I was going out Sunday about noon for the paper and a walk. Turned the corner not even a block from my house and suddenly thump-thump-thump noise. stopped because it sounded like a flat tire but all looked ok. moved a few car lengths and still the same. stopped again and saw in the rear tire a head of a bolt!!!! not a nail but a large bolt! what to do? too scared to drive to the tire store which was about 6 miles... back around the block and called AAA. The rescue truck came and behold it was a bolt about 1/4 x 4" long that the driver extracted! guess it was hitting the rim and causing the really loud noise..... had a hard time figuring how a bolt this size could get picked up by my hydroedges...The guy told me he had even extracted whole pliers from tires.....lesson?????try to watch where you are driving!!!!
I was in the tire business years ago, and saw countless examples of stuff that tires picked up, including bolts larger than yours. Though I never saw pliers imbedded in a tire, it wouldn't surprise me. Even the best of tires can be vulnerable when you hit an object at the right (or wrong) angle. And though your advice to watch where you're driving is appropriate for this and other reasons, you can still hit road hazards despite your best efforts. The color of things like this doesn't contrast with the road, and even if you see them, at higher speeds you may not have time to react to avoid them. You did the right thing by not driving further. Glad it was nothing more serious!
Same thing happened to me. I was stealthing along and heard the rythmic click click that shouldn't be there. Stopped and there was a drywall screw in the tire. I put on the mini-spare and got the tire patched and all was well. The interesting thing is that I probably wouldn't have heard it if I wasn't driving the Prius. Another advantage of a quiet car
