[Aditya]

Thanks to Argho Sen for sending this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP page!

Terrible Experience with Nexen Tyres

Background

I recently returned from a driving holiday. We spent 6 days driving to various destinations. The itenary was Chennai - Yelagiri - Srirangapatnam - Virajpet - Bangalore - Chennai. We did an overnight stop at every location, except Virajpet, where we stayed for four days.

I have a Hyundai Tucson AT GLS (2017) model. The vehicle had done only 11,000 km. It was still on OE Nexen tyres. Prior to starting off, I did all the usual preparations - tyre pressure, fuel, fluids, etc.

Danger Signs

Mid way through the holiday, my car started pulling to the right. The pull was distinct. If I started from a halt, at slow speeds, without holding the steering wheel, it immediately turned to the right. I had never experienced this in my vehicle before.

My initial thought was that I either have a flat, or I have low tyre pressure. I kept checking my front right tyre. At Coorg, I got all my tyres inflated again to the right pressure. No luck - the behaviour continued.

The pull was distinct at low speeds, but at higher speeds, the car seemed to become stable. Therefore, I decided that either it’s a wheel alignment problem, or a suspension problem, which I would get fixed after I returned home.

Experience at the tyre shop

The day after I returned, I took my car to a tyre store to get the alignment checked. The technician, started fitting the alignment equipment to each wheel, when he suddenly stopped and called me over. He was at the front left tyre, and in his view the tyre had to be replaced, there was no point in doing the alignment.

I took a closer look. There were metal wires protruding from the tyre. Basically, the radial belt in the tyre had failed, and the steel wires were starting to protrude from the tyre.



I called the store owner over for a look and he confirmed that it was a complete tyre failure, and it needed to be replaced.



His views (do not know if correct or not):

1. Nexen are cheap Korean tyres and not of good quality.
2. Since Nexen is not present in India, there is no way to enforce any sort of warranty.

I took the decision to replace all 4 tyres, despite having done only 11,000 km. Tyres are crucial for vehicle safety, and since this is our primary family vehicle in which we do driving holidays, I did not want to take a chance. On our trip, I was regularly cruising at speeds above 100 km/h. If the tyre had failed at that speed, I would have had a catastrophic accident!

The dealer did not have the size (225/55 R18) in stock. Why, oh why, do OEMs choose strange tyre sizes. He promised to get them the next day. I drove home very gingerly at 20 km/h.

The next day, I drove back to the store, again at excruciatingly slow speeds. The dealer had managed to procure Bridgestone Turanza T001 tyres of the right size. When the vehicle was jacked up and all 4 tyres had been removed, the dealer and I had a close look. Clearly, all 4 tyres had failed – as in the internal radial belts had given way. The tread was uneven, and the tyres looked just plain strange.



The scary thing is, that this was not visible from external inspection when the tyres were mounted on the car. It was just sheer luck, that in one of the tyres, the belt wires had actually pierced the rubber and were protruding.

Final thoughts

I count myself, and my family as very lucky, to have returned home safely.
I am very disappointed with Hyundai. The Tucson is the most expensive vehicle I have ever purchased - almost Rs. 30 lacs. At this price point, I expect the manufacturer to provide a set of good quality tyres.

I had no experience with Nexen, but had naively assumed that since they are imported, they must be good! Well, I will never make that assumption again.

[varsin]

Hi Aditya, glad that you shared your experience about the Nexen tyres! I have a 2017 Tuscon with OEM tyres. My car has done 25000 km. I have also been experiencing the 'right side pull' that you mentioned in your post, though there are no visible damages in the tyres of my Tuscon.

I took my car to the local garage a few months back to get the alignment fixed. Despite wheel balancing and alignment, my car continues to pull to the right, so much so that i have to hold the steering wheel all the time.

The local mechanic has now advised me to get all the four tyres replaced soonest.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attac...1&d=1619753313

Please share your feedback of Bridgestone Turanzas.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by Aditya

I count myself, and my family as very lucky, to have returned home safely.
I am very disappointed with Hyundai. The Tucson is the most expensive vehicle I have ever purchased - almost Rs. 30 lacs. At this price point, I expect the manufacturer to provide a set of good quality tyres.

I had no experience with Nexen, but had naively assumed that since they are imported, they must be good! Well, I will never make that assumption again.

Did the person contact Hyundai Service centre at all in the episode ? I am a bit surprised that he changed 4 tyres outside without even trying to raise a complaint with Hyundai on his own cost ?
Anyways the condition of the tyres do look worrying and I am seeing this for the first time to be honest.

[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

I am a bit surprised that he changed 4 tyres outside without even trying to raise a complaint with Hyundai on his own cost ?

The company that didn’t care two hoots when several customers were facing braking issues in the 1st Gen Creta, what will they do if someone raises one such complaint like this?! Hyundai very well knew about the braking issues but did they help out those customers?

I suggest all Tucson owners switch from Nexen tyres as soon as possible.

[bharanidharang]

Originally Posted by CEF_Beasts

The company that didn’t care two hoots when several customers were facing braking issues in the 1st Gen Creta, what will they do if someone raises one such complaint like this?! Hyundai very well knew about the braking issues but did they help out those customers?

I suggest all Tucson owners switch from Nexen tyres as soon as possible.

I disagree on not raising a complaint. I do feel that we should raise a complaint where it is warranted. The company takes an action or not, is a different route to chase up but without feedback, we will always be taken for granted.

Happy that the owner did not wait and replaced the tires.

[absingh911]

Being a new Tucson (2020) owner, this is frightening! That said, when typically tyres give up unexpectedly or have uneven wear, I believe it makes sense to check the suspension as well. In my Fiat Punto 2009, an issue with a suspension ate up the front tyres very very quickly. I hope thats not the issue here.

[Storm2.0]

If the judicial system was in place, Hyundai should've been charged with attempt to murder.

[rahulskumar]

Same with Kumho tyres that is offered on i20 and Creta. I find them too hard and makes ride bumpier. You should raise a complaint and even tell them to check the suspension and damage to alloy wheel

[vishwasvr]

I’m using Nexen tires on my dad’s BMW 320d past few years. We have clocked approx 15000km and the tires have become really hard, compromising the ride quality. We got a good rate for the tires, hence decided to give it a try. I’ve noticed the tires are made of very hard compound so ride quality is poor.

[TheHelix0202]

For our Indian road conditions, choosing well known sets of Michelin's, Pirelli's, Bridgestone's etc., themselves would be quite tough for me. But something unheard of like Nexen? Nahh...would much prefer factory-shod MRF's that I'd trust enough to run me a decent 30,000 km. Or at least until the nearest tyre shop.

Heck, I'd even pick Hankooks's now, after using them for a while now on our Rapid.

[ADI7YAK]

Have had similar experience on my Kona's Nexen tyres. Three out of four tyres had bubbles or lumps in them after going through a moderate pothole impact. I believe it was a manufacturing defect. Kothari Hyundai Pune did give me tyres changed at no cost as a goodwill gesture though. The car was only a couple months old when this happened. Have driven about 20k km since then without issues.

[nekfar]

Had a somewhat similar experience with OE Nexen tyres (235/60 R18). But this is on 5 year old Hyundai Santa Fe that I had purchased in 2020.The car had done ~ 23000 km.

During one of my short drives out of Bombay in Oct 2020, noticed my car pulling towards the left on the Highway. Thought it must be a wheel alingment issue and would get it fixed once I am back home. When I took my car to wheel alingment centre in Andheri East, the technician called me to show that the front tyres had developed severe wearing on the outside edge. Moreover, the sidewalls were already showing the signs of cracks. He recommended replacement of these tyres (at least the front ones) at the earliest from safety perspective.

Promptly, went ahead and replaced all four wheels with Bridgstone Ecopia EP850 tyres. So far haven't faced any issues with the new set.

Perhaps, it was naive of me to think that the durablility of these imported OE Nexen Tyres would be longer.

[Rigid Rotor]

There are other posts by Tucson owners regarding premature failure of tyres. Some of the posts I could recall and trace in other threads are:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...ml#post4893084 (Hyundai Tucson : Official Review)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-...ml#post4446516 (Hyundai Tucson : Tyre & wheel upgrade thread)

There are two Tucson owners in this thread, each reporting problems with all four tyres of their respective vehicles.

Unless its a batch problem during manufacturing and all eight Nexen tyres were from defective batches (highly imporbable), its very difficult to assume that all these were one-off cases.

I suspect the problem may go deeper. Perhaps its a combination of not-so-strong sidewall of Nexen tyres combined with the low-ish aspect (225/55) of tyre size on the Tucson and our rough road conditions.

• The 55 aspect size in the Tucson gives a sidewall of about 124 mm.
• In comparison, the Creta SX with 17 inch 215/60 tyres have sidewall of 129 mm.
• The AWD Duster which is fairly capable off-road has 16 inch 215/65 tyres with sidewall of about 140 mm.
• Bear in mind that the Tucson also has a comparitively high kerb weight (around 1600 kg).
• Indian designed cars like Harrier and XUV 500 in similar kerb weight category of Tucson have appeared to have stayed clear of low aspect tyres and have aspects higher than 60, with consequent generous sidewalls.

There is a post in another linked thread about a Turanza tyre developing a sidewall crack within 100 km of replacement, in a Tucson. The problem may not be limited to Nexen tyres alone. It may be design inherent with the high wheel size of R-18 coupled with low aspect tyres.

Which brings me to this business of manufacturers designing crossovers advertised as "SUVs" with AWD, having large diameter wheels with low aspect tyres (that includes the Jeep Compass). These are inherently unsuited for their advertised SUV capabilities.

So, Tucson and Jeep Compass prospective owners - Caveat Emptor!

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by Aditya

Thanks to Argho Sen for sending this information in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP page!

The technician, started fitting the alignment equipment to each wheel, when he suddenly stopped and called me over.

I have had the same problem with a Continental tyre decades ago. The tyre was half worn. I saw it when I was putting them on the car in the spring. The steels cords were shwing on the inside of the tyre and the area around this was egg shaped. The tyre shop told me it was separation and he gave me a new tyre even though I did not buy the tyres there.

I have heard of the Nexen tyres. They are known to be cheap tyres but their snow tyres were amongst the best winter tyres last winter.

There is an Indian taxi driver complaing in youtube about the same problem with Apollo tyres.

[argho]

Hi Varsin.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Re-inforces the observation on Nexen tyres.

I have just got the Bridgestone Turanzas fitted. Havent done enough driving to be able to evaluate.