[ashvek3141]

Hello guys,

I need a help with an issue that I am facing with regards to the Yoko Earth-1 tyre which faced a sidewall crack.

This happened in the evening while returning from my work. On a well tarred highway I was doing about 60-70 kmph-ish, that’s when suddenly the car started pulling towards left. I immediately pulled it to the side of the road and noticed that there was a flat.
I got the tyre changed first & on observing closely I found that the sidewall has cracked!!

I drove back home & following day immediately called up my dealer, to which he replied that the Yoko Earth-1 tyres have unconditional warranty & that it’ll be replaced under the same. He also mentioned that I may have to pay some nominal amount on pro-rata basis as I had used them for close to 9000 kms. He asked me to send him the pics over WhatsApp, to which I obliged.

This happened on the 4th May 2021; unfortunately, 2 days later my city went into a lockdown of 3 weeks. Only essentials were allowed to function for half day.

Today when I called him up, he mentioned to me that the complaint has already been raised & he shared the number of the Yoko representative for Goa, just to follow up from my side too so that the claim is processes faster.

But to my surprise, when I called up the rep, he blatantly denied the claim saying that sidewall cuts are not covered under the warranty.
I told him that this is not what the dealer has told me & that this tyre definitely has an unconditional warranty. But he didn’t budge.

I called back the dealer, and he too is denying the claim now saying that there was some misunderstanding & that they have commenced the unconditional warranty only 2 months after I purchased the tyre.

I purchased the tyre on 7th July 2020 & it’s not even a year! Moreover the MY of the tyre is 2519. I had initially refused to accept this lot pf tyre saying that they were already a year old. However, he assured me that there is no issue with a year old tyre & that they work perfectly fine.

I don’t understand how to go ahead with this now? Has anyone faced a similar issue with regards to sidewall cracking of Yoko tyres?

Infact, I went in for the Earth-1 on the dealers advise & also on the positive revkews on this page, that they are solid tyre especially designed for India with stronger sidewalls.

My car is rendered useless for over three weeks now as the tyre spec is a mismatch. Three tyres are 17” whereas the stepny is a 16 inchers.

Could you’ll please share your thoughts on this as to how should I take this forward now?

[Artyom]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

Hello guys,

Could you’ll please share your thoughts on this as to how should I take this forward now?

I would suggest starting off with:-

1.Check the Yokohama India website and see for yourself whats the warranty offered by the company in the first place. That should clear your doubt. Check the warranty card also to see if it does mention the terms and conditions.

2. If the site claims that the warranty is applicable then send an email to the support email address given on the website with a clear picture of the warranty card and the bill along with the issue and I am hopeful you should get a response. Yokohama is selling its tyres as a premium product as far as I know and hence should offer some premium customer service also

[nirmaljusdoit]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

H
I don’t understand how to go ahead with this now? Has anyone faced a similar issue with regards to sidewall cracking of Yoko tyres?

Infact, I went in for the Earth-1 on the dealers advise & also on the positive revkews on this page, that they are solid tyre especially designed for India with stronger sidewalls.

I have faced two sidewall damages on the Earth -1 tyre, both time on the highway and both after going into deep potholes. I didn’t pursue any claims as i fully well knew it was due to road conditions.

Sidewall damage is a grey area, you may have gone into a pothole and sustained some previous abrasion or micro tear at that point which you might not have noticed. Tyre warranty is again manufacturer dependent and at their discretion. Considering Indian road conditions I sympathise with the manufacturer as most of the times issues are with our roads rather than the tyres.

Earth -1 tyres seem to be directed more at the value conscious end of the market, built to a price and competing with regular Janata tyres from other brands and from my experience they get hard and very noisy after a few years (2~3) They are however long lasting.
From my experience the tyre starts deteriorating fast and ride quality goes downhill. High speed braking and wet braking also got poor. Initial performance is very good but that doesn’t last.

[ashvek3141]

Thanks for your quick responses guys.

Originally Posted by Artyom

I would suggest starting off with:-

1.Check the Yokohama India website and see for yourself whats the warranty offered by the company in the first place. That should clear your doubt. Check the warranty card also to see if it does mention the terms and conditions.

Hi Artyom, I had already gone through the warranty policy on their website & here I am attaching 2 key excerpts.





Here they say that all Yoko tyres are covered under the unconditional warranty; however specifically for the E400 series which is the Earth-1 it is applicable for MY 3519 onwards.
But in my case the tyre has a MY of 2519 even though I had purchased the tyre in July 2020! How do I deal with this now?

I had very clearly mentioned to the dealer to give me 2020 manufactured tyre; however, as any tyre dealer usually mentions that ‘a year old tyre is just as good as new’ and has absolutely now issues. My dealer too said the same.
But seems like now there’s a catch in their warranty policy. But who is at fault here?
Isn’t the warranty considered from the date of sale? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Originally Posted by nirmaljusdoit

Earth -1 tyres seem to be directed more at the value conscious end of the market, built to a price and competing with regular Janata tyres from other brands and from my experience they get hard and very noisy after a few years (2~3) They are however long lasting.
From my experience the tyre starts deteriorating fast and ride quality goes downhill. High speed braking and wet braking also got poor. Initial performance is very good but that doesn’t last.

As a matter of fact, I was initially banking to go for the Blue Earth AE50 tyres by Yoko. However, reading about their softer sidewalls & also my dealer confirmed the same that these tyres do have sidewall cracking issue; he suggested me to opt for the Earth-1. Since the Earth-1 are more robust tyres and are suited for India road conditions.

And within 10 months, here I am with a cracked sidewall!

I agree about the noise part, but apart from that these tyres served me well for 10 months & ~ 9000 kms albeit 1 puncture.

[Artyom]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

Isn’t the warranty considered from the date of sale? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

I think you have a compelling case and should warrant the replacement.


The way I see it you should do this:-

1. Attach the Bill and specifically mention that you were told by the dealer that there will be an unconditional warranty on the tyres however he did not mention the code and specifics at the time of sale. And as such a customer won't know which code of product has X warranty and which code has Y warranty. As a buyer, you go by what the dealer goes.

2. Do you have any proof like WhatsApp message or anything which proves that the dealer changed his statement or lied to you?

3.Focus on the fact that the sale was done in July 2020 which calls for an 18 months warranty itself. Focus on the fact that you were not informed about this code stuff at the time of purchase and as such you feel cheated by the brand and tarnishes their image.

4. Try to call the surveyor and inform hi that when you bought the tyre this code thing was not informed to you and try to escalate it through him or through the website.

Making noise is the only way you are going to get something so make it count.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by Artyom

I think you have a compelling case and should warrant the replacement.


The way I see it you should do this:-

1. Attach the Bill and specifically mention that you were told by the dealer that there will be an unconditional warranty on the tyres however he did not mention the code and specifics at the time of sale. And as such a customer won't know which code of product has X warranty and which code has Y warranty. As a buyer, you go by what the dealer goes.

Very true. Infact, as I mentioned in my earlier post I went ahead with these tyres based on the dealer’s reccomendations too that these are much better than the AE50.
Also generally, noone goes to read a warranty policy in detail during any purchase. I pressume majority of the people don’t.

2. Do you have any proof like WhatsApp message or anything which proves that the dealer changed his statement or lied to you?

Unfortunately no. It was all in good faith until today; hence everything was verbal. My bad.

3.Focus on the fact that the sale was done in July 2020 which calls for an 18 months warranty itself. Focus on the fact that you were not informed about this code stuff at the time of purchase and as such you feel cheated by the brand and tarnishes their image.

4. Try to call the surveyor and inform hi that when you bought the tyre this code thing was not informed to you and try to escalate it through him or through the website.

Noted. I shall try to contact him tomorrow. Infact, the response from the surveyor too is not very confident inspiring. Looks like I will have to resort to an official email communication only.

Nonetheless, I shall try calling up the dealer & the surveyor tomorrow & see what they have to say about this.

[Ragul]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

I had very clearly mentioned to the dealer to give me 2020 manufactured tyre; however, as any tyre dealer usually mentions that ‘a year old tyre is just as good as new’ and has absolutely now issues. My dealer too said the same.
But seems like now there’s a catch in their warranty policy. But who is at fault here?
Isn’t the warranty considered from the date of sale? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

I agree about the noise part, but apart from that these tyres served me well for 10 months & ~ 9000 kms albeit 1 puncture.

As a buyer one should learn to read tyre codes and make the purchase conditional on the MY. The dealer is free to sell older tyres to cabbie types or whoever is looking for a bargain discount - not my issue. But having said that I think you should pretend ignorance of this rule and just have a straight-faced conversation with your dealer conveying full expectations of a replacement.

My Yokos Geos are serving me for +90k kms over 10yrs now with just one mild puncture and a sidewall cut due to a sharp step corner inches from my regular parking spot.

[Aditya]

Sidewall crack appears on Yokohama Earth-1 within 1 year; company says not covered under warranty - Posts moved to a new thread.

[neil.jericho]

ashvek3141, sorry to hear about your ordeal. Can you share some pictures of the damaged tire? That can help us understand how it failed.

Also, which is the dealer? At least if you name them, other readers will be aware of the ground realities.

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

Here they say that all Yoko tyres are covered under the unconditional warranty; however specifically for the E400 series which is the Earth-1 it is applicable for MY 3519 onwards.
But in my case the tyre has a MY of 2519 even though I had purchased the tyre in July 2020! How do I deal with this now?

I had very clearly mentioned to the dealer to give me 2020 manufactured tyre; however, as any tyre dealer usually mentions that ‘a year old tyre is just as good as new’ and has absolutely now issues. My dealer too said the same.

It appears as though your dealer might have forgotten that he sold you tires that were manufactured a short duration before the unconditional warranty kicked in. Hence he might have misspoken about your tire meeting the criteria for unconditional warranty.

Keep all communication on email and see if the company will support you. I dont think they will.

From the facts that you have presented, I would suggest that you just buy a replacement tire and move on. And unless you got a good deal on the year old tires, chalk it up to a lesson learnt.

[vrprabhu]

With Earth 1, I had similar experience as OP, which is posted here -

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-...ml#post4329585 (Yokohama Earth-1 Tyres (designed for India))

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-...ml#post4329694 (Sidewall cut in tubeless tyre - repair possible?)

In fact the Earth 1 thread has some similar experiences reported.

Ultimately, I got only a goodwill discount for the replacement tyre, and hence have to agree that -

Originally Posted by nirmaljusdoit

Sidewall damage is a grey area, you may have gone into a pothole and sustained some previous abrasion or micro tear at that point which you might not have noticed. Tyre warranty is again manufacturer dependent and at their discretion. Considering Indian road conditions I sympathise with the manufacturer as most of the times issues are with our roads rather than the tyres

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by ashvek3141

This happened in the evening while returning from my work. On a well tarred highway I was doing about 60-70 kmph-ish, that’s when suddenly the car started pulling towards left. I immediately pulled it to the side of the road and noticed that there was a flat.
I got the tyre changed first & on observing closely I found that the sidewall has cracked!!

There is a difference between a crack and a tear. The title suggests a crack with no external interference. Your claim suggests a manufacturing defect. There is a difference between a sidewall crack and sidewall damage.

Can you post some pictures of the damage to enlighten us?

[ike]

Tyre warranties are very dodgy and difficult to enforce, unless it is unconditional. I always think it might be more convenient and practical to get the tyres insured by opting for an add on for the tyres. I have no experience with both processes (*touches wood frantically*) but somehow feel insurance might be easier to deal with. As far as Ashvek's case is concerned, it is the dealer who mentioned to him that the warranty is unconditional. If it turns out that it is not, isn't that the dealer's fault? If the warranty is not unconditional, it is very difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was a manufacturing defect.

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by Ragul

As a buyer one should learn to read tyre codes and make the purchase conditional on the MY. The dealer is free to sell older tyres to cabbie types or whoever is looking for a bargain discount - not my issue. But having said that I think you should pretend ignorance of this rule and just have a straight-faced conversation with your dealer conveying full expectations of a replacement.

I fully agree Ragul and hence I was insisting on Y2020 manufactured tires with the dealer. However, going by the inputs from the Yokohama tires thread here which also includes the inputs from some of the experts in this field too; which say that a year old manufactured tires are absolutely OK. There are a few posts which say that even 2 year old stock tires are OK to use as long as they are stored in good condition!
Hence, I went ahead with the purchase.

Also, the dealer didn't have new stock of the tires during that time as it is supposedly an odd size. Not sure if the dealer was speaking the truth that point in time.

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

Also, which is the dealer? At least if you name them, other readers will be aware of the ground realities.

The dealer is an 'authorized' Yokohama dealer in South Goa, Rodricks Tyres. Infact, I travelled 50-55 kms all the way from my place to get the tires solely based on positive reviews about him. Alas!

It appears as though your dealer might have forgotten that he sold you tires that were manufactured a short duration before the unconditional warranty kicked in. Hence he might have misspoken about your tire meeting the criteria for unconditional warranty.

Maybe yes. But then who is to be blamed for this kinda miscommunication? Infact, the dealer advised me to go in for the Earth-1 since they're very robust tires and come under the unconditional warranty program.

Originally Posted by ike

As far as Ashvek's case is concerned, it is the dealer who mentioned to him that the warranty is unconditional. If it turns out that it is not, isn't that the dealer's fault? If the warranty is not unconditional, it is very difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was a manufacturing defect.

I spoke to the Dealer and the Yokohama Rep separately, and both mentioned to me that the issue has been escalated to the senior team and their looking into the case.

The dealer mentioned that due to lockdown the Yoko team is working with reduced manpower and hence I'll have to wait for 2-3 days to get an update.

This is probably the last time I am taking his word on this. I haven't yet written an official mail to Yokohama as this is still under discussion and the dealer said he is looking into the same.

Seems like patience is the key here in the current scenario. I have already waited for around 4 weeks (due to the lockdown); might's well wait for another 2-3 days.

On a side note, I mentioned to the dealer that my car is lying idle for over 4 weeks now and no way I am using it with mismatched tire specs; to which his response was.. "Why don't you patch the sidewall and use it for a few days?"
Frankly speaking, I was short of words beyond this.

[Swaroop Gowda]

Can you post a picture of the damaged part of the tyre? I have also been denied of the claim for the sidewall bulge on the stock goodyear assurance triplemax tyres on my polo gt. The representatives from the tyre company are paid only to reject the claims or offer a negligible discount on new tyre if the customer doesn’t give up easily.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by Swaroop Gowda

...claim for the sidewall bulge on the stock goodyear assurance triplemax tyres...

I understand Goodyear offers a 2-year unconditional replacement warranty for their Assurance Triplemax brand of tyres, for any kind of damage - including sidewall cuts & bulges.