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-   -   Bubbles & tyre burst on 4 month old Bridgestone B Series (Hyundai Verna) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-alloy-wheel-section/128692-bubbles-tyre-burst-4-month-old-bridgestone-b-series-hyundai-verna.html)

I purchased a brand new Hyundai Fluidic Verna SX 1.6 in June from KUN Hyundai Hyderabad. Within 5500 km and 4 months of the purchase, 3 tires had air bubbles and 1 tire had a blast. I am left with just one normal working tire with no spare as of now.

I take the responsibility of 1 tire as there was an incident of running on a flat tire without my knowledge about 2 months ago. But the remaining 3 tires had a genuine reason to be replaced. The bridgestone inspector had flatly rejected a claim for all the tires saying that the tires were abused. I take care of my car like a baby and I have never had any issues with any of my previous or other cars I have at home w.r.t. to the tires.

It was pretty disgusting arguing with the Bridgestone service guy as the way he was trying t0 push away the charges and was adamant that the tires were driven badly. I think we should start keeping the tires in passenger compartment to ensure the safety of the tires from now on. I have decided not to purchase a bridgestone in my life again.

Leaving behind all the hopes of claim, I plan to upgrade my tires with no change to the stock rims. The stock size is 195/55 R16. This size is generally not available so easily. What would be an ideal upgrade without changing the stock rims. Looking at Michelin or Yokohama preferably. Kindly suggest

thanks
Ravi

Which Bridgestones are those?
For eg: Potenza, Turanza, S series, B series?

You lost credibility the moment you said one tyre ran flat without your knowledge. Why should Bridgestone not assume that the other 3 possibly ran under-inflated and that led to other issues?

and FYI ... Bridgestones, like MRF and JKs will sustain a lot more abuse than Michellin and Yoko.

Collect all evidence, photograph all defective tyres, search on internet for more evidence and issue, make one single file. Then lodge a complaint with them. Also, be truth to your acceptance of your mistake for one of your tyre damage.

Otherwise, this is strong case to be fought in consumer forum. Do not hesitate and lodge complaint with Consumer Forum, if they are not bulging with their stand.

Bridgestone B series are the tyres.
To answer your 2nd question, I am brave enough to admit my mistake. Post that experience I started checking my tires frequently especially during long runs. I have been driving cars for over 12 years now and mistakes happen once, not for the second time

Thanks Anuj, will definitely take it up. The file prepared and is with me, however they reject the claim flatly. I think I have to drag them to the consumer court.

Hope you are keeping Hyundai also in the loop. Though the warranty is offered by supplier (Bridgestone), Hyundai can help you to resolve the issue. Did he give is findings in writing? If not ask him to give everything in writing so that you can take them to consumer forum.

I hope here we will be having experts from tyre manufacturers as well. So please throw some light on this topic. What are the root causes of bubbles problem ?

Whether you admit it or not, there are telltale signs on the sidewall (from inside and outside) which a trained eye can pick as evidence. The B series has a stiffer sidewall and will show premature signs of ageing if they have been run underinflated at higher speeds. A tyre that was run flat, even for few kms, shows a distinct crease on the sidewall and this is a damning evidence of abuse. Had the run-flat incident not occurred, you had a fair chance of winning the warranty claim.

I am not discouraging you from taking legal action but IMO it's a complete waste of time.

I have raised the claim via Hyundai. Not exactly sure of the reason. The tyre hits the body for most of the pot holes. May be that could be one of the reasons. Whatever could be the reason, I do not see any strongh reason why so many of the tyres could develop bubbles so early.

True.. Thats what I think too.

Folks, Need help on what tyres could I upgrade to without changing the stock rims. Can I go for a 205/60/ R16

Since this is a new car, I would recommend that you stick to stock size but get tyres better suited to your driving style & road conditions where you mostly drive. I am not sure about Hyundai, but other manufacturers are quick to void suspension and steering warranty upon tyre size change.

If, however, you really do want to upgrade, you can go for (difference from stock size in brackets):
1. 205/55R16 (+5.50mm, +1.77%)
2. 205/50R16 (-4.75mm, -1.53%)
3. 215/50R16 (+0.25mm, +0.08%) - would be the ideal upgrade

I would suggest to stick to 205/55/16. You will have a lot of options in that size which include Michelin, Yokohama, Apollo & Pirelli. Chances on the bubble formation will be lesser as this tyre will increase the profile a little.

I am surprised this is hapenning on the stock suspension with stock 195/55 R16 wheels on a brand new Fluidic Verna SX 1.6

Is the Verna's suspension so soft? Can others owning a Verna fluidic shed some light? If this is case then the suspension issue should be much more of a concern than the tyre bubble issue.

I had a telephonic conversation with the KUN service today. They claim that the sound that comes when the car goes thru the potholes is from the suspension and NOT the tyre hitting the body, its a minor issue and could be rectified. I am not totally convinced and will take it up once I take the car to the service in a couple of days..

Update - The bridgestone engineer inspected the tires and gave some of the wierdest explanations possible to reject the claim for all the 4 tires.
KUN (hyundai dealer) then came to my rescue after the Bridgetone guy left and offered to compensate with 50% of the new tire expenses as Customer goodwill.
Really appreciate their gesture.

On the flipside, I have to go for the Bridgestones again as they are the official tires for Hyundai Verna. Wanted to upgrade to 205/55 R 16 but that cannot happen now

I changed the stock MRF tyres of my Duster after clocking 60k kms to Yokohama. I settled for the same specs as the ideal upsize was not available in Yoko. I purchased the Yoko Geolander AT/S 215/16/65. In a matter of just 45 days and 3000 Kms, I suffered a tyre blast yesterday. The side wall has cracked. I dont remember hitting any thing significant. Thankfully i was only at 80 KmpH and hence managed to control the vehicle.
Would I be able to claim warranty for this?

I had the exact same experience with one of my stock tyres @ 3000 kms. A bubble emerged, and I took it to Hyundai. Same story - the manufacturer said its tyre abuse. Hyundai compensated me with 50% of the tyre cost as a courtesy. They also said that all tyre manufacturers do this exact same thing. Anyway, 54000 kms down, those 3, and the new replaced one - all working well. The tyres still have atleast 10k worth of tread left in them, which leaves me impressed.

Sorry for being slightly off-topic but how exactly does one prevent this so called tyre abuse? What is the reason given by these experts when they cite this to decline your warranty. How can you abuse the tyres within 3000 kms to have bubbles form? Also do they actually ever process a warranty related claim?