OEM tyres are not fit for purpose

[Cutch]

I have an issue with the OEM Goodyear Wranglers on my DS. The treads are chipping and there are cracks in the case at the bottom of the grooves. I'm concerned at the safety of these tyres.

Landrover won't acknowledge the problem and blame the way the car is driven. How do they know how the car has driven? The dealer advised that there is a technical bulletin acknowledging the problem but denying responsibility.

The car had done 20k kms when I complained. It is used predominantly on the highway and sealed secondary roads. Most weeks it does a return trip to the country of about 500 kms, the last 6 kms each way are a gravel road. It's done about 50 kms of Corolla-unfriendly national parks tracks. It has very little city use. All this is well within the expected use of the car.

The rear tyres have been replaced (wife trying to demolish kerbs) and are showing no evidence of chipping after 10k kms. My previous FL2 had the same OEM tyres and didn't have the chipping and cracking issue. In 50 years of car ownership including 7 Land Rovers I've never seen this problem.

I believe there are only two possibilities, the tyres are defective or not fit for purpose.

So I'm left with having to replace tyres at about a third of their tread life. Landrover are behaving like VW and denying any responsibility.

I'm not happy. Sufficiently unhappy that my next car is unlikely to be a Landrover.

[BobD]

Were the rear tyres undamaged before they hit the kerbs?

[AK83]

....

I'm not happy. Sufficiently unhappy that my next car is unlikely to be a Landrover.

LOL! funny.

ergo: my Bridgestone tyres are not very good on my Toyota, so I'm unlikely to buy a Toyota ever again!! :confused:
Taking this reasoning to the extreme, my Sunbeam toaster doesn't work as I expect it too, so I'm never buying another house ever again and plan to live in a caravan in the future! :p

BTW: I'd say that the comparison to VW is a teeny bit distorted too.
You're blaming LR for an issue where Goodyear is at fault, whereas VW created their own problem themselves, and try to deny it and cover it up.
A more equitable comparison would be along the lines of Ford - Exploder - Firestone.


The solution is super simple:
Get rid of the Goodyear tyres and get some proper tyres!
Saves yourself a lot of heart ache and stress.

[Grumbles]

You're blaming LR for an issue where Goodyear is at fault


Perhaps not...........

I'd suggest that LR practice is that they inform the tyre manufacturers what specifications the tyres must meet and that they will not pay more than their predetermined 'X' price for each tyre. A situation similar to our supermarket giants dictating to the dairy and fresh fruit/vegetable farmers what gate price they will pay for their produce.

[Cutch]

To respond to all ...

I can't give a reliable answer about the condition of the rear tyres before they were replaced. I'm not very good at regular checkups.

The issue for me with disappointment at Landrover is not so much the tyre itself, but Landrover using the 'blame the customer' tactic to avoid the issue. My previous experience with problems with the FL2 was very positive, Landrover fixed a couple of serious issues without question and provided a loan car while it happened. I accept there can be problems, it's the supplier's response that matters.

Yes it's a Goodyear problem ultimately, but my relationship is with Landrover. They supplied the tyre. And they specified the tyre. An internet search revealed that these tyres had similar problems on Nissans in the US.

And yes the replacement tyres will not be Goodyears. I've very positive experience with Pirelli Scorpion ATR's on the FL2. Before that I've been a Michelin man but they no longer seem to import ATR's to Aus.

Incidently, I emailed the Customer Relations Centre last Wednesday asking for the issue to be escalated. I've had no response.

To anyone purchasing a new DS I suggest they refuse to accept the standard Wranglers and insist on some decent tyres.

[Cutch]

Further info, here's a photo of the tyre.

Cutch

[BobD]

The cracks are the result of small stones cutting the carcass between the treads. The treads are chipped by the same stones. That is not the fault of the tyre or Land Rover. Those tyres are not dangerous apart from the fact that the tread is nearly worn out!


I could show you pictures of Bridgestone D697 and BFG K02 tyres from my D4 with much worse damage than that after less than 15,000km. On the D4 it is the rears that do that and I suspect on a DS it is the front because it is heavier at the front and, on mine at least, mostly driven by the front wheels since I have the active driveline. Not sure how the standard 4WD system on a DS works.


The D697's are particularly bad on my D4 for cuts between the tread blocks so I swapped to BFG, which still has the same sort of damage but reduced cuts. The 17 inch Wranglers on my DS are still fine but only up to 4500km at this stage. Not much gravel on them yet, though.

[101RRS]

I would have to agree - those tyres look about right after they have been on unsealed type roads.

I think the OP has a concern that is really not there.

[Nicky]

I would have to agree - those tyres look about right after they have been on unsealed type roads.

I think the OP has a concern that is really not there.

Have you had a wheel alignment done and a wheel balance?

[nosliwedaw]

I'm going to back the OP on this one.

My Disco Sport has the same issue with chipping and cracking now that the tyres have done 20k+.

It is the wife's car and does almost no dirt with a mix of city and highway. I think it would have only done 100km of dirt and most of this was prior to 10k on the odo when the tyres held up well with no damage at all.

Now i'm not greatly concerned as the tyres still perform fine and are lasting reasonably well(they are about half worn now), but there certainly is an issue with these tyres.

Cheers.

[TB]

My 2015 DS has the same Wranglers and the pic posted earlier in the thread looks almost exactly like what mine look like. Well – the front ones, anyway.

We've done not quite 25,000K in this car. Mostly on bitumen but this year we've done the Land Rover Experience day and explored some national parks with gravel/rocky roads. Only the front tyres have worn like this – the back ones don't have any of the chipping and much less wear.

My car has the feature where torque is only sent to the rear wheels when the computer thinks it's needed. I think it's called Active Driveline and I think all 2015 model cars got it. Even when you've engaged a terrain response mode like gravel/grass/snow, the DS with Active Driveline makes the front tyres do the bulk of the work, so it's no surprise that they wear faster and if you're driving on rocky surfaces a soft city tyre is probably more susceptible to chipping.

I rotated my tyres front/back today and then went for a lovely drive in the mountains. Lots of crawling up granite tracks in 1st gear (out of 9), and the 4x4i page on the computer showing the majority of the work being done by the front wheels.

So maybe the Wranglers aren't the ideal tyre for somebody who's going to take the car off the bitumen. I'll be looking for a set of ATs when it comes time to replace these ones.

[rick130]

on rocky surfaces a soft city tyre is probably more susceptible to chipping.



Actually the compound will be too hard.

BFG had the same issue about ten or so years agowith the then new MT's, as did Cooper with their first ST, and quite a few other manufacturers.
At the time I saw some relatively new BFG MT's on a Hilux in Scone that had lived near Ellerston in the hills east of there and the tyres were destroyed. I had a similar issue although not as bad with Bridgestone MT's and Michelin XZL's on those same shale roads.
The next batch of Mt's that came into the country used a modified, softer compound.
Less life on the bitumen, but much better on gravel/dirt. I had two sets and they worked well on those same roads.

A softer compound complies better to the small, sharp stones without nicking and cutting. The harder compound slightly slips/skids more, hence the chipping and cutting.

[Mamil]

Noticed similar but not quite as bad chipping on my front tyres. On mine it's limited to the outer tread section, and no cuts between the tread pattern. I've done 23,000 on them since new.

Anyway, got the dealer to check them when I went in for service and he said it's typically caused by driving on gravel and that dropping the pressures to about 28 on gravel roads helps. I don't do much if any gravel so it wasn't that, but I have been a bit lax checking tyre pressures lately and all were under 30 so that could have been a factor.

Anyway, he rotated them front to back and did a wheel alignment under warranty. He kind of hinted that the factory fitted Goodyear Wranglers weren't very good, though obviously he couldn't say those exact words, and his advice was just to run these into the ground and replace with a different brand next time around.

[Slunnie]

I agree that this tyre wear is typical of a hard tyre that has done rocky track work. There isnt a fault in the tyre there that I can see. What I would be worried about more is the cut in the tread groove (which is not a manufacturers fault), but it wouldn't worry me enough to do anything about it, just keep an eye on the tyre pressures.

I really would not expect anything from LR regarding this.

[Qlder]

I have this issue on my MY17 DS. The chipping is quite bad for 17,000km. Front tyres only - rears look new.
Can’t be due to rock/gravel roads as the vehicle has only done city and motorway driving. (I take the FL2 when I go off-road as the DS has too many issues)

[Zeros]

Further info, here's a photo of the tyre.

Cutch

You just need new tyres. From that photo it seems your tyres have done significantly more than 20,000km. How many kms have you actually done on those tyres?

Tyres are consumables. There are endless threads on here about which tyres members think are the best.