Tire destruction. Help

Eunos_Cosmo

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Oakland
Car(s)
'84 Mazda RX7, '12 Mazda 2, '99 Porsche Boxster
I'm having some "issues" with the new tires that I got for my car.

When I took the tires to get them put on the first time, one of them split/blew out the inner lip when the guy was mounting the tire onto the wheel. He immediately claimed it was a manufacturer defect, and I reluctantly agreed with him. (I had no possible way to know if he was telling the truth or not)

Driving home today, another one of my new Falken's blows out in the same EXACT fashion as the other tire. I took the wheel/tire to discount tires, and they claim the damage was caused by improper mounting of the tire, basically the guys at the first shop screwed up.

Here are pics of the damage (exact same injury to both tires)

Inner side
DSC_0257.jpg

DSC_0259.jpg



Outer side
DSC_0260.jpg

DSC_0261.jpg


If I go to the original tire shop and try to get my money back for both tires, $55 each, it will just be my word against theirs, so I don't really know what recourse I have.

In the meantime, I'm a little worried about the 2 other tires that have NOT blown out. I don't know if the car is safe to drive :mad:
 
Yep, that definitely looks like improper fitting to me. I work as a mechanic but our shop also does tyres, and I have seen that sort of thing before.

I would be going back to the shop that did the fitting and demanding they fund a new pair of tyres, as well as strip the other two tyres and check for damage. Was it a private workshop or part of a larger company/chain of outlets? If the latter, you could also call their head office and bitch to them.

Good luck anyway, it really pisses me off when stuff like this happens.
 
It pisses me off as well. Its a local tire shop/drug dealer. I should know better, I've had problems with them in the past.
 
Update: Just got back from the tire shop, and they are absolutely refusing to accept responsibility for the damage. They claim that their machine cannot possibly inflict the sort of damage my tires have. I also found out that a THIRD tire is damaged and would probably not last another 50 miles before blowing out in the same manner as the others. So 3 out of 4 BRAND NEW tires, from two different tire vendors all became damaged within 200 miles without any sort of trama to the tires themselves. I hit no curbs, didn't burn out, did nothing of the sort. Falken tires: Worthless shit?
 
Clarify this - you had two different tire shops put on tires?


Also, while Falken tires are not on my buy list, they shouldn't do that. Did they put them on dry/without lube or something?
 
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Did they put them on dry/without lube or something?

This was one of the first things I wondered as well. It's possible your wheels are doing this, but that's very unlikely.

Not to bash you, but tires and install aren't something you want to cheap out on. Also, for a business to not help you out here at all is very fishy. One more thing, those pictures you took of the damage to the tires, why does the steel belting look all rusted...
 
This was one of the first things I wondered as well. It's possible your wheels are doing this, but that's very unlikely.

Not to bash you, but tires and install aren't something you want to cheap out on. Also, for a business to not help you out here at all is very fishy. One more thing, those pictures you took of the damage to the tires, why does the steel belting look all rusted...

One shop put on the tires. I've gone to the same guys for years, thought they'd do a good job.

The steel belt IS rusted. Why, I have no idea. My guess is that it was gouged when they were putting the wheels on, and the exposed steel rusted over the week that the tire was on the wheel.

They did use soap/water lube when they were putting them on.

Found out just now that the shop is closing down in the next few weeks because the owners are all going to jail. Looks like I'm going to just have to swallow the money.

Also the tire vendor I ordered from (edgeracing) appears to have gone out of business. Can you say screwed?

Is there any way a wheel could cause this sort of damage? They are used, but don't appear to be mishapen. :dunno:
 
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The guys who work at your tyre shop are full of shit.

Firstly, soapy water is not the same as tyre lube/wax.
Secondly, ANY tyre fitting machine is capable of damaging tyres if you don't know what you're doing. In fact it is very easy to damage tyres in the same way yours have been.
Also there's pretty much no way that your rim could have caused the damage.

Falkens may not be the absolute best tyre you can get, but even cheap no-name branded tyres won't break like that if fitted properly. Do you have a department of fair trading, or something similar, over there? Or maybe you can sue them . . . there must be someone you can go to :shakefist:
 
The guys who work at your tyre shop are full of shit.

Firstly, soapy water is not the same as tyre lube/wax.
Secondly, ANY tyre fitting machine is capable of damaging tyres if you don't know what you're doing. In fact it is very easy to damage tyres in the same way yours have been.
Also there's pretty much no way that your rim could have caused the damage.

Falkens may not be the absolute best tyre you can get, but even cheap no-name branded tyres won't break like that if fitted properly. Do you have a department of fair trading, or something similar, over there? Or maybe you can sue them . . . there must be someone you can go to :shakefist:

This is America ya know :p

And I say soapy water because that's what it looked like to me. I'm sure it was perfectly fine tire lube.

I'm emailing Falken right now. I'm hoping they can help, because if not, I'm going to have a $350 pile of useless rubber sitting in my garage.
 
We do have such business bureaus, but they're more or less useless.

Plus since the place is closing and people are going to jail anyway, well, not much you can do.

starfox: Next time, shop with TireRack and be done with it. :p
 
We do have such business bureaus, but they're more or less useless.

Plus since the place is closing and people are going to jail anyway, well, not much you can do.

starfox: Next time, shop with TireRack and be done with it. :p

I was going to...but they didn't have the tires I wanted. :?
 
Apparently the tires you wanted.... aren't the tires you wanted, either. :p


Next time, Kumho Ecstas. :D
 
Apparently the tires you wanted.... aren't the tires you wanted, either. :p


Next time, Kumho Ecstas. :D

I read nothing but good reviews about the Falkens...thats why I bought them. They lied!
 
Well, now you know. :p

I won't buy Falkens because of their design and strange traction variances as well as rapid wear. Never heard about them disintegrating like this, though.
 
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