[iraghava]

Since I give the company & it's products bouquets & compliments when they are doing good, I guess it's right on my part to also give them the brickbats when needed.

The story is, I fitted on a new set of PP1's in 185/60 R14 size on to my car a few months back. Since then the car is being driven sparingly & has covered about 7k kms. of additional mileage. In the meanwhile the tyres have one by one developed bulges & as a result all 4 new tyres on the car now have badly bulging sidewalls.

Yesterday, representatives of Michelin India inspected the tyres & after a lot of haggling have agreed to consider the case. Initially they had refused to even entertain a claim despite the fact that the complete set of new tyres has bulges. If it was 1 or 2 tyres I could understand but the whole set is slightly hard to digest. That too the car having done very little additional mileage since these tyres were fitted.

An interesting fact that I pointed out to them too is that out of the previous two sets of tyres, Michelin Energy XM1 in 185/65 R14 (fitted when the suspension was in a bad shape) & Pilot Preceda 1 in 195/60 R14 had only one tyre which developed a similar fault and too happened only towards the end of the life of the tyre. So why does this set develop a problem in all 4 tyres? To this they had no logical explanation.

Now the official line is that they are considering the case & I'll get to hear from them on Monday as to whether they will be honouring any warranty or not. Will post some pictures of the tyres later in the evening.

[suman]

That's shocking. I've often wondered about the "warranty" for tyres & unfortunately, there is no sure shot way of ensuring a warranty replacment without having to raise the roof. Most times, when push comes to shove, they are all busy looking for excuses, the simplest one for uneven wear being that alignment was not done on time or at the right place. In your case, with all 4 having developed bulges its going to be a tough one for them.

Good luck & keep us posted.

EDIT: The Michelin Office is in the same building that we've moved to now, so let me know in case you come here!

[finneyp]

Oops, very surprising to happen on Michelin tyres!

Hope the Company acknowledges the defect & promptly replaces all 4 tires!

[crazydiablo]

Shocking to say the least. PP2 are their premium product and if this is the case there there is definitely some issue. Keep us posted.

[suman]

Originally Posted by crazydiablo

PP2 are their premium product and if this is the case there there is definitely some issue. Keep us posted.

Errr, Ishan has PP1...

[ajmat]

Have the wheels been subjects to impacts on potholes. Thats how bulges normally appear

[shuvd]

Yeh kya!!! Tire bhagwaan stuck with bad rubber? All the best for Monday!

[WasavaTyres]

You're lucky they even agreed to 'consider' But I seriously doubt if they would agree to any kind of a replacement. I know a case of one customer who'd fit a set of four 235/75/R15 LTX and had covered about 800 odd kilometers on bad roads resulting in sidewall bulges. No amount of haggling,coaxing and threats on part of the customer worked. Th michelin service engineer had just one line "hamare tyres mein manufacturing defects aata hi nahi hai" and asked the dealer to deal with it at his end. It finally ended if I remember well with the dealer being offered a 10% discount on fresh billing of the same tires,with Michelin making it clear that they're doing it just as a goodwill gesture and not out of anything to do with the claim filed by consumer,and the poor guy having to bear another 40% at his end to give the customer new tires at 50% discount.

[Ricky_63]

It is ridiculous to say the least. How can the company NOT entertain your complaint ? Tyre bulges & that too on all 4, is certainly a problem.

This inspite of your knowledge of tyres & knowing the trade !! I think they will end up replacing them with 50% deduction for the new ones. That's what they (Goodyear) did for my Octavia's tyres.

All the best & keep us posted. Hope the issue is resolved at the earliest & reasonably!!

[Knight Rider]

I also had a similar experience, That was with potenzas, someone sold me tyres that were made on 2001 considering the fact that My car was only manufactured on 2004 -

Which makes me ask - When were the tyres made?

[undead]

djay too had some problems with Pilot Preceda1 195/60 R14 tires when he fitted it for his Getz CRDi and later changed it to Maxxis.

[iraghava]

Originally Posted by suman

I've often wondered about the "warranty" for tyres & unfortunately, there is no sure shot way of ensuring a warranty replacment without having to raise the roof. Most times, when push comes to shove, they are all busy looking for excuses, the simplest one for uneven wear being that alignment was not done on time or at the right place. In your case, with all 4 having developed bulges its going to be a tough one for them.

Good luck & keep us posted.

EDIT: The Michelin Office is in the same building that we've moved to now, so let me know in case you come here!

The warranty is nowadays pretty much redundant. By the company chap's own admittance, the warranty claims entertained are below 1% of the total claims lodged.

And a visit might be on, will keep you posted. Didn't know you guys are in the same building!! I had even mentioned this to the guy that my friend's office has shifted in the same area too!

Originally Posted by ajmat

Have the wheels been subjects to impacts on potholes. Thats how bulges normally appear

Yes, there have been quite a few impacts but the roads are the same ones on which the old sets did just fine. I don't see any change in any other variables apart from the tyres.

One or two I would not have bothered with but all 4 is hard to digest. Not to mention a 'phatka' of 15-16k to my wallet.

Also, upon taking off all 4 tyres & inspecting, not one has a cut on the inner portion of the sidewall which is the normal cause of sidewall bulge. Though they have listed the cause as 'Pin Shock' actual impact marks/cuts are not there on tyres.

Originally Posted by WasavaTyres

You're lucky they even agreed to 'consider' But I seriously doubt if they would agree to any kind of a replacement.

Originally Posted by Ricky_63

It is ridiculous to say the least. How can the company NOT entertain your complaint ? Tyre bulges & that too on all 4, is certainly a problem.

Ricky like WT has mentioned above they DO NOT entertain claims. The only reason they're considering my case is because they could not explain the problem to me (we had a long argument) and also they realised that trying to give me some bull**** logic was not going to work as I could go into the technical side of things if required.

Originally Posted by Knight Rider

Which makes me ask - When were the tyres made?

They are '06 manufactured.

[simply_sunny001]

Originally Posted by iraghava

One or two I would not have bothered with but all 4 is hard to digest. Not to mention a 'phatka' of 15-16k to my wallet.

Dont worry that not going to happen,instead they will honor the warranty otherwise they will have zor ka zhatka.

One more thing,its kind of very surprising to see our in-house tyre god struck with 4 lemons.

Keep us posted.

[muneemmk]

this is simply hilarious of all the 30,000+ people teambhp , our official tyre guru is stuck with lemon tyres. sad sad day in Bhaiyyalan.

[lancer_rit]

Hope they replace the tyres under warranty. As you said, they can't pinpoint any cuts etc on the tyres - then on what grounds can they deny the warranty ? Normally, bad roads etc causing cuts, holes etc is the reason by which they establish this is not a warranty problem. You need to insist on what is their official criteria for evaluating warranty cases - probably insist on showing you written criteria - it can't be subjective for a MNC like Michelin ?

Best of luck