Tyre Issue
Submitted: Monday, Oct 10, 2011 at 20:09
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Member - henpecked
I noticed after arriving
home from
Silverton that the near-side front tyre had a crack in the wall completely around, about 10mm outside the rim, two others had begun to the crack while the 4th tyre seemed ok...
As these Cooper ST's were only 20,000k old, I wasted no time in visiting my local dealer who immediately contacted the Cooper rep. and an inspection was arranged for the next day.
No drama. The tyres will be replaced on a pro-rata basis, $340 X 25% worn, $85 each.
In hindsight I think the Cooper bloke had a lend of me. Firstly, as when I bought the tyres originally I paid for valve, fitting & balancing so that cost (I think about $15 each) should be deducted from the $340. Secondly, as Cooper, and not the tyre
shop, is supplying the replacements I believe the replacement cost should be based on the wholesale price to the dealer and not the full retail price.
Perhaps I am expecting too much but any future purchases,
well........
Ted
Reply By: Mick O - Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 at 18:51
Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 at 18:51
Ted,
Spoke to my bloke who is ex tyre manafacturing industry. His advice is as follows;
Radial belts on the outside of the tyre, usually run diagonally across the face of the tyre in a crossed pattern. These belts (in normal radial tyres they are known as Flippers or chaffers) should go all the way down the wall of the tyre and wrap around the bead and then continue back up meeting and crossing other side wall materials as a continuous belt.
A poor tie in, where the materials don’t extend all the way down and wrap, will cause a localised flexing event. It is the flexing that causes the cracking. By way of example, if you get the tyre dealer to cut the tyre vertically down across the crack with a hacksaw or similar, you will immediately see the problem when looking at the cross section. There will be a separation between the construction materials.
This is totally a construction issue and unfortunately, the manufacturer will replace them on a pro-rata basis according to use.
Laying and returning the belts as a continuous roll is a very labour intensive process. This used to be done by hand and still is in some specific tyres. It is next to impossible to lay and wrap these belts in the automated, mass produced factories these days hence these flaws occur. Unfortunately it’s not just Coopers and is an industry issue.
It is industry standard to replace them on a pro-rata basis and as yours have 20K on them, they must assume the life of the tyre to be 80K to charge you 25%.
You could try them on I suppose. They replaced
mine because they had less than 7K on them.
All the best. Mick
AnswerID:
467364
Follow Up By: TerraFirma - Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 at 19:36
Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 at 19:36
All you say is true Mick however these are issues for the tyre manufacturers, not customers. At the end of the day we buy tyres to do a job and pay a fair price for them, if they fail to do their job then they should be replaced under warranty, pro-rata or not. If it were me (The Tyre Maker) I would replace the tyres with new ones for the trouble I have caused the customer.
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Follow Up By: Mick O - Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 at 23:03
Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 at 23:03
No argument from me there. It's a manafacturing issue and certainly with the tyres at the early end of their useable life, you'd suggest that they should be replaced with no questions asked (Might be a bit different if they'd done 70K). Given that companies have a pro rata approach to replacement, it perhaps indicates that these manafacturing issuers are more prevelant than the consumer would imagine.
I'm sticking with my Toyo's ;-)
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Reply By: eighty matey - Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 at 22:51
Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 at 22:51
A mate of
mine recently had a new Cooper ST fail on his Landcruiser. It happened on the F3 freeway, north of
Sydney, at about 100kph. Luckily it was a rear tyre but it caused about $3500 of damage to the vehicle.
Cooper tyres paid to repair the damage with no problems.
I won't buy Coopers because too many people I know have had "ïncidents" of varying nature but there are many people that swear by them.
eighty matey
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467389