool/dp/B000HLUAL6/sr=1-3/qid=1168982452/ref=sr_1_3/102-1837961-5094569?ie=UTF8&s=hi

Or stick this sexy beast on the porka

[fizzypigs]

you'll be happy to hear porsche east london supplied 4 new conti tyres. I paid for 1 and porsche paid for the other 3 due to supply probs at pirelli