About two weeks ago my HRE's and tires arrived.

This is how they looked:

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...threadid=20225

A few days after driving the car, I noticed that the steering wheel was vibrating so I took the car down to Lucent for reballancing. On the way home, I noticed the vibration was still there so I went back to Lucent where Tom and Arling determined that three out of the four tires were not symetrical causing the vibration. My retailer spoke to michelin who said I should take my car to America"s Tires so that they can do their own diagnostics. Michelin refused to consider Lucent's data and refused my request to have the work done at there. America's Tires determined that two tires were "bad" and ordered replacements. Today I went to have them put on. I was hesitant due to many bouncing tires/wheels and the carelessness I witnessed at my first visist. I explained to the people there that the wheels were brand new and to be extra careful with them. After the new tires were on, I wiped down the wheels to discover that all four were damaged. There were multiple chips in the paint as well as scratches on the lips. I spoke to the manager (<--- CORNHOLE) who took no responsibility and said he would call me back after he spoke with his boss. My understandng is that Michelin has had this problem before with a whole production run of PS2's.

Michelin should have replaced at least the three tires that were "bad" and allowed Lucent to do the work. Instead, They replaced two thereby not rectifying the vibration issue fully and sending me to a vendor that ruined my new HRE's.

Anyone considering these tires should think about the Conti's or an alternative tire. Michelin apparantly cares very little about their customers or their quality assurance.

Sorry for the long rambling post but I feel if nothing else, my experience can be a warning to other fellow 6speeders.

 

"America's Tires & Michelin" must to take responsibility for damaging the wheels. That's just not right for you to be stuck with this problem that you had no control over. Someone needs
to pay for the damages and it definitely shouldn't be yourself.

Mark

 

Sounds like the Michelin rep in your area is the problem. Some of the bigger retailers usually flex their muscle to get the business, and often have a volume mentality. That results in damaged wheels.

Hey Arling, do you have Hunter equipment? Do you know the Michelin rep? Got to be some leverage there knowing that you guys are the go-to shop for this and can build a big business out of it. I'd try that route.

As for the wheels, get to the corporate headquarters of America's Tires and find the President. Don't stop til you reach that person. Don't get vulgar, just lay out the facts (hint: don't tell the secretary why you are calling). Have your receipts handy so you can be factual. I bet you will get replacement wheels.

 

Eric,
i understand your point but unfortunately those tires were not from me so i can understand why Michelin doesn't want to trust our data. yes, we use top of the line Hunter & machines don't lie. they might not be correct sometime but Tom's experience plus the data hardly would make any mistake.

i think the frustration is letting those careless people working on something they're not suppose to. don't even mention fixing it cuz if they didn't damaged them when would they be fixing it. it's a feeling thing & it's should be a happy experience not like this!

 

The worst thing is the damaged wheels. Very unfortunate

 

As usual when dealing with these situations you have to get a lawyer involved. No one wants to assume responsibility. Sorry to hear it.

 

We have to get lawyers involved when we buy tires from now on? Sad.

 

Luckily my retailer is a stand-up guy and will talk with Michelin and/or America's Tires. They will be responsible for ALL charges and will fix the wheels at their expense. This I can be sure.

You would think Michelin would want to make their customers happy, especially when purchasing expesive products. All they had to do is except the data presented to them by a very reputable source and send out replacements. The machine Arling uses is way more high tech then the ones America's Tires used. Also, this is not an isolated incident. There have been numerous problems with the PS2's so much so that they recalled an entire product run.

 

Lucent > better than most shops out there! When I ordered my wheels, I asked them to install the tires, balanced them etc etc because I cannot trust any other shops. I am very sorry to hear this. I understand how you feel, waiting for 3 months for the HRE, paid pretty alot and you get it damaged like this. I hope that the ghetto tires shop will replace your wheels because repairing them does not make them look brand new.

Good luck!

 

I'm so sorry to hear that Headdoc. I hope things get resolved to your advantage. I'm not much of a cab person, but I still think that your turbo cab is the best looking one out there.

 

Sorry to hear that...
I was debating between PS2s or Pirellis for my new HREs and this thread just made that decision much easier...

 

I've never had a problem with a PS2 being out of round in any size. Michelin uniformity is almost ALWAYS perfect. Also, nobody here has been notified of Michelin recalling an "entire production run" of PS2s for being bad. If there was a recall, I'd love for somebody to present me proof.

When installing any tire this size (from any mfgr.), it's VITAL to have them road-forced balanced with a Hunter GSP9700 and done by someone trained to use it.

As for the wheels, the lesson learned here is ALWAYS use an installer that uses touchless mounters and people trained properly to use them. I bet this shop's was a rim-clamp. I would confirm that before fighting it.

 

I bought a set of wheels and tires from Tirerack, mounted and balanced by them... got them and ended up having to rebalance them because they were not properly balanced from Tirerack.

Stuff happens.

 

I'm about to install my third set of PS2's. As said above, I've never heard of a recall. If so, I'd like to know as my third set is about to go on. It's been a great tire.

 

We did re-imburse you for that, though - correct?