How much of a tread defect is acceptable?

[northernlights]

In my last post, I mentioned that I bought a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE760's for my 850 Turbo. In reality, because of the way things turned out, I bought a set +1.

I was inspecting them prior to installation, and I noticed several small flaws with one tire in the first set.




I believe this is a manufacturing defect that was either missed by their QC department, or it is small enough that it doesn't count. So I wondered, which of those was the answer?

I put in an email to the online vendor (with images), and to Bridgestone corporate basically asking 'Is this a problem?' Because I did not receive a response, after a couple days I decided to order a fifth tire so that I could install them. It arrived without issue (coincidently enough with the same date codes as the other four), and I used it to complete the set. So, the one funny tire sits in my garage while I decide what to do.

My suspicion is that most installers wouldn't notice something like this because they would have to check every tread of every tire, and I don't think they get paid enough to be that diligent.

I am a bit surprised the Bridgestone did not immediately respond given the past Firestone fiasco. As far as the vendor, I have done business with them before on several occasions and have not had any issues. Then again, I never asked for anything other than the tires that I paid for! I don't want to flame anyone unnecessarily until I get some answers, but I will say the first vendor was NOT Tirerack. However, they did supply #5....

The good thing is that I have a full size Columba spare for the car regardless (ready for bending!), so a fifth tire will be put into service one way or the other.

Any thoughts as far as a defect of this size? I know it's nice to say 'They should be perfect', but everything is built to some tolerance. Like I said, I bet this would have gone unnoticed by most, and maybe run without issue. I'm not sure.

[jimmy57]

My concern would be that this is a sign of a section of rubber that may not have vulcanized and could lead to tread separation. I wouldn't think it is an acceptable defect.

[northernlights]

Thanks for the feedback. That's not too far from my assumption. It seems as if it would have a tendency to chuck away in the vicinity of the flaw. I'm still waiting for feedback from the vendor and/or Bridgestone.

[rmmagow]

Keep a log of all communications. This is not acceptable on a new tire regardless, god bad or otherwise. You laid out a fair bit on money for these things. Look at it this way, if someone were driving competitively, do you think they'd find this OK? I'm thinking not.

[northernlights]

Update.....after speaking with the still to be named vendor, and Bridgestone technical, all I hear so far is John Popper singing 'Why do you want to give me a runaround?' And that was after being on hold.

Hmmm.....

[northernlights]

So...after two months and no good response, as it was 'Tire Rotation Day', I went ahead and mounted the fishy tire on my spare wheel.

Part of the reason I did this was based on my experiences with tire plugs. I will plug, and drive, tires without hesitation, so a little funniness on the tread is nothing new in that respect. I would have liked to get a good response from the vendor (Discount Tire Direct) or Bridgestone, but the sounds of crickets was getting deafening. As I mentioned before, I am amazed that Bridgestone is not more concerned about potential flaws after the Ford Explorer fiasco, and even after I sent them pictures, their first response was 'possible shipping damage' which I think is preposterous.

For the record, here's my first (and only!) response from Discount Tire Direct:

Thanks for the pics!. I just talked to bridgestone and they gave me a number for you to call, think it
was a bad mold and think they would send you out 2 new tires, the number is 800-847-3272, for sum reason
that does not work, give me a call back.

While I'm on a roll, here's my response to Bridgestone after speaking with Tech Support, and forwarding images:

Thank you for the Thursday voicemail after reviewing the images which I forwarded. Shipping damage, while possible, is almost certainly not the entire root cause as inspection of the tire shows that additional material appears to be present in the vicinity of the flaw, i.e. part of the issue has manifested itself as an additive process, not subtractive.

I have copied the vendor on this communication, and expect to speak with them again in the near future.

I registered the tires for warranty purposes on Bridgestone.com the day after receipt. At the same time I submitted a question via email to Bridgestone regarding the apparent flaw, essentially asking if this type of defect would be within standard manufacturing tolerances and therefore be acceptable for service. This is what I am curious about, as I realize that everything is manufactured to a tolerance, and nothing is truly perfect. The flaw is small enough that I suspect most shops would not have noticed it prior to installation unless they were diligent enough to inspect the entire tread of every tire prior to installation.

As I believe I have disclosed, I have not put this tire into service. Instead, I purchased an additional fifth tire from another source that I have used to create a complete, identical set of four. This set is now in service. As a point of interest, all five tires have the same date code.

Thank you again for your attention.

In all fairness, I've bought from Discount Tire Direct before and not had any problems. The prices are great, but it seems like if you run into an issue you're on your own. That's the risk one takes with online purchases. I don't expect to get something for free, but the lack of a firm response from the players, i.e. Is this a big deal, or not?, is what irritates me.

[northernlights]

So...after 5k miles with the fishy tire on the driver's front (as described previously), here's what it looks like:



Compare this to what it started like:



Given the strange discoloration I am still certain there was something up with the tire when it was made, as opposed to Bridgestone's creative guess of shipping damage. Anyone ever heard of 'Tire Bondo' or 'Tire RTV'? I haven't.

When I change the oil (I'm on a 10k kilometer schedule), I will rotate the tires again. As I have a full size spare this wheel will end up back in the trunk after four full cycles, or around 25k miles.

[jimmy57]

It looks like a pizza does when the pizza cooked on the pan the time before leaves a chunk of crust.

Since this pizza maker doesn't think it's a problem I wouldn't buy any more of his pizzas.

As a matter of fact, the pizza maker might need to be reminded of the TREAD Act.

[northernlights]

I think I need to be reminded about the TREAD act...time to read!

[jimmy57]

It is the legislation about defect reporting, and other things, that came from the Firestone/Ford Explorer tire failures. Bridgestone bought Firestone. If a customer presents a tire with an incompletely vulcanized chunk of rubber with a separated border then prudence says replace it. Without a few hundred dollars worth of X Rays thee is no way to assure it is not a surface defect of a section of tread not vulcanized to the underlying plies.

That is a tire should have "BLEM" or "SENATOR FARM TIRE" branded into the sidewall. It would make a great tire for a seed drill or a cotton seed trailer.