Red66GT

I put a set of 245/40 18 Riken Raptor's on the front of my W210 about 1500 miles ago. Today getting on the freeway.....BANG! I thought I hit some road debris and I was just hearing it bounce off the fender apron under the car. I turned off the radio and continued down the freeway....listening. About a mile down the road, the car started pulling to the left so I knew I was losing air so I immediately pulled over. Luckilly no rim damage to my Lorinser wheels, but the fender was not so lucky.

Looks like the sidewall (towards the car, not the outer sidewall) ended up blowing out. Anyone had these tires and had a similar experience? They werent too expensive ($86 ea) so that's why I gave them a shot. And they are made by BFGoodrich so I figured they were a good tire. There is no damage anywhere in the tread, and I know that I didnt hit any debris because I didnt see any....happened in broad daylight.

I bought them at Summit Racing and had them mounted at a tire shop. So, where should I take the tire? I looked it up on Summit's website and it says they have a 6 year warranty.

Guess I'll have to put in an insurance claim for the fender. Think it can be repaired and not replaced, or maybe I just want to have it replaced. Thoughts? What is really weird is if you look in the pic of the fender, you can see where the dirt on the fenderlip is rubbed off....that is from the tire! ?? There is also rubber rubbed onto that entire section of the fenderlip. ????

MB Fanatic

You should buy some better tires in the future. Sorry to hear your misfortune, and no your car is not cursed.

suicidal4life

Are they rubbing on the upper ball joint nut? I have 245 19" BFG's and mine are pretty close to that nut. If your offset is too far in that could be a potential cause.

ejsheltra

I agree with S4L. Check for rubber or burnishing on the upper ball joint. On a 245 x 18 tire with a 35 backspace you will have only about a quarter inch of clearance with that bolt end. It looks likes that might be your culprit. check now on the other front wheel to see if you are about to encounter the same thing. good luck.

Red66GT

Checked the other front tire and it looks perfect...no rub marks.

Checked the ball joint on the driver's side and I see no evidence of the tire rubbing the nut or anywhere. I think this is a clear cut case of tire construction failure. The tread and outer sidewall are perfect.....not a single chunk missing anywhere.

Red66GT

So, I called Summit Racing where I bought the tires and they said I need to call Michelin (the mfgr) because they are not set up to deal with this type of thing. Ok. So I call Michelin and they give me a list of local Michelin dealers that I can take the tire to and have them inspect it. So, I do that. The guy spends like 20 minutes going over every inch of the tire and says "looks like it was low on air, heated up the sidewall and it blew". I told him there's no way that happened because when a tire is that low on air you can feel the car pulling to that side...been there before. It didnt pull and I told him how violent the "explosion" was when it blew and thought if it was low on air, it wouldnt sound like that. Am I wrong here?

So basically there was no evidence anywhere on the tire to point towards any road debris causing it. No holes, etc, and all of the tread was intact. The tire guy agreed and said "it may be a defect". So, he calls Michelin and tells the guy that he does not see any damage to indicate something was wrong, so it's possible it was a defect.

Then he hands me the phone "the Michelin guy wants to talk to you". Ok. So, the Michelin rep proceeds to tell me "after talking to Bryan it seems that it wasnt due to tire defect, but in good faith we are willing to buy you a new tire". I'm thinking to myself.....was this guy even listening to the same conversation I was? I told him that's not gonna do....that the tire guy that Michelin told me to take it to just basically came to the conclusion that he couldnt find anything to indicate anything other than defect (although he didnt come right out and say that...that's what was indicated). So, now Michelin is sending me some paperwork, and I assume I'll have to send them the tire to do their "investigation". Unvelievable.

Am I missing something here?

Pretty please....LUKE!....chime in.

I'm not lookin for a handout and trying to get my car fixed where I dont have to pay. I have insurance, so I could just turn in a claim and eat my deductible. But....it seems the tire was defective? Professional advice please!!!

Goatkart

just wanted to toss this out.... i was running the same spec tire you were 245/40/18 riken raptor...

yesterday i had the EXACT same failure in my tire.....

i had only 10k miles on the tire when it blew out....

the tire was up to pressure as i had checked it with in the last couple days, and rechecked the three good ones with a separate gauge the day this happened to verify...




so, this may not be as isolated as one thinks...

Red66GT

Thanks for the post! Did you hit any road debris, or did the tire just blow?

Did the tire cause any damage to your car?

I have received my paperwork from Michelin and will be getting everything together to ship the tire to them. Fingers crossed......

Will you be contacting Michelin as well?

Goatkart

no debris no nothing.... i was just taking the corner nice and smooth, no frills, 65mph, suddenly the rear of the car start feeling soft...

then it felt REALLY REALLY soft....

slowed down pulled it over... and proceeded to curse etc...



i haven't decided what to do as of yet.... currently i just want the other three off my car... last thing i need is a repeat performance on the front end....


either way, after finding your thread i've been in debate of what to do, pursue with Michelin or just move on and get new tires...

only happened yesterday, so i havent had a whole lot of time to deal with any of it yet....


the other problem is, since i have 10k miles on them already, replacing just 1 tire, isnt much of an option either.... half tread on some, full tread on one.... just doesnt sound like a great idea...

Red66GT

I had these tires on the front and Kumhos on the back. I bought the matching Kumhos for the front and will try to get them to pay for them. Not sure what will happen, but it cant hurt to try. When I called them, they did offer to replace the tire, so you might want to try as well......

Red66GT

Also, can you see if there is any damage to the inside of the other sidewall? Mine looks perfect, so that's how I know the tire was not low before it went.....

Goatkart

mine looked good (inspected immediatly)

no indications anything was wrong... until whooom dead tire

Goatkart

im thinking ill get the dunlop direzza sports to replace all four at this point...


saw them recommended by luke(tire rack rep) figured couldnt go wrong there.... nice soft compound, etc...

ch4rlie

i never trust a cheap tire

Runninrebel211

yeah never trust a cheap tire. Let us know what happens with Michelin. You should get the other 3 changed as well or at least dismounted and inspected.

It happens with expensive tires too. My moms S class just got Bridgestone Serenity's put on last month. The car sat for a month and started being driven last week. Car was shaking horribly. So I thought flat spot...kept driving it for a few days...same thing...and you hear a whup whup whup as you drove. Car was just aligned too. Took it back to Wheel Works and it turns out it was a defective tire. It wouldnt even rebalance. Kept bouncing up and down on the machine so they had to dismount and remount it. Waiting for the new tire to come up cause of the messed up holiday shipping stuff. So even good tires that cost $175 can go bad.

Red66GT

I only had 2 of these on the front. I have purchased 2 Kumho's (to match my rears). The paperwork from michelin says I need to send them the tire, A recepit for the shipment of the tire, 2 estimates for vehicle damage, receipt for tire replacement, and they will determine if they are liable and what they will reimburse me for. So I guess I'm at the mercy of them. I will post updates as they become available.

I think I will send them a picture of goatkart's tire as well (not a copy of this thread, but rather a pic of the tire along with the info....)

Red66GT

Update: I sent the tire to Michelin along with the paperwork which included 2 estimates for around $1000. Fingers crossed!

Goatkart: Are you sending yours in as well?

Red66GT

Update: Well I received my letter from their investigation that took them one day it seems to turn around. And as I suspected they denied my claim. They called the tire condition "runflat" basically stating that my tire was running low on air. I know this is total BS for 2 reasons:

1) When a tire is getting low, the car will pull to that side
2) When a tire has a runflat condition, the inside of BOTH sidewalls will have blistering

My car was not pulling to one side. And, the sidewall that stayed intact had no damage or blistering whatsoever! Even the Michelin dealer that took the tire off the rim and inspected it first said the same thing...."I dont see any evidence that points to this tire being run low on air". Quote from the manager of the tire store that Michelin told me to take it to.

I have 30 days to respond to this letter. I have pictures of the tire (including the undamaged inner sidewall). Help out please!

sfclk

hope all ends well.

now, i REALLY want to replace my "nexen" tires.

SamCarrie

Hey, i was just wondering if i can get some more information from you on what happened and who you got in touch with, i was on the highway and the EXACT same thing happened to me, i have about 30 pictures taken as well and everything that you described happened to us, and we had just taken it in to get the tires balanced and rotated about 4 days ago... so the conclusion of low air is completely out. If possible write us back as we would like to go after someone for this issue as people can be getting killed, and obviously theres more then one case.

Red66GT

Well basically, I was just getting on the freeway and once I got up to speed (65mph) BANG! The inside sidewall disintegrated. The other sidewall is completely intact, so I am not buying their conclusion of a "run flat" condition. I did respond to their letter with my reasoning as to why they seem incorrect. Havent heard back yet.

I just contacted Michelin and talked to a rep in their warranty department. They will tell you to take it to a local Michelin dealer first for inspection, and then tell you it's not their fault. Once you go through this, tell them you want to ship the tire to them. They will reimburse you for shipping. Maybe if enough people send their blowouts to them, they will take action.

Post up pics and the story of your blowout on here so we can see it.....

Keep us posted.

RedG

Riken's are perfectly fine tires, and subject to no more failures than any other Michelin product.

Just because it isn't damaged on both sides doesn't mean it wasn't runflat. You should have that tire store manager actually call michelin and get a goodwill credit for you, thats what I'd do for you. Though I should stress that just because it fails on one side only or only has evidence of damage on one side only doesn't mean it wasn't low on air.

RedG

Michelin is the most proactive of any tire manufacturer, by far. I just saw a industry wide recall (given to all tire dealers) about only 600 Michelin tires that had been simply mislabeled for their date code.

Also if you both have W210s maybe you BOTH should size down to a 235/40-18 some mercedes have REALLY bad fitment issues, and even if the sizes listed (even on TireRack) are listed as fitting you may still run into issues (all respect to Luke and TireRack). But sometimes even they don't know what exactly fits, nor do they control what wheels you put what tires on.

Check your tires again, I'd bet they are rubbing and that is what is causing it.

moparrbust

Why is it that people will buy expensive cars and most put expensive rims on those cars..........and then put the cheapest off brand(that most have never heard of) tires on those cars/rims and never think twice about it? The tires are one of the MOST important things on a car as they are what transfers your power and braking ability to the ground.

RedG

Riken is Michelin. Literally, they are old Michelin and BFGoodrich green tire molds that are still used. There is nothing cheap or knockoff about these particular tires. The other stuff out there like (Wanli) is something to give you a little more pause.