[KiloAlpha]

Cross-posting from the S-Cross Official Review thread. Member Sree73 has reported cracks in the OE fitted JK Elanzo tyres:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post3990216

[@viral]

Noticed this in JK ELANZO today. Will it be covered in warranty?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3993341

[@viral]

Originally Posted by @viral

Noticed this in JK ELANZO today. Will it be covered in warranty?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3993341

Could not attach the pic earlier. Really disappointed with the quality of tyre. Have done just about 12k kms on my S-Cross. Everybody said change the tyres when I brought the car and I said Suzuki is a responsible company wont compromise on tyre quality but I was wrong.

[supremeBaleno]

Since the AStar_AT was not available, I borrowed my sister's Alto last Saturday. On Sunday, while running through a general checkup (oil, coolant, battery, brake-fluid, tyres etc), I open the rear hatch to top-up the spare tyre and see this.


Was shocked to see the cut-open tyre with the steel wires poking out. But not at all suprised given the many prior experiences with JK tyres.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Now that all the crappy JKTyre Vectras on the Swift have been replaced, the story shifts to our A-Star_AT. Last few days, I was noticing unusually heavy vibrations while driving it. At around 65-70kmph on smooth roads, the car was literally jumping up and down. Since it is shod with the same JK Vectras, the tyres were my first doubt.
........
Went and bought a Bridgestone for the stepney. Ofcourse, this is just the start. In the coming months, I am sure I will have to replace the other 4 tyres too. Just a matter of when, not if.

The story continues on the A-Star_AT as I expected. After replacing the faulty tyre, all was well for some months. Now, the vibrations /jumping is back, which indicates another JK Vectra is breathing its last. Car is not with me currently, so could not check which tyre is the culprit. Will know next week.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

The story continues on the A-Star_AT as I expected. After replacing the faulty tyre, all was well for some months. Now, the vibrations /jumping is back, which indicates another JK Vectra is breathing its last. Car is not with me currently, so could not check which tyre is the culprit. Will know next week.

Yes, another tyre showed the same bulge symptom. Plus also had cuts on it as seen below. Replaced it today with a Bridgestone B290. Put the 2 new Bridgestones at the front.


Checked the other 3 tyres and one is in the initial stages of deforming. Made it spare tyre for now.


So 3 of 5 gone. 2 remain.😧

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Yes, another tyre showed the same bulge symptom. Plus also had cuts on it as seen below. Replaced it today with a Bridgestone B290. Put the 2 new Bridgestones at the front.
Checked the other 3 tyres and one is in the initial stages of deforming. Made it spare tyre for now.

After a few months of calm, the rear-left tyre of the AStar_AT also showed the same bulge symptoms. Since the spare already had the issue + some cuts in the tyre, changed both tyres to Bridgestone Ecopia last week.

Now 4 of 5 OE crappy JKs gone. Only the stepney remains - no symptoms seen yet, but only a matter of time before it also bends out of shape.

Between our Swift and the AStar_AT, 9 of 10 JK Vectra tyres had the same bulge, twisted-out-of-shape issue. Definitely not a one-off quality issue, but a product that intentionally has bad-quality built into it.

[black_rider]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

I would have taken bad-luck as a possibility if it was just 1 of the 5 tyres, but 3 of 5 is too big a sample to leave to luck.

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Between our Swift and the AStar_AT, 9 of 10 JK Vectra tyres had the same bulge, twisted-out-of-shape issue. Definitely not a one-off quality issue, but a product that intentionally has bad-quality built into it.

Don't you think its about time you started looking at the situation from a different angle? Like, driving pattern.

By the theory of probability, its next to impossible that every tire (well, almost) you got was a defective one and there are still millions of cars, other than yours, running on the same brand with much less defect occurrences.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by black_rider

Don't you think its about time you started looking at the situation from a different angle? Like, driving pattern.

By "driving pattern", I guess you mean how the cars are driven - speed, acceleration, braking etc. If so, nothing that really stands out since 85% of the Astar's total mileage and about 75% of the Swift's would've been done by me. We never saw any tyre issues on the Baleno's 85k kms driven exclusively by me or our previous cars.

Originally Posted by black_rider

By the theory of probability, its next to impossible that every tire (well, almost) you got was a defective one and there are still millions of cars, other than yours, running on the same brand with much less defect occurrences.

Well, its not just me - there are many instances by others mentioned on this thread itself. Also, I got the same feedback about JK tyres from all the tyreshops where I replaced the bad tyres.

Regarding the other cars running these tyres, maybe their annual mileage is higher (say 10-15k kms or more) which means the tyres would've been replaced in 3years or so due to tread wear. Before this issue pops up.

We also have a 2013 MT Astar shod with the same JK Vectras. No issues till date, but I would be very surprised if the same defect does not turn up in them.

[rajivtelang]

My new Ertiga VXI has JK tyres on it. Now I raised this quality issue with the dealer but they said JKs have issues with smaller sized tyres. Since ertiga is a big car the tyres are good.
Should I believe the dealer here? I have already driven the car about 3.5K in last 5 odd months. Of course have a plan to move to Michelins ASAP but need to drive atleast 30K to make the things justified for tyres and pocket
On delivery the dealer cleverly said he will not buy back the JKs, and since I had no choice, drove away with the stock tyres.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

My new Ertiga VXI has JK tyres on it. Now I raised this quality issue with the dealer but they said JKs have issues with smaller sized tyres. Since ertiga is a big car the tyres are good.
Should I believe the dealer here?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-a...ightly-so.html

Given the above link and the few posts just above yours don't let me believe your dealer's version. My advice is ṭo use it until it's in fair condition and move on with better rubbers.

Regards,
Saket.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

My new Ertiga VXI has JK tyres on it. Now I raised this quality issue with the dealer but they said JKs have issues with smaller sized tyres. Since ertiga is a big car the tyres are good.

Should I believe the dealer here?

What size does your Ertiga run ? Our Swift tyres that had this issue were 185 tyres.

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

I have already driven the car about 3.5K in last 5 odd months. Of course have a plan to move to Michelins ASAP but need to drive atleast 30K to make the things justified for tyres and pocket

From my experience, these issues pop up after few years only. So if you do about 10k kms/ year, you might not see the issue & can move on to Michelins after that.

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

On delivery the dealer cleverly said he will not buy back the JKs, and since I had no choice, drove away with the stock tyres.

If the tyres are good as the dealer says, why doesn't he buy back the JKs ? 😊

[rajivtelang]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

What size does your Ertiga run ? Our Swift tyres that had this issue were 185 tyres.

From my experience, these issues pop up after few years only. So if you do about 10k kms/ year, you might not see the issue & can move on to Michelins after that.

If the tyres are good as the dealer says, why doesn't he buy back the JKs ? 😊

Ertiga runs on 185/65 R15. So may be the same area where you faced the issue. I do not exceed 10K per year and so it may take time to reach the issues you are seeing. Dealers will always sell the cheapest tyres on new cars and they said new car comes only with these tyres. My older santro was with Bridgestones as stocks and they really worked like stones until 70K. Looks like JK or goodyears are cheaper brands compared to them and Maruti might be putting them on new vehicles. Not sure.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by rajivtelang

My older santro was with Bridgestones as stocks and they really worked like stones until 70K. Looks like JK or goodyears are cheaper brands compared to them and Maruti might be putting them on new vehicles. Not sure.

I also have had good experience with Bridgestone tyres - the stock tyres on my Baleno were good for close to 80k kms.

Yes, looks like Maruti is cutting corners by using these crappy JK tyres which must be coming much cheaper compared to the competition.

[turbodude]

Rear OEM TVS tyre of our Jupiter went bad after having 3rd puncture on the same spot. Tried to patch the same using puncture repair kit but since it was a deep horizontal cut and air was still leaking, I decided to change the tyre. Not blaming TVS tyre here because I suspect that first puncture work was shoddy and it contributed to the damage of the tyre. Front tyre is still in good shape.

Went to Parshwanath Tyres, opp. Gawade petrol pump, link road, Chinchwad. He saw the "got bhp" stickers on Jupiter and asked do you work in Team-BHP company?

Told him about Team-BHP in brief. I had also purchased a Nano rear tyre from him few months back so kind of trust is there. He asked me the reason for buying a new tyre and after listening to the reason, confirmed my decision.

He gave me few options and I went for JK tyre 90/90-12 just because I wanted to try it. Since it's March end and I am also planning to replace Jupiter with a bike or another 125cc scooter, so decided not to spend more on tyre. It costed me 1300/- including fitting charges.

Parshwanath Tyres provide puncture repair service for 40/- rupees while other puncture shops around link road charge 70,80 and 100 rupees.
Told my wife that I went for a JK tyre (she is a Team-BHP fan too but not a member and had already read this thread), you can imagine her response.
Testing of JK scooter tyre starts from today.