Blown Tire, Big Bucks!

The moral of this story... never, ever, never buy a car with AWD.

This won't be your only problem. I just spent $8,000 to fix mine, this time. (4 new identical tires are not always the exact same height)

Do you still have the window sticker? It should list the size of the spare. Some new cars don't even have spares.

If you don't have the sticker, you can try this site.

http://researchmaniacs.com/VIN...p/WindowSticker.html

Of course, when I entered my vin for my Ford truck it says "The VIN entered was not found in our system. " so I never got to the part where they (probably) try to charge me. I have the original sticker and it says 17" spare tire.

Why do you have AWD in Las Vegas? Porsche Cayenne?

quote:

Originally posted by SultanofSwat:
The moral of this story... never, ever, never buy a car with AWD.

This won't be your only problem. I just spent $8,000 to fix mine, this time. (4 new identical tires are not always the exact same height)

I've had two AWD Cherokee Limiteds with no problems. It is necessary to make sure the tires are wearing evenly and the car is aligned all the time though.

Bum's situation makes sense on his behalf. But he'll have to prove it. You can't have the wrong size tired on an AWD. They don't even come with donuts for spares it's such an issue.

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"it's such an issue."

And that is why this foul up by the manufacturer or dealer should have never occurred in the first place.



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Are the wheels and tires OEM or aftermarket?

I have dealer installed aftermarket wheels and tires on my AWD and the spare(OEM)is not the same as the tires and wheels on the ground. I've used the spare with no problems but never for more than a handful of miles.

If the dealer put different wheels and tires on the car but neglected to upgrade the spare maybe you can pursue that angle.

I've never heard of tires that are not the same size from the same manufacturer since they come out of a mold. Maybe a good reason not to 'mix' tires from different sources??

quote:

Originally posted by Hawk19:
I've never heard of tires that are not the same size from the same manufacturer since they come out of a mold. Maybe a good reason not to 'mix' tires from different sources??

When you call the tire store and they say.. "hey we have 3, and I can get you one from the warehouse", you end up with tires from at least 2 different batch runs.

Tires run in the same batch of 'goo' at the same time from the same machine should be the same. The next guy that makes the tires may change the formula or the temp slightly and produce slightly different tires. (We have a tire manufacturer nearby)

I had 4 'identical' expensive Dunlop tires, but one was almost 1/4 inch bigger in diameter at the same tire pressure, because the sidewalls were 'stiffer' than the other 3.

Tires have TINs that are somewhat helpful.

I bought the car brand new. It was the first time I accessed the spare-tire compartment. The spare tire was one of those "temporary" tires. I drove it less than 25 miles and was intending to put on a real tire that day when the damage occured.

The dealer is talking about a warranty limitation.. fitness for a particular purpose, etc. My thinking is it is a product liability issue, not a warranty issue. What reasonable person would expect the wrong-sized spare tire to be put in the spare-tire compartment? Or contemplate the potential damages of using such spare tire? I wouldn't.

I just wanted to ask you guys your opinions before I spent money pursuing this thing.

quote:

Tires run in the same batch of 'goo' at the same time from the same machine should be the same. The next guy that makes the tires may change the formula or the temp slightly and produce slightly different tires. (We have a tire manufacturer nearby)

That would be really poor process control. I don't know what the specs are for tires but I'm sure that the diameter and circumference are not absolute (i.e. xx.xx +/- y.yy) and 1/4 inch may be within spec.

But after saying that I have to confess that I have spent millions of my company's money recalling plastic parts where somebody used the wrong formula.

Plus I doubt 1/4 inch would matter otherwise the s****r moms in their Hummers with the one low tire would be in the shop all the time...

quote:

Originally posted by Bum:
I just wanted to ask you guys your opinions before I spent money pursuing this thing.

OK, here's an opinion, but we're lacking information: how much difference in tire diameter?

Anyway, if you drove 25 miles at 50MPH or less (that's the usual limit for temporary spares), the failure was probably not caused by the difference is tire size. More likely, the failure was already in process, and this event broke the camel's back. By comparison, 25 miles of a twisty road will probably cause more heat build up from the difference in rotational speed of the wheels than the temporary spare would. But of course it depends on the difference in diameters.

So my opinion is to not spend money trying recover damages. It probably is worthwhile to escalate the matter to the manufacturer's customer satisfaction department. They may be willing to help. The phone number is always listed on the manufacturer's website. The only time I've tried this, because the dealer wasn't being reasonable, the entire cost of the repair was covered by the manufacturer. I think it can really help in cases like yours, where it isn't clear if the issue is product liability or warranty.

Thanks, 3fingered and everyone.

I have never --not once-- had a problem with anything on this car in over four years. The maintenance supervisor explained to me that it was definitely the wrong tire size that caused the damage. The spare tire was a "P155" but he said should have been a "P165". I'm assuming that's a 1-inch difference? (Not a tire guy.)

Thanks for all the opinions. I'll let you know how it turns out.

quote:

Originally posted by Bum:
Thanks, 3fingered and everyone.

I have never --not once-- had a problem with anything on this car in over four years. The maintenance supervisor explained to me that it was definitely the wrong tire size that caused the damage. The spare tire was a "P155" but he said should have been a "P165". I'm assuming that's a 1-inch difference? (Not a tire guy.)

Thanks for all the opinions. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Uh, the difference in diameter between a 155 and 165 is miniscule for the some sidewall ratios. Those numbers refer to the tread width, in millimeters. The important numbers are both before and after the slash--before is the tread width, after is the sidewall height (described as a percentage of the tread width.) A tire that starts with, say, P165/70 is about two millimeters smaller in diameter than a tire that is P155/75.

Your tire guy is not that bright or trying to play you for a fool, since the ratio is important, not a solitary number.

The 165 or 155 tells the width of the tire in millimeters. P means Passenger. So the two tires are different in width by 10mm or about 3/8 inch.

But width isn't the issue here. A more complete description would be for example p165/60r13. The 13 is the wheel diameter in inches, r would mean radial, and 60 means the height is 60% of the width.

So this tire is 13*25.4 + 0.6*165*2 = 528.2 mm in diameter. A temporary spare (for example T155/65r13) is usually narrower, but the example I've used has a slightly taller aspect ratio--65 instead of 60. The diameter of that temporary spare is 13*25.4 + 0.6*155*2 = 531.7 mm, or about 1/8 inch bigger than the regular tire, which is insignificant. It is normal for temporary spares to have a bigger aspect ratio, but so far we don't know what yours is.

So you really need to know the complete tire spec, and compute the difference in diameters. There's a chance the dealer was blowing smoke to keep you from trying to claim a defective product design. Another reason to go to the manufacturer-- they may be covering the cost of repairs for cars which have had a high incidence of drive line failures.

I'd like to know the model of the car and what, exactly, failed. If you'd rather not say, look for service bulletins and recalls. You can try edmunds, or a car-specific message board. The techs are usually honest and straightforward.

www.edmunds.com

Be wary if they offer to meet you halfway on the $2000. Don't believe the old 'because you're a good customer and we'd like to keep you' baloney. That means somebody messed up and they know it.

quote:

Originally posted by 3FingeredGlove:
or about 1/8 inch bigger than the regular tire, which is insignificant.

For normal cars, yes. For AWD cars, it's catastrophic.

This is why you can't simply replace 1 or 2 tires, you must replace 4, because of the simple difference in tread depth.

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OK, OK, you guys have convinced me...





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