Little pothole on the highway damages my BMW 330i's forged alloy wheel

The rear left wheel of my car managed to kiss this little pothole & the air pressure of the respective tyre went to 0 PSI in no time.

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So after 34,000 KMs of driving this car, I decided to take the car on a long-ish drive. The idea was to go up to North India and drive the Samruddhi Mahamarg somewhere in between. I had a good two-week break from work so I decided to use the time well.

All packed, left Bangalore by noon time and was on my way. Stopped in one of these reasonably good-looking food court places and I was on my way to Hyderabad. As luck would have it, there was a little patch of road that seemed to be pretty much harmless on a regular day, but turned out to be something else for me. My rear tyres, 255/40-18 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 ZP, ₹34,000 a piece were replaced about a week ago at Madhus. The rear left wheel managed to kiss this little patch of road, while I was within perfectly legal speeds. The above video is from my dashcam footage, take a look and guess what could have happened.

A closer look at the patch of road zoomed in from the same video. I wish I could go back and take a high-resolution picture to show the Michelin folks if they suspect a manufacturing defect, but the mid-day sun and the circumstances did not allow me to.

In a minute or so, I ended up with this instrument cluster.

And the iDrive obviously threw an error.

The tyre had gone to 0 PSI in no time. The ZP (zero pressure) tyres were not much of a concern, the expensive alloy wheel was a thing that worried me. Also, with the way the pressure dropped, I had no hope of retaining the tyre. So I treaded carefully, looking for a decent puncture shop that could at least put my spare wheel on - I could have tried doing it on my own, but the sun and the luggage at the back made me think I would just drain myself out.

(The screen isn't as dusty as it looks, just the camera emphasising the little bits)

I found a puncture shop well within a kilometre, until when I drove as slowly as I could and finally got to replace the wheel.

Replaced the wheel and decided to drive to Hyderabad as usual and asked the good folks at Madhus to send a tyre to Hyderabad and planned to install it there. I had anyway planned two nights in Hyderabad, to meet some friends and for the biryani of course.

I was close to 350 KMs away from Hyderabad and limping on the donut wheel. It was no fun, trying to be overly careful and looking at reaching Hyderabad only by 10PM or so. Then I decided to turn around and come back to Bangalore, a decision I am proud of today.

Looking at the road patch, it is almost impossible for anyone to gauge that something that small could do this to the tyre.

Worse, I am happy I turned around because that little pothole or whatever it was, whatever it contained managed to dent the forged BBS alloy, I mention forged and make of the alloy, to emphasise the quality of the alloy. It was so bad, it produced a bulge on the other side.

I decided this was not to be taken to a local repair shop to have a shoddy patchwork done, because the alloy has to bear high pressure and another pothole could spell doomsday to me. I decided to replace the wheel altogether. So, even if I could find a replacement tyre, I could do nothing about continuing on the journey with the damaged alloy. My stock wheels were stored somewhere and I could install them right away, but the whole shock of what happened during this incident made me pause and think.

PJspeed in Chennai has the stock of these wheels but he will let go of only the full set. BBS Japan says it will take 120 days for wheels to arrive if I order say one or even two. Lots of thoughts on my mind, should I replace the entire set? If I am replacing it, should I go with another make or design? Should I just put the stock wheels for the time being?

Finally decided to just put the stock wheels on and ordered two (one front as backup and one rear) for now. Just goes to show how important it is to be really careful with alloys that are hard to find, can literally stall your car or have it parked in the garage for weeks or even months. I am just happy I kept my stock wheels in storage or I would have had to pay for them in addition to these two new wheels.

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