This picture was taken less than a month and a half ago see the deep tread?
I have sumitomo HTRZ II on all four wheels, the front to are fine as for the back... eh not so much.
^^Agreed. I have a buddy who has run these on his car as long as I can remember without a single issue.
Whats weird about these sidewall failures is I have only seen sidewalls fail like this after a bubble forms & finally lets go. Like after accidnetly curbin a tire right on the sidewall or hitting a big pothole. My wifes car lost a BFG this way. Had a little bump in the sidewall when we bought the car, I thought nothing of it cause it didnt appear to be a goose egg sized one. And after a hour & half of driving in the summer heat the little bubble popped while turning a corner & her tire looked exactly like the one pictured above.
Its abnormal for a sidewall to just pop like this without prior contact with something. Not sure what could cause this honestly if the sidewall was in perfect condition prior.
I was kinda curious though cause the pic of the popped tire was bald but then you last pic you could see full tread width like it was 2 different tires? So obviously in those 5k miles you werent too easy on the tires for them to be partially burned off.
Is it currently cold where your at? Reason I ask is 9 times outta 10 if its cold a sidewall bubble will hide itself from a quick glance but after being driven on & the tires heating up it'll start to stick out. If you never noticed it while the tires were hot it could have been overlooked? Just a thought.
They have been driven on lightly my blackberry camera just sucks. I took new pics to show the tire still has full tread. I can see how it does look that way though
Man thats weird cause in the second pic of your first post it clearly looks like the tire is wore smooth. Even the tread depth disappears until it gets close to the bottom edge.
Wasnt doubting you, just noticed the pics didnt look right.
You mention to look at the sidewall wear in one of the newer pics, did you ever drive on these for any period of time with too low of air pressure? Even just to a store to fill it up after noticing it was low? I have seen sidewalls go after something like that without any signs of bubbling prior.
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^ I check air pressure every other day unless a tire looks low. I have never run the tires on lower than 34psi (i have a digital psi tester) I agree that pic up top looks bald but it is just the low pixel range of my blackberry. I have no explanation for the blow out other than a manufacturing defect
This pic shows curb damage to the rim...or is that something else?
The majority of the people that complain about these tires on this forum do so because they don't grip well under "drag racing like conditions" and some complain about poor performance in the rain too. I don't care if they don't grip well in burnouts cause heck, its a burn out and I don't race my car ,and I have never had any issues in the rain yet either in my daily driver F-150 but my fbody never sees rain.
FWIW, the 10 or 20 or even 50 posts on this forum about blowouts if their are that many is a minuscule drop in the bucket to the thousands of people who use these tires and never have any issues, anyone ever sit down and post: "WOW, I love my tires, their perfect!" No, I don't often see that, just the negative stuff, like another poster said, a lot of tires blow out, not just this brand, its sucks that yours did and I understand your complaint but that doesn't mean all of ours will. If you check this forum awhile back someone started an entire thread on this brand because they did'nt like the way the tires SMELLED, really, they stink, would you like vanilla smelling tires, WTF!?!?! I purchased mine based on the following: research on line, price because I am not wealthy @ the time "TomzWheel" who/is was a sponsor here was great to deal with on these and a stand up guy, and the fact that this is a Japanese company and we all know how they do things and I am not too keen on Korean or Chinese or other 3rd world countries products although in todays economy who knows. YMMV
^ Ok well except for this issue from yesterday I was totally pleased. The tires gripped well, and I never had a problem in the rain. If it wasn't for the fact I had to have a tow truck pick me up yesterday and now I have to buy new tires I would be satisfied. But that isn't the case so I am kind of annoyed.
On the plus side, Carroll Tire Group a resaler for Sumitomos has been in close contact with me throughout the day, they are working hard to give me answers and deliver customer support I can commend them on that at least.
I give credit where it is due Cajun, I do not feel in the case I owe Sumitomo a thing, they owe me. I could have totaled my car maybe worse... ya know what I mean?
^ and I agree my issues with these tires may not be the norm. I only wrote this post to make others aware of the issue I had so they would not suffer a similar loss. I am happy that you like your HTRZII's I liked mine a lot until yesterday. It is very possible mine just were from a bad batch. I do not doubt that sumitomo does provide some decent tires. Thanks for your posts they have been helpful, Dan
People have had blowouts on all kinds of tires. Sumitumos are cheap tires but there are plenty of people running them down to the wear bars without a single problem, and there are people who have had blowouts on Michelin Pilots too. You were just unlucky. Hopefully Sumitumo makes it right (which they should).
x2 just because your tire blew out doesn't make all of them shit.
How funny is it that when a cheaper tire blows out everyone bashes it and says buy nittos. LOL. Look at what happened to my nitto 555 while cruising at 70mph. Tires were in perfect condition with only 8k on them.
^^ Agreed any tire can blow out at any given time. I am running the Same tire that you were running for a while now with no issues. They aren't lasting long but I will drop the hammer at any given time and cut doughnuts and the drop of a hat and hit them with the 150 shot off the line and have had no problems.
And for the record, the HTR Z3 was tested favorably against tires far more expensive by the tire rack.. even *gasp* the GS-D3's that this board gushes on (if you extrapolate by comparing the 2 identical tires in both tests)...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gectek
that guide has more "in generals" than the army does
I had a set on my Camaro for about 15 or 20k miles and they were just fine for a DD tire. I didn't race with them so I don't know about the traction at the track but they were fine in the rain. Now I'm on Nitto DRs though.
that tire has severe runflat damage. you either had a small puncture in the tire or a leaking valve stem that caused the tire to lose air pressure while you were driving. this is what causes the worn ring on the sidewall of the tire that you see in this picture
next step after the ring forms is the sidewall blows out. granted while i do think that sumitomo's are some of the absolute worst quality tires on the market, your issue is a road hazard not a defect
just a heads up, they may try and tell you that your tire was under inflated (due to the heat ring). However, Tirerack should be like Discount and own up to their product failing and pay for damages, tire, etc. Just talk to them and say what happened.
shitty tires FTL, stick with BFG, Yoko, Falken.. theres a few more, but these are most common. Stay AWAY from continental, goodyear, sumitomos and other off brand BS. I worked for DTC for 3 yrs and I cant even tell you how many blow outs come in EVERY DAY due to shitty tires
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i have sumitomo's...no problems if you don't beat on them...it looks like they were pretty worn for only 5k miles...be easy on cheap tires ,there not dr's or any other good tire,there meant to last,not meant to go do burnouts/drift do digs...there cheap long lasting tires,for daily use,not for performance use,that's like taking a tire from walmart and going to the track and expecting it to last and hook...good luck with your complaint to the company though.
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i have sumitomo's...no problems if you don't beat on them...it looks like they were pretty worn for only 5k miles...be easy on cheap tires ,there not dr's or any other good tire,there meant to last,not meant to go do burnouts/drift do digs...there cheap long lasting tires,for daily use,not for performance use,that's like taking a tire from walmart and going to the track and expecting it to last and hook...good luck with your complaint to the company though.
that tire has severe runflat damage. you either had a small puncture in the tire or a leaking valve stem that caused the tire to lose air pressure while you were driving. this is what causes the worn ring on the sidewall of the tire that you see in this picture
next step after the ring forms is the sidewall blows out. granted while i do think that sumitomo's are some of the absolute worst quality tires on the market, your issue is a road hazard not a defect
I completely agree with Tally. Tires don't just blow out for no reason. You had some sort of leak, which aired the tire down enough that it go too hot while you were driving, thus the ring around the tire... It got overheated and blew out. As someone who has worked in a shop around a lot of tires for 5 years, this is pretty easy to identify... I hate to be the bear of bad news, but this blowout was not the manufacturer's fault... Tires like these have such a thin sidewall that you have to put a pressure gauge on them to tell if they are low. It could have been loosing air for days, or you could have ran over something right before it blew out, but either way it was low on air and that was the problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 00Silv4.8
just a heads up, they may try and tell you that your tire was under inflated (due to the heat ring). However, Tirerack should be like Discount and own up to their product failing and pay for damages, tire, etc. Just talk to them and say what happened.
Why the hell would tire rack have to pay for anything? Yeah, it sucks balls that the tire has a few thousand miles and it blows out, but if its anybody's fault, its the drivers for driving on a low tire... You go buy a brand new car from a dealership and you crash it three blocks down the road. Yeah, this sucks but its not the dealerships fault and they aren't going to give you a new car...
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