Tire Problem, advice Please!

Thanks Bob. We do have a pot hole issue in Bend OR and we're about $60M in arrears on road maintenance. In fact we're voting now on a 5 cent gas tax to fund additional road maintenance.

But I must note that I am extremely careful in my driving around to avoid the potholes... to the point that I find myself focusing on the road right in front of the car all the time and I'm creeping around the roundabouts steering around the pot holes. I don't recall any major pothole hits during those two months - and certainly not hitting 3 out of 4 tires. Now if those tires can't handle the small dips from missing pavement (i.e. an inch or so difference) that no one can avoid, then they aren't worth much as tires... certainly not close to $300 per tire.

Even if they replace all three at no cost to me this is a major concern as this could occur every winter unless I leave the car in the garage for 4 months of the year. I'm wondering if they have put substandard tires on a high end car?

John

John,
It is a real pity having to deal with potholes. You’re cruising along on a beautiful twisty back road on a sunny afternoon while you stare at the road looking for the stinking things. You glance up to look at the scenery and bam, gottcha. They also seem to hide in the shadows.
Potholes are at their peak around here in the late winter thru early summer. I didn’t mention it before, but I also have an alloy wheel with two dents on the inside rim. This condition doesn’t seem to have affected drivability. Everything considered, I would rather replace the tires than the wheels or suspension components. The tires are going to wear out sooner or later anyway. At least I don’t have to worry about driving on bald tires.
I kind of remember that you got your car thru a broker. Is it possible that the tire damage occurred before you took possession of the car? Your 3 tire problems could have been caused by 2 potholes. Based on my experiences the only way you will realize that you have blisters is by seeing them. They don’t seem to affect drivability, at least until they blow. I don’t think that you have bad quality tires. A lot of high performance tires have very thin sidewalls. Blame the popularity of huge wheels with rubber bands pretending to be tires.
Bob

When I was looking for replacement tires for my convertible daily driver 5 years ago I did tons of research and it seemed that a whole lot of people complained about blisters using almost any brand of 205/50ZR17 tire. As a matter of fact when I bought the car it was 8 years old with only 11,000 miles and every tire on it had at least 2 visible blisters some fairly large. Needless to say I didn’t take any high speed trips until I replaced the hardly worn Continental Contact tires that were original equipment on the car. So maybe there is something about Continental tires. Contis were a major offender in user comments regarding blistering. But I decided to take a chance on the Conti DWSs because they were quiet, important in a convertible, had the Conti warranty and cost hundreds less than comparably rated tires. In hindsight that may have been a bad choice but I’m in it now and like I said I don’t have to worry about worn tires.
All I know is that I’m generally a Michelin Man. I even look like Bib.

I don’t know if there is any data to back up my observations over the last 55 years but in my opinion the tires that come mounted on a new car don’t hold up as well as the exact same replacement tires mounted on the same car.

cableguy said:

Makes one wonder why Audi chose this tire.....

Click to expand...

I'm sure price played a role and maybe nationalism.

BTW: I wouldn't give up on the damaged before ownership aspect.

I missed most of this chat - but will throw in my 2 cents anyway. With wheel diameters getting larger and profiles getting smaller, even improved technologies (and we have many) are hardly keeping pace with the laws of physics. Many roads have potholes, frost heaves or other road imperfections (even the 1/2" metal bridge plates) that can wreak havoc on low profile side walls these days, at 30-50 mph. We just blunder over them without a thought and then discover the damage later, after long forgetting running into or over a palpalble road hazard. What used to be easy peasy for tires to run over, nowadays can destroy them easily. Most of us (especially ol' folks like me) have just not caught up with this fact and way of the future. We should count NOT on the tire manufacturers to always warrant them - but be plenty grateful when/if they do - but rather, be aware and careful. Remember, they (tire manufacturers) can always opt out of coverage thru their hazard clauses - and many do...

Roger, your point about being cautious is great and I agree. However, I'm concerned that you are also saying that the combination of tire size and technology limitations has resulted in Audi (and others) selling a product that is prone to damage under what is today all too normal driving conditions. I'm left thinking that there should be a warning during the purchase process to advise customers that do not live in a land full of buttery smooth roads with no imperfections. In my case, in Bend I have to drive with a major focus on avoiding all types of potholes from small to large and believe me this is a task I focus on with considerable effort every time I get in my Q3. I would not expect a manufacturer to warrant a tire against the damage caused by a major pot hole. However I would also not expect to be sold a very expensive wheel/tire size combo that is not made to handle smaller, unavoidable bumps without being given adequate information and options at the point of sale. I continue to believe that I received several defective tires but I will never know for sure....

Thanks for the article - good info. There was a letter to the editor of our local rag today from a guy whose wife was one of a number of cars to hit a pothole (on a major east/west street in town) that he says was 1 1/2 foot deep and 4 ft long. He said they had $2800 damage the car and the city of Bend insurance would not accept the claim. An earlier article had said car owners should contact the city for damage reimbursement from potholes....didn't work for this guy.

Thankfully I have been able to avoid the holes all winter. The potholes really got bad AFTER I put on my winter Blizzaks...yet note that there are no bubbles on the Blizzaks like there were on the Continentals. While I have not hit any large potholes with the Blizzaks either, they have definitely traveled generally rougher roads due to snow and ice events. I applaud Continental for replacing the 3 tires!