[_nitink_]

A small update. I went to the service centre. The sensor was replaced as they placed the order last time when I visited them. The SA and mechanics accepted there is tyre noise inside the cabin. They asked me to contact Apollo and ask for their report. If Apollo person gives a positive report, they will change the tyres. The Ford support team also told me that tyres will be changed with Apollo tyres and if I want any other tyres, I need to pay the difference. My car has just 8149km on the the odo. Did anyone else had a similar experience?

[samaspire]

Originally Posted by samaspire

I had the same Alnacs which were replaced with Michelin XM2s. Noise reduced noticably but it's still present. The biggest difference though was in road grip, high speed stability and ride quality.

Correction: I had MRFs that came with the car, not Apollos.

Originally Posted by _nitink_

The Ford support team also told me that tyres will be changed with Apollo tyres and if I want any other tyres, I need to pay the difference. My car has just 8149km on the the odo. Did anyone else had a similar experience?[/b]

I did. I paid about 500 extra per tyre for the XM2s.
PS: Get the spare tyre replaced as well.

Find out which Apollo's they are giving - I remember reading somewhere that some models are really good.

[_nitink_]

Originally Posted by samaspire

I did. I paid about 500 extra per tyre for the XM2s.
PS: Get the spare tyre replaced as well.

Find out which Apollo's they are giving - I remember reading somewhere that some models are really good.

When I enquired about it, he told me that it will be a newer model and the MRP is ₹4000. I will ask for more details once the Apollo representative confirm this replacement which will be done in a couple of days.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by _nitink_

When I enquired about it, he told me that it will be a newer model and the MRP is ₹4000. I will ask for more details once the Apollo representative confirm this replacement which will be done in a couple of days.

Apollo Accelere is known to be a good model. Have seen this coming as standard on i20.

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by _nitink_

I will ask for more details once the Apollo representative confirm this replacement which will be done in a couple of days.

What is the apollo you have now? Alnac 4G? If so, then it is not a bad tyre and almost 80% of the Michelin XM2 based on reviews.

[_nitink_]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

What is the apollo you have now? Alnac 4G? If so, then it is not a bad tyre and almost 80% of the Michelin XM2 based on reviews.

No, I don't have Alnac 4G. I have Alnac (only). These tyres create a lot of noise and even the service centre guys acknowledged it. I wish I had Alnac 4G. My cousin has them on his i20 and he is happy with them.

[AKTRACK]

Originally Posted by _nitink_

Did anyone else had a similar experience?[/b]

Here is my story. It is old so I may not remember everything in perfect detail but overall this is what happened and I will list the happenings
as the kilometers increased (approx).

5k - Started raising alignment issues with my dealer. They corrected it. But it kept reoccurring.

Between 5k-25k - Took the car to the dealer for frequent alignments, but since it kept happening, showed the car to outside aligners. A couple of puncturewallahs and alignment guys told me get the suspension checked as they were seeing uneven wear. Raised it with Ford. Dealers always came back saying everything is ok and mind you they will never acknowledge anything is wrong with the tyres. Upon raising the issue a couple of more times, they ask me to go to MRF. They said if MRF agrees they will look into it. I went to a MRF shoppe in Patel Nagar but they were not ready to give anything in written. After couple of emails to Ford of the alignment issues, they agree to change the tyres to Michelins at 50% of the cost at around 25k kms. Mind you I was less bothered about the noise but more of the alignment and uneven wear.

What you might have to pay - I think within 10k you have to pay 25% of the cost, between 10 - 20k you have to pay 50% and between 20k - 30k you have to pay 75% of the new tyre cost. They have a slab. Since I had been raising the alignment/tyre issues for so long they agreed that i pay 50%.

35k - At this time I have the Michelins that have done around 10k. One alignment person, outside of Ford, again says that the new tyre has uneven wear. I was shocked. I thought Ford has checked everything before they put in new tyres which they said they had done and a Ford technical person had personally come to see that everything is within specifications. Now I could also feel the uneven wear in one of the tyres.

I again raised the issues with Ford. They asked that I raise it with Michelin. Someone from Michelin comes to the dealer and inspects the tyres and says that the tyre issues are usually because of suspension issues (which the dealer denied promptly saying suspensions are fine) and believe you me this is what the Michelin person says - They say they do see uneven wear by few MMs but that is ok! I was like the delta is not like a few MMs in a meter it was a few MMs in 10mm. I spoke to the senior at the dealer he assured that everything is ok. I let it go for ever at that point of time. This was the second dealer I was visiting and may be the 5th or 6th complaint.

Present day situation - I don't check the tyres for unevenness anymore. I think it is a futile effort leading upto no conclusion. I do ask the service guys to check the suspension components at every service which they do and as usual come with nothing amiss. Alignment usually remains out which I get corrected like twice every 10k kms and sometimes thrice. I have started getting it done outside at times as Ford alignment is pretty expensive but I make it a point to get it done at least once every 10k from Ford. Tyres are doing pretty well, at least on visual inspection nothing seems wrong. Noise above 100 kmph is loud though. Not sure if it is the engine or the bearing or anything else. From the tread depth, it looks like the tyres will do another 20k.

Also, it is interesting to know that the alignment issue that used to be out rightly denied by Ford is accepted easily by the dealer folks and they promise to do the best they can do.

[samcan123]

Originally Posted by AKTRACK

Present day situation - I don't check the tyres for unevenness anymore. I think it is a futile effort leading upto no conclusion. I do ask the service guys to check the suspension components at every service which they do and as usual come with nothing amiss. Alignment usually remains out which I get corrected like twice every 10k kms and sometimes thrice.

I would suggest you to get the rims checked. I'll tell you a similar situation that happened to me with my Punto a few years back.

I faced uneven wear and tear of the JK tyres in my Punto long back. The alignment would go for a toss within a few km after correcting it. Fiat did not acknowledge anything wrong with the suspension or tyres but instead claimed that the rims were bent(mine had steel rims). Since I am a sedate driver and really did not think that the rims would get bent so soon, I took opinions from multiple tyre shops in GP road (Chennai) and every single one of them told that JK tyres have poor life and are not suitable for Punto (since it is a heavy car). On reaching 35K, the tyres became so bad that the steel radial threads started peeping outside. I changed the tyres at one of the shops there to Yokohoma Earth 1. Even after changing the tyres, some amount of wobbling was there. The service centre again told that the rims are bent. Since the tyres were new I did not want them to go bad again and changed all the 4 rims and voila! The wheel alignment and wobbling issues were gone.
Now, I get the wheel alignment done outside once a year/10K km. It's been 40K since I changed to the Yoko tyres and they still have some life left for another 10K. There is no uneven wear.

[AKTRACK]

Originally Posted by samcan123

I would suggest you to get the rims checked.

Congratulations! Samcan on finally being able to get rid of the issue. It is like being able to cure an old nagging disease of your car. I am not a sedate driver by any definition and yes I know that my rims are not all right. So much so that the tubeless tyres had started leaking air as they were not a perfect fit on the rims anymore and I had to get them all tubed. I also got my rims straightened recently and honestly it did make a difference along with balancing and alignment. I am planning to replace my rims. Let's see what the new rims bring up.

[_nitink_]

New UPDATE: Ford Indian confirmed my tyre replacement. I have been given three choice to choose from, which are Michelin XM2, Bridgestone Ecopia and Good Year. I will have to pay the difference of MRP which I agreed. I am confused between Michelin and Bridgestone. Can the members please guide me about which tyre is better? I will have to pay approx 1050 more for Michelin and approx 700 more for Bridgestone. Any inputs are welcomed.

[samcan123]

Originally Posted by _nitink_

New UPDATE: Ford Indian confirmed my tyre replacement. I have been given three choice to choose from, which are Michelin XM2, Bridgestone Ecopia and Good Year. I will have to pay the difference of MRP which I agreed. I am confused between Michelin and Bridgestone. Can the members please guide me about which tyre is better? I will have to pay approx 1050 more for Michelin and approx 700 more for Bridgestone. Any inputs are welcomed.

I got my tyre replaced from MRF to Michelin. I could definitely feel the reduction in road noise with Michelin. Also the ride comfort has marginally improved.
That said, my personal order of preference would be Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear.
The amount you have specified above - is it the additional cost per tyre or for all 4 of them?

[_nitink_]

Originally Posted by samcan123

I got my tyre replaced from MRF to Michelin. I could definitely feel the reduction in road noise with Michelin. Also the ride comfort has marginally improved.
That said, my personal order of preference would be Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear.
The amount you have specified above - is it the additional cost per tyre or for all 4 of them?

The cost is per tyre. Did you also pay extra for the Michelins? My SA told that Ford has not even replaced a single tyre free of cost. They said I need to pay the difference.

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by _nitink_

I am confused between Michelin and Bridgestone. Can the members please guide me about which tyre is better? I will have to pay approx 1050 more for Michelin and approx 700 more for Bridgestone. Any inputs are welcomed.

Good to know that Ford agreed to replace the tyres albeit at a cost. 4k for a set of 4 is good VFM for Michelin XM2. XM2 is the best entry level Michelin you can opt for. Ecopia is a tyre oriented towards mileage and tyre life so the compound may be harder than XM2. This may cause the Ecopia also to be noisy owing to the harder compound. Best to go for Michelin IMHO.

[_nitink_]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Good to know that Ford agreed to replace the tyres albeit at a cost. 4k for a set of 4 is good VFM for Michelin XM2. XM2 is the best entry level Michelin you can opt for. Ecopia is a tyre oriented towards mileage and tyre life so the compound may be harder than XM2. This may cause the Ecopia also to be noisy owing to the harder compound. Best to go for Michelin IMHO.

Thanks for the suggestion sir. I too was inclined towards the Michelins and thus placed the order for the same. I will be going to the service centre tomorrow morning to get my tyres replaced. I don't want any hard compound as I was really annoyed by current set of tyres. I will keep everyone posted about the difference in the noise levels and difference in ride quality if any.

[Waspune]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Good to know that Ford agreed to replace the tyres albeit at a cost. 4k for a set of 4 is good VFM for Michelin XM2. XM2 is the best entry level Michelin you can opt for. Ecopia is a tyre oriented towards mileage and tyre life so the compound may be harder than XM2. This may cause the Ecopia also to be noisy owing to the harder compound. Best to go for Michelin IMHO.

XM2 is also a mileage oriented tyre. It has low rolling resistance that aids to better FE at the cost of some grip. 3ST is the better Michelin that has a great balance between FE, grip and noise.