[hunter81]

This needs its own thread since there are so many out there dealing with replacing these tires prematurely. I, unfortunately like many other people here, have dealt with the pleasure of replacing run-flats after hitting a pothole. I, again like many people here, made the mistake of going to the dealer only to find out there was "nothing they could do." I hit another pothole that caused bubbles on two tires on my right side. At this point I was so sick of spending money on this that I went to Goodyear since they are responsible for Dunlop's warranty in the States. They replaced both tires for free because their policy is there must be visible evidence that the tire was damaged by an impact. The same rigidity that makes run-flats such a pain to deal with and so susceptible to pothole damage also makes it very difficult to detect impact damage. I learned from my experience that impact damage is detectable on the interior walls of the tires' tread area. In conventional tires, this apparently is easily seen, but the rigid nature of run-flats makes it impossible to detect except for the most severe impacts. The people checked my tires in front of me and explained the process. From the conversation, they made it quite evident checking run-flats for impact damage is usually pretty fruitless. Long story short, I got two brand new tires for free that were actually more expensive than the factory ones. (Only ones they had on hand.) Wish I had known that a little sooner, but I'm still grateful I was able to get these two replaced for free. I also went ahead and got road hazard on them. I have no desire to mess with those kinds of unexpected expenses anymore.

 

[CarolinaQ50]

Thanks for the info!

 

[machmike]

FYI

All tires which are on your (new) car when delivered are not covered under the tire manufacturers warranty. Read the fine print. I had a great discussion with Bridgestone on this subject a few months ago. They person I talked to was fantastic to converse with. Although I was still irritated my 60k tires had to be replaced at 28k for my wife's SUV, they had some really solid arguments in the favor of the tire manufacturer.

You scored big time getting a free replacement on your stock set!

 

[hunter81]

No prob! No one should be having to deal with that on a new car! That's BS!

 

[hunter81]

FYI

All tires which are on your (new) car when delivered are not covered under the tire manufacturers warranty. Read the fine print. I had a great discussion with Bridgestone on this subject a few months ago. They person I talked to was fantastic to converse with. Although I was still irritated my 60k tires had to be replaced at 28k for my wife's SUV, they had some really solid arguments in the favor of the tire manufacturer.

You scored big time getting a free replacement on your stock set!

I had no idea! I do score!

 

[hunter81]

Seriously, though, Dunlop needs to fix their run-flats and my city needs to take responsibility for its sh*tty roads. I had a friend visiting from Japan and was so embarrassed driving him around. Road-wise, I felt like I was driving him around a 3rd world country. Japan has impeccable roads, but it helps a lot when you have a high population density. It's a large tax base for a small surface area.

 

[SilvQ50]

@hunter81 - I will be calling Bridgestone this morning with the number on my warranty booklet. Hopefully, they will refund me for the 2 tires I replaced and paid for. Not sure how they will handle it since the dealer probably disposed of both tires. The dealer told me that on my 2nd replacement my rim showed a little damage on the inside which was not visible on the outside of the rim at all.

 

[selzini]

Though the issue doesn't concern me, since I no longer have the run-flats, I'm curious about one thing. Are these problems occurring on the 17" tires as well? It would be my guess that having less of a sidewall in the 19" tire, makes it more likely to have damage when hitting a pothole, or any other time, as well. In addition, since the rim is closer to the road with the 19" tire, it is also more likely to be damaged when hitting a pothole. Almost every choice we make has trade-offs, and this looks like it is one of them.

 

[hunter81]

@hunter81 - I will be calling Bridgestone this morning with the number on my warranty booklet. Hopefully, they will refund me for the 2 tires I replaced and paid for. Not sure how they will handle it since the dealer probably disposed of both tires. The dealer told me that on my 2nd replacement my rim showed a little damage on the inside which was not visible on the outside of the rim at all.

Best of luck! I feel for you. That's the same damage I had when I hit a very ridiculous pothole on one of our road that's practically like a freeway feeder (service road). I'm cruising along at night on a road that's otherwise perfect and suddenly "bam." They showed me that both rims on the right had dents on the interior.

 

[hunter81]

Though the issue doesn't concern me, since I no longer have the run-flats, I'm curious about one thing. Are these problems occurring on the 17" tires as well? It would be my guess that having less of a sidewall in the 19" tire, makes it more likely to have damage when hitting a pothole, or any other time, as well. In addition, since the rim is closer to the road with the 19" tire, it is also more likely to be damaged when hitting a pothole. Almost every choice we make has trade-offs, and this looks like it is one of them.

I had 19s on my G37 that weren't run-flat and it was nothing compared to what I have gone through with these tires. That being said, I can't say how much could just be attributed to an increase in potholes. Houston received a serious amount of rain over several months and potholes opened up all over the city. My work commute turned into navigating potholes. The city has since repaired a lot of them and I haven't had any more problems.

 

[bdubs]

FYI

All tires which are on your (new) car when delivered are not covered under the tire manufacturers warranty. Read the fine print. I had a great discussion with Bridgestone on this subject a few months ago. They person I talked to was fantastic to converse with. Although I was still irritated my 60k tires had to be replaced at 28k for my wife's SUV, they had some really solid arguments in the favor of the tire manufacturer.

You scored big time getting a free replacement on your stock set!

A traditional manufacturers warranty may not be included, but road hazard is included per my service manager at my local Infiniti dealer. I had a nail in the outer tread band (actually it was in the line on the tire that is the repair to the inside / no repair to the outside of the line "zone") and the tire wasn't repairable. I paid close to $475 for a new tire. Received a call the next day from the service manager saying Infiniti has an agreement with Dunlop on the RFT (I have the 19s) for road hazard coverage and they submitted a claim on my behalf. Three weeks later, I had a check in hand for the full price of the tire. Hopefully some of you who have had similar problems can get this to work for you too.

 

[maddsiick]

Man this would have been really helpful if I knew this before. Thanks for posting this though. It's really useful information. I never knew Goodyear dealt with Dunlop products.

 

[hunter81]

Yea, Dunlop is now apparently a subsidiary of Goodyear. I know. I wish I had known earlier too because I feel for people when I see them in here posting about having to shell out hundreds of dollars to replace these tires, but at least hopefully anyone with any future mishaps will at least have a chance at saving themselves the money.

 

[InfinitiNYC]

Though the issue doesn't concern me, since I no longer have the run-flats, I'm curious about one thing. Are these problems occurring on the 17" tires as well? It would be my guess that having less of a sidewall in the 19" tire, makes it more likely to have damage when hitting a pothole, or any other time, as well. In addition, since the rim is closer to the road with the 19" tire, it is also more likely to be damaged when hitting a pothole. Almost every choice we make has trade-offs, and this looks like it is one of them.

That's exactly what I was wondering about. Few of my friends have mercedes e class with 18-19" rims but low profile tires. During the past winter, they had switched out atleast 3-4 sets of tires due to pot holes.

 

[jpra923]

I just noticed a tire bulge yesterday and have since been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to figure out how to come out of this situation without making a divet in my bank account.

This info will surely help. Thanks for posting!

 

[hunter81]

So glad to help! None of us good-hearted Q50-loving people should have to deal with spending that much money early. Only good things should happen to Q50 drivers.

 

[toinfiniti]

@hunter81,

How did you get goodyear reps to check the impact?
Now I am being concern since San Jose has the worst pothole in the country!!

 

[hunter81]

@toinfiniti,

Check my OP in this thread. I give a good explanation on it. Basically they have to see impact damage for it to not be a warranty fix. It's very hard to detect impact damage on run-flats. Check out the OP and let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[bdubs]

https://owners.infinitiusa.com/content/manualsandguides/common/2014/2014-infiniti-warranty-booklet.pdf

Page 25 of the above link gives specific verbiage as to the run flat warranty. If you're having issues getting your dealer to submit the claim, I'd take this printout in with you. Also note you have this in the packet of information that came with your car.

Brent

 

[OhioQ]

Page 37 in your warranty booklet clearly states a road hazard warranty is in place. If you've purchased tires because you were told "there's nothing the dealership can do" (a blatant lie). Then you should bring this to the service managers attention and should be reimbursed for the total cost. I'm currently fighting with my local dealership about the 2 bad runflats I had to replace.