How has your luck been with tire warranty claims?

[Doppel]

Sometimes I hear of people going 50k on a set of tires and I burn through them in half that time on average (and not even driving aggressively). My current car came with tires that claim a 5 year/65,000 warranty and considering their tread life expectancy is rated 360 there's no way in all hell this will ever happen. Just this fall I replaced tires that were 17,000 miles old and almost worn out (rated at 260, they were worthless OEM tires).

I presume that, as long as the wear is even and I have proof of rotations, if these are burned to crap at 32,500 I get 50% of tire cost covered. I've never tried tire warranty claims in the past as it just seemed a hassle.

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Also, why do people say rotating tires extends their life? I know they even out the wear to keep handling consistent (e.g. less fishtailing risk if bald rears), but vehicle performance aside, I have never understood the apparent notion behind this. It seems to me if you had a FWD car and almost ran its front tires down and then finally swapped with rear so that the old-rear are now the front and wear them down you'll end up with four worn down tires at the same point in time as if you had rotated every 5k

 

[SpatiallyAware]

A lot of this depends on where you bought your tires from. They can deny your warranty by blaming your alignment or lack of rotating, although I've never seen that happen.

The warranty is generally prorated, in my experience you're lucky to get $150-200 back no matter what the issue was.

That being said, OEM tires are almost always junk.

I've cycled through almost every brand, both car and motorcycle, and I'm about the biggest michelin fanboy you will find. It's about 20% more expensive, but this is something that your life relies on.

You can skimp out on spark plugs, air/oil filters, etc etc and it can only damage your car. But tires and brakes are something you really should not cheap out on.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

As far as rotating, you really don't have to if you are comfortable with your tire and aren't planning on changing brands. But most places nowadays will rotate for free, so buy from a good tire shop and stop by once a year to have them rotated as it's cheaper and easier to buy a set of 4 tires.

 

[JulesMaximus]

My wife's Lexus has gone through 4 sets of 18" performance rubber in 100k miles. Thankfully we purchased their free tires for life plan when we bought her car.

They are staggered front to rear so you can't rotate them but they do wear evenly I'll give them that.

 

[kitatech]

Costco has honored treadwear warranty and when tread was gone @ 50% of expected tire life, it gave me 50% credit on 3 new sets of 4 tires....tires never last their "expected" life here in south Florida allyearroundsummer heat and shell-impregnated roadways.

Costco also honored roadside hazard warranty and replaced it and a 2nd tire as well with tread nearly gone to give me a matching pair.

The only issue I have is that you need to maintain your membership during the life of the tire to get free rotation and balance, as well as to make use of the warranty...but my tires only last 2-3 years and I find other bargains there to pay for the $55/yr member fee.

I'll go back there when my Camry's OEM tires lose their tread....a 40k tire that will likely be gone by 25k

 

[BUTCH1]

You did inflate to sidewall, correct??

 

[Midwayman]

I don't think I ever have tires last more than about 30-35k miles no matter what the warranty claims. I always buy online though so any warranty work would be a hassle, and I haven't bothered with low performance tires with extended wear ratings anyways.

 

[Doppel]

You did inflate to sidewall, correct??

Of course.

 

[T2urtle]

I am 1 for 1 but i just got AMAZINGLY lucky. I should of been SOL.

I bought a pair for Kumho sport tires off ebay from a local guy who bought the wrong size tire for his old muscle car. It was the release of the new LE sport tires. I think they were out for 2-3 months prior. Anyways tread depth was least a 9/32 if not more. Still had markings on there and chicken strips. I go get the 2 mounted and found a HUGE sidewall damage one of them. I talked to the seller and said it wasn't there and he told me it was AS-IS. I do my research and found Kumho has like warranty til its 7/32, free warranty repair. So i called the seller and ask him nicely to fax over the receipt, it was a GOOD thing he got it from tirerack. So i called tirerack and got them to warranty the tire and ship it to me. Oddly enough they refunded the SELLER the money but he was nice enough to cut me a check. Overall good honest ebay seller saved my butt at the end of the day.

 

[7window]

A lot of this depends on where you bought your tires from. They can deny your warranty by blaming your alignment or lack of rotating, although I've never seen that happen.

The warranty is generally prorated, in my experience you're lucky to get $150-200 back no matter what the issue was.

That being said, OEM tires are almost always junk.

I've cycled through almost every brand, both car and motorcycle, and I'm about the biggest michelin fanboy you will find. It's about 20% more expensive, but this is something that your life relies on.

You can skimp out on spark plugs, air/oil filters, etc etc and it can only damage your car. But tires and brakes are something you really should not cheap out on.

I have the same experience such as yours but mine is with discount tire. They will find an excuse to not honor their warranty. They will find all excuses in the book such as you mention. Examples like bad alignment, rotation, speed, fat passenger, too much turning left, drove on the wrong side of the road , have sex in the car, didnt drive the car enough, drove when its raining. etc etc. I just buy a tire that is cost effective and not worry about warranty.

I have to disagree with your assessment on original tires. The original tires are usuallly the ones that are problem free for me. I have bought several new cars and have never complain about the original tires. They last and wears evenly for me. I believe the original tires are tested for the cars you buy. I have a 2 year old car with 30k miles and the tire looks like it will last another 15k. I purchased once a goodyear 80k mile tires for my car because our work fleet uses them. The tire lasted only 25k . Just my personal experience.

 

[WilliamM2]

I have the same experience such as yours but mine is with discount tire. They will find an excuse to not honor their warranty.

Odd, I've had them give me a full refund on three year old Pirelli's with 20K miles on them, because I was never happy with the tire noise, and the fact they would develop flat spots whenever the car was parked for the weekend.

Not the first time they have given me a full refund on tires either. It's the only place I buy them now.

 

[7window]

Odd, I've had them give me a full refund on three year old Pirelli's with 20K miles on them, because I was never happy with the tire noise, and the fact they would develop flat spots whenever the car was parked for the weekend.

Not the first time they have given me a full refund on tires either. It's the only place I buy them now.

It is odd indeed. I have given them three chances and the last two were horrible. The first one I have to admit was exceptional service from dischount tire. They adjusted the price of the tire but that was when they first rolled out this marketing gimmick. The last two times I bought from them was just excuses. A good example was the 80k tread life tire I bought that only lasted 25k. They gave me all excuses. However, they were very nice about it denying the warranty and the direction was always buying new set of tires. The credit for the old tire is negligible.

I like to give them another try but when you hear all the excuse they come up with its basically your word against their word. You have to prove to them your car was properly roatted and aligned. You car didn't hit a pothole on and on. You are almost at their mercy when you need tires and dont have time to produce everything they need.
Just my experience

 

[WilliamM2]

Was this Discount Tire, or Discount Tire Centers? They are not the same, and I have heard quite a few horror stories about Discount Tire Centers.

 

[7window]

Was this Discount Tire, or Discount Tire Centers? They are not the same, and I have heard quite a few horror stories about Discount Tire Centers.

I only know of one. Its the one where the old lady threw a tire on thier window. commercial LoL

 

[Jumpem]

I have never had this problem.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

I don't understand why people would choose to buy multiple times from a store that they know from personal experience will scam them.

I would go to Costco personally for tires since they consistently have been shown to be very honest about their warranty services and returns.

 

[exdeath]

:biggrin:

 

[foghorn67]

I have about 40k on my OEM tires. It looks they will hit 50k quite easily.
The tires suck though. So its long lasting suckage.

 

[SearchMaster]

Keep in mind that the 360 rating on your current tires doesn't correlate to the 260 rating on your original tires unless they are the same brand - and only loosely if they are.

I recently had a blowout on some older tires. They were new when I got my car ~70K miles ago so I knew I was pushing things, but they had 4-5/32s of tread left so I was hoping to get another 5000 miles or so. I've never done a warranty claim so I have no experience there; the only tires I've ever gotten <50K miles on were the OEM Goodyear Eagle GTs on my '91 Eclipse; I think I got 28K on them and the tire shop told me that was outstanding life for those tires. I thought it sucked

 

[CrackRabbit]

I've only had to use a tread life warranty replacement once, and that was with Costco. The BF Goodrich Traction T/A's I had on my former Focus wore out (down to the wear bars) in less than 20000 miles when they were rated for 60k.
Costco gave me 2/3rds of the original tire price towards a new set.

 

[Fritzo]

I've never had a problem. Take the tire in, they fix it or replace it as long as it's under warranty (once I was 3000 miles over and they still replaced it)

 

[Scarpozzi]

I never bank on warranties for tires. They usually are pro-rated, but it depends totally on where you got them and their relationship with the tire manufacturer/distributors.

 

[Doppel]

:biggrin:

Love that shirt.

They were new when I got my car ~70K miles ago so I knew I was pushing things

Do you drive on ice at 10 mph? That is crazy long for tires!

 

[EagleKeeper]

I never bank on warranties for tires. They usually are pro-rated, but it depends totally on where you got them and their relationship with the tire manufacturer/distributors.

Last year, I had a tire blow out on US1 outside of Philly.

The dealer that I got the tire from (Big O) shipped a replacement overnight from Ohio (nearest store).

They covered the cost of NTB mounting and balancing the tire.