Eleven months ago bought all new tires, Continental ProContact OEM, from Discount Tire. On the W209 the rear tires are one size and the front another size, I bought the warranty with the tires. I have put around 2k miles on the tires since new and last Saturday noticed a bubble on the sidewall of the front passenger side tire. Called DT and took the car in, all the tires were inspected and told my tire would be covered under the warranty but it had to be ordered and would get a call this week letting me know when they received the tire. On Monday I just happened to be walking around the car and noticed the drivers front tire now had a similar bubble. Both bubbles are near where the tread and side meet, kind of on the edge of the tire. Called DT back and they are ordering an extra tire now so both will be replaced and I will have to pay the new warranty charge of about $50 for both tires.

I only drove the car home, about 2 miles, and was very careful to not hit any potholes after my first trip to DT. The car has been sitting, how did I get another bubble on the other front tire? Bad batch of tires maybe? Now I'm going to have to keep a close eye on the new tires, I don't trust any of them now. I have never had issues with defective tires before, especially two failing so closely together. Yes, we have potholes here but none that span the width of two tires. Anybody else have a problem with these tires? I guess it's a good thing my car has been in the shop for the last five months and not driven that much or I could have easily had a blowout and who knows what could have happened. Mike.

 

The bubble is caused when the inner layer of rubber of the tire ruptures but not the outer.
When the inner layer ruptures, air gets into the area between the two layers where the belts, fibers and other stiffening materials are sandwiched. It then pushes out on the outer layer, causing the bubble. It can be dangerous to drive on because the outer layer is not designed to gold the pressure of the air inside and will fail.

This is often cause by road impacts, but usually you see some sings of that on the tread or rim. If not, it could be a manufacturing defect. It probably does not matter what caused it as the end result will be a replacement covered either by road hazard or the manufacturer's warranty, and both are pro-rated.

 

I did buy the warranty from Discount Tire so the cost I will incur for a new replacement installed will be the cost of the new tire warranty which is $23 per tire. All four tires installed with warranty was around $1000. Glad I bought the warranty. I think low profile tires definitely have more issues and wear out faster, it's just that I have never had bubble problems before, especially on two tires at the same time.

 

Back in the very early 60's I lived in Denmark. My parents had a very nice Opel Kapitan with a straight 6 and 3 speed manual with a steering wheel shifter. The car was equipped with Michelin tires.

Shortly after purchasing the car we went on vacation in Germany. Going about 100 mph on the Autobahn we started hearing a rhythmic thump, thump, thump from one for the tires, and then suddenly BLAM when the thread separated. On with the spare tire and back on the autobahn and the thump, thump, thump, BLAM happened again. To make a long story short we we went through all 5 tires in a day.

The replacement tires, not Michelins, gave us no trouble.

 

I've been on the Autobahn, not a place you want a tire to blow, let alone 5!

Today I went to have the front tires replaced. The DT guy checked my other tires and on one of the rear tires he found a tear all of us, including two other DT tire guys, missed. The rear drivers side tire had a tear about 2-3" long, near the rim, he opened it up and could see the belts inside the tire. I could fit two, maybe three fingers in the hole. He said it looked like something had hit the tire from the side. It was covered under warranty and in stock so I left with 3 new tires. Cost was $75 for the new tire warranties. Glad I bought the warranty or it would have cost closer to $750.

Anker, I had problems with Michelins wearing out very quickly on this car so went with the Continentals. I won't ever buy Continentals again, or a car that uses low profile tires for that matter, but what better tire brands are available? Mike.

 

When I lived in Canada and owned a 2003 CLK, I had Continental tires and they were fine.

Since I moved to Lebanon, where potholes or more like trenches are everywhere and the roads are in pretty bad shape (worse than Detroit), I came to the realization that spending money on expensive tires is a waste.

I have since then opted for the Nexen N8000 and it's been a very reliable and performing tire. I'm still surprised how the tires don't have any sidewall bubbles after going through some potholes that made me feel like the shock absorber/rim broke in half.

They cost me here $90 each for the front and $100 each for the rear. I know they sell them in the US so maybe you want to check them out. Otherwise, with Michelin and Continental covered, you're looking at Pirellis, Yokohamas, or BF Goodrichs.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Just curious what you mean by "new warranty charge." Are you paying for the labor to mount the new tire? Or an additional charge for a new warranty?

Also, I have never had issues like you are describing with my Conti's. I have had a rock or something tear a gash in the tire and even though there was little tread left, I got a new tire for free and just had to pay the labor charge to mount it.

Best of luck to you.

 

Hi labguy - The $23 charge per replacement tire was for a new warranty on each tire, the original warranty I bought for each tire ended when the original tire was replaced. The good part about this is each replacement tire has the warranty start new. There was no charge for mounting, balancing, etc. The bad part is the $23 charge, but I'm more than ok with that considering the cost of these tires new. My car and our roads are hard on the best of tires, and I keep my suspension, alignment, and air pressure all maintained. I had previous sets of tires replaced at the dealership and while I never had these defect issues, I never got the normal life expectancy out of a set of tires on this car. By going to Discount Tire and buying the warranty versus the dealership, with both charging around $1000 for four new tires, I'm hoping to save money in the long run. As long as I don't get bubbles or tears every few months, lol.

 

Three of my four tires developed bubbles before 9000 miles on my 2016 S550. I do have the warranty, but more to the point, the inner walls can bubble as well, and these will not be obvious to the driver. This would appear to be a defect since it is so common, since these vehicles are heavy, and since they are driven under normal conditions on freeways, where even small bumps can be encountered at 75 mph resulting in large pressures on the sidewalls. If the low profile design is the issue they have no business putting them on these vehicles. If the manufacturing process is the issue, there should be a recall. How can we find out how many are being replaced and how many accidents have resulted.

 

In the UK there are such things as 'Freedom of Information' requests. The company would be obligated to provide a satisfactory response if the data could be found during a reasonable timeframe. I don't know if such a thing exists in the states.

 

Thank you for sharing this info. I have Conti DWS for 24 months now & 7k miles - no issues except passenger front tire blow out from a pot hole impact (going 30 mph)

 

That is one thing I like about Costco - their complete tire package is $15 ($18 if you have TPMS) each which includes road hazard, installation, and lifetime R&B. For a road hazard claim, they charge a pro-rated price for the replacement tire based on remaining tread. 10/32 is considered new, 2/32 is considered fully worn, so a tire has a life of 8/32 of tread. They take the current tread depth, subtract 2/32 and then divide by 8/32 to get the remaining percentage of tread. If for some reason they can't measure the tread (total blowout and loss) they use miles driven and then base the fraction on the tire's mileage warranty or tread life rating. The remaining tread life percentage is multiplied by the price of a new tire for your cost. They do not charge a new install or TPMS fee. Since you would now have a new tire, the warranty starts all over again with a full tread. However, they do limit it to 5 years total time.

Contrast this with Pep Boys. I needed tires on the kid's C240, so I shopped around and found I could get a set of Hankook Ventus at Pep Boys for right at $400, including road hazard. A week later, she "runs over something" and blows a tire. I told her to take it to Pep Boys - it's under warranty. She calls and says they want about $85 to replace the tire. I got on the phone with the store manager who said that was the prorated price of the tire, plus $15.49 for a new road hazard policy, plus $21.49 for installation, plus taxes and disposal fees. I was livid! I had only paid a total of $100 per tire with all that included to begin with. I expected their warranty to work like Costco. He referred me to their contract terms. On top of that, he didn't bother to see the tires were only a week old with less than 200 miles - he just looked at it and estimated the tread wear.

After more arguing and threats to complain to corporate, he agreed that since the tire was only a week old, he's do it for $10. I went ahead, but then wrote a letter to corporate. I got back an email with the terms of the road hazard warranty highlighted. They also mentioned that the tires weren't really $100 each, but that they were 3 for the price of 4 and then 10% of, so they really were more like $150 each. I can understand that on a $300 tire, this might be a good value, but not on a $100 tire. Besides that, I just did not like the attitude of the store manager or the corporate office. I'll stick to Costco. I could have gotten some nice Bridgestones there for about $500. It would have been worth it for eliminating the hassles of dealing with Pep Boys.

 

+1. Costco service is great and many times the prices are very good too. I usually buy my tires from a very close friend of mine that owns a shop out here in LA, but sometimes Costco runs very good deals so I always check them too.

 

My Mercedes dealer says they get a lot of bubbles on the COntinental tires( wen I complained).
Went to COSTCO for good price on Michelins--
but when wife hit gutter and ruined two tires-- tool COSTCO 2 weeks to get replacements.
Had to get quick replacements from my nearby tire dealer to be able to drive the car since I didnt want to drive around 2 weeks on temporary.
So, what will I do in future?

 

Yeah, Costco never had my CLK550 or CL550 tires sizes in stock, but it never took more than two days to get them. In fact, when shopping for tires on the SL550 a few months back, no one had them and many shops told me it would take weeks to get them special ordered. Costco had them in and installed in less than 48 hours.