Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Tyre & Alloy wheel Section (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-alloy-wheel-section/)

-   -   Ford replacing problematic MRF tyres on Figo & Aspire (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-alloy-wheel-section/189364-ford-replacing-problematic-mrf-tyres-figo-aspire.html)

Possibly a good news for people with MRF tyres

There's credible info that you can get it replaced at the service center. This is happening in mangalore not sure about the other cities worth giving a try. Just make sure your below 10k kms. All you need to do is complain for tyre noise and voila you will get them replaced with Michelin's or Goodyear's

How I came to know about it ?
A few weeks back I had a casual talk with an unknown figo owner about the car and I asked him how its serving him, he mentions all positives and says that he had complained of tyre noise during his 10k service and they had replaced the tyres with Michelin's. And yes it was true his car did have Michelin's. So armed with this knowledge I went to try my luck at it, Though my car is shod with Goodyear gt3 and complained about tyre noise. The SA told it's very unlikely and asked me to keep the car for a check. And my claim for noise was declined and then the SA mentions that Goodyear's are used as replacement tyres and have normal noise. And he tells me that they are replacing MRF tyres which have abnormal sound. He even showed me one of the vehicles. All one had to do was complain. There's no official notification as such. So if your car is shod with MRF and are below the 10k mark do try your luck. Just complain about excessive noise. Replacement is confirmed to be happening in Cauvery Ford Mangalore. MRF tyres are either replaced with Michelin xm2 or Goodyear gt3.

And bhpian samaspire who has mrfs went ahead and got the noise issue acknowledged at the service center. Waiting for his update. He has crossed the magic 10k mark though.

BTW People with Goodyear's and Apollo's are far from luck here, though you may give it a try lol:

I already have those replaced this last year (Nov-16) on my Aspire. MRFs were as good as JKs & got the Goodyear Triplemax Assurance Tyres.

Those are softer tyres, almost as good as top rung. BTW I have run 17K kms on the Goodyears.

Thanks for sharing! Useful for anyone who has a genuine problem with MRFs, but not others looking for a freebie.

Big shoutout to Prashanth Murthy for sharing this:

Really great news. I'm hearing first time about Tyre replacements. Way to go Ford!!!! These kind of small gestures pay off in a big way in the long run by enabling and increasing confidence in Customers. I have never heard/saw any company (Cars or Tyre company) honoring warranty on tires.

A very good - and quite an expensive - gesture by Ford without doubt. However, I wonder why they are considering the GT3s different than MRF on noise. I have used them as they were the stock tires on my car. They are pretty durable, very hard - and yes - EXTREMELY NOISY! Tata also stopped giving them on the Vista and newer cars after the "sedan class" refresh came with GoodYear DB series which is much smoother.

Wonder if there are any other issues reported on MRFs - like tires bursting too often etc due to which they are replacing more on safety grounds rather than just noise...?

Not sure of what's the benefit of doing this, as mass car manufacturers do not keep record of tyres sold along with the car or do they?

There is possibility of many making use of this opportunity as free ride by shoeing their cars with MRF tyres for replacement, one has to be intelligent to do that atleast in terms of date of manufacture of tyres.

Also, will this not reflect badly on the reputation of MRF tyres? or this is not of concern.

The MRF tyres have abnormal noise. Even on good roads. The sound, sometimes it is similar to a rubber flap hitting the tyre and it sounds like an aeroplane inside the cabin. The sa had showed this to me in one of the cars. Probably this is an issue with a particular batch because the Ford notice to the service center clearly says "if concern is raised...replace the tyres". My guess is they don't have a track of tyres and hence are unable to issue a recall notice and hence doing it in general. And not to forget ecosport and the old fiestas were shod with the same tyres but none of them had or have any concerns. It's only the figo owners who have complained.

On a side note another concern would be the horns going kaput early. I've had both my horns replaced within 7 months, one being today and another a few weeks back. It seems this too is a common issue faced by Ford owners these days as per the service center. Sa told it's mostly due to water and probably a design flaw that's causing them to go bad.

I had given my Figo Aspire to Planet Ford for 1st year service. It has clocked 9600 kms. I had complained to the SA about excessive road noise from the MRF tyres. He tested it and said it is normal. Though he did mention that I should take it to some other Ford Service Centre and get it tested there. The reason mentioned was that as Planet Ford is shutting down, Ford may not change tyres under warranty. The SA mentioned that they are just doing regular service and no warranty replacement was happening at Planet Ford outlet.

Found this on Twitter - Ford officially denying the replacement.

Though this seems like an official reply, it may as well be a canned response. Ford service twitter handle is quite active in replying to customers.

Ford should contact the news website and get the news article updated. Will save a lot of time of the Ford Service Advisors.

I can confirm this news. I had always felt the tyre noice inside the cabin in my Figo (1.5D Titanium). Being my first diesel car, I thought this was common and never gave it much thought. The sound was quite annoying on the highways, especially if I wasn't playing any music.

Recently I started feeling some rattling noice while idling and wanted to get it checked. I also thought I would get my wheel alignment done since it had been a while and I was planning a trip soon.

So, on Thursday, 17th Aug I took the car to Cauvery ford in Bangalore. I explained the SA about the issue and he joined me on a quick ride to check the issue. While in the car, the gentleman explained to me that the rattling noice was from the headlamp and that it was a common complaint. He said he'll get it fixed. I also mentioned to him that the noice in the cabin was more at high speeds. We tried to find a long stretch and to our luck found one and gave it a go. Immediately, he said there is noice from the tyre and needs to be examined. We bought the car back to the service centre and I went on my way after requesting them to get the tyre issue checked.

Normally, I would get back the car on the same day after the service. This time, however, I didn't hear from them. I tried calling them up by 6:30 PM and no one answered. The next day, I called the SA and he said they had to keep the car as he had not received a reply from Ford yet on the issue with the Tyre - Apparently they have to send an email to ford about these kind of complaints and shall have to wait for their reply.

By evening, the SA called me back and said that they had received a reply from Ford and that they had instructed them to interchange the tyres and check for the noice. Itseems, even after that the noice was still there. So he said, he had mailed ford back again informing them of this.

The next day (that is, today), I received a call and the SA told me that Ford had agreed to change the Tyres on warranty. By this time I was aware of this thread and I asked for a change to Michelin XM2 tyres. He said, Ford had specifically given only 2 options to them - it shall be either Bridgestone or Apollo. I went for Bridgestones.

As I had clocked 10k+ on my car, they asked me to pay 25% of the total amount. The amount came up to Rs.5745. They didn't change the stepney tyre though, even when I insisted that they should.

It was raining heavily today I was not able to check the post tyre-change ride quality. Although the cabin noice had significantly reduced. It could also be because of the fixed headlamp clutter.

Will keep you guys posted.

My tyres were replaced under warranty to Michelin XM2s for Rs.5100 at 14,443 on the Odometer.

Details in my ownership thread:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ml#post4256344

I was told that anything over 10 k would cost the customer 25% of the cost; over 20 - 50%, and so on. If you are under 10k it would probably be free but that might be an unlikely situation as most would have run more in 18 months. But we don't know when they stopped delivering cars with MRFs.

My concern is that I don't know what the issue with the tyres were. It's highly unlikely that Ford is bearing the cost just for noisy tyres. Good on them if they are.

But I have a doubt that there must be some other major problem with them. I have first hand experience of them not gripping the road and crashing into a pole. Looks very likely that the MRFs were the culprits there. Sadly we will never know.

PS: I was told to choose between Apollo Alnacs, Bridgestone B290, and Michelin XM2.

this is a very good move from a consumer confidence stand point form Ford. the first time I have heard anyone doing like this, so kudos to them.

Can anyone mention which variant of MRF tyres are being replaced? Will probably help others to stay away from such tyres.

Well you make a good point. Though they may be replacing the tyres of most customers who complain of road noise, Ford must be aware of one or 2 batches of MRF shod vehicles which have poor quality tyres on them. Since they cannot track them down, they are going with the replace for any complaints of MRF tyres approach. Customer is the beneficiary in the end which is a good thing.

Good they have the XM2 in the list. The other 2 are just average and would not be a worthy replacement unless they were free.