Hi,
Today I was driving my 96 BMW 323i and the car started rattling and soon there was a loud noise, so I pulled over and saw that the plastic part of the wheel well that is attached to the front bumper had cracked and ripped a huge chunk of the tread off my tire, which then promptly blew out. I was just wondering what could have caused this, or if anyone else has had a problem like this. Is it involved in a recall or something? I mended it with a ducttape brace but that won't hold very long, and the other side has a crack in it. This car has never been in a front end collision so I don't know what could have caused this. Any help would be great, thank you.

It sounds like your tire came apart and broke your splash shield to me. The tire is stronger than the splash shield is.