Tire Warranty Advice

[rav4sport2010]

So we purchased a 2010 RAV4 Sport at the beginning of February of this year...about 2 weeks ago, while driving down the back alley into our garage, a nail punctured the tire and deflated the tire...by the time we noticed it we at most, had driven 30 feet...we weren't driving fast as we were close enough to have already pushed the garage door opener...Anyway got the spare put on and took it to my dealership to have the tire repaired.

The service tech came out about 10 minutes after removing the punctured tire and said that the tire was done...destroyed.

The tire only had 2800km on it...so practically brand new. When I asked him if the nail had gone through the side wall etc. he said "Nope"...the nail went through the tread and that it was repairable...but that the sidewalls were destroyed....and were no longer safe to inflate.

My question is...how could having only driven at most of 30 feet at a very very low speed had destroyed the side walls? The service tech even commented that he could tell that it wasn't driven very far flat as the side walls were still clean and the fact that there was no damage at all to the rim...I wonder what would of happened if this had happened at highway speeds...would the tire of completely shredded and caused an accident??

The OEM tires are Toyo A20 Open Country 18"...I realize that OEM tires are not usually the best...but I just wanted to ask if anyone else had this problem and if they had any success with the tire manufacturer or dealership with any type of warranty...I know tire manufacturers have every little detail so that warranties can be voided...

Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.

[JuneBug]

If that had happened to me, I would have told the dealer to forget about it. I would have brought it home, put a plug in it, and used it for the spare.

[Carnivore]

Tire warranties are a joke, pure marketing spin, you'll never get anything out of them.

[davida]

2010 Sport and you don't have run-flats??

Is there a different setup in Canada??

I thought all Sports came with the runflats.

[SeriousBlack]

Originally Posted by davida

I thought all Sports came with the runflats.

Only Sports with the "Sport Appearance Package" come with the run flats.

[davida]

Ah ok that makes sense..

[SteVTEC]

Yeah put a plug in the tire and use that tire as the spare.

[Colonel]

Originally Posted by Carnivore

Tire warranties are a joke, pure marketing spin, you'll never get anything out of them.

Not correct. My wife goes through tires as if they were...well a lot. I got them on the last set of tires and have had two replaced under warranty.

I also got a warranty on my last set of tires on my maxima. Tires were purchased in early 2007. Nail puncture on sidewall. I had to pay 20 bucks plus tax to get a new tire. Not bad for a 200 dollar tire. So figuring I paid jsut over 50 for the warranty and 20 for the tire I am still ahead 100+.

Not a joke, just make sure you read and understand what the warranty covers.

[rav4sport2010]

Originally Posted by SteVTEC

Yeah put a plug in the tire and use that tire as the spare.

The problem is...the nail puncture IS REPAIRABLE...but the fact that we drove 30 feet on it destroyed the side walls...to the point that the service tech said that he didn't even want to try and inflate it as the SIDE WALLS were that bad...and didn't know if they could handle the pressure of being fully inflated.

That is what my question was...the nail puncture isn't the problem...it's the side walls being destroyed that quickly is the problem...

[rav4two]

Originally Posted by rav4sport2010

The problem is...the nail puncture IS REPAIRABLE...but the fact that we drove 30 feet on it destroyed the side walls...to the point that the service tech said that he didn't even want to try and inflate it as the SIDE WALLS were that bad...and didn't know if they could handle the pressure of being fully inflated.

That is what my question was...the nail puncture isn't the problem...it's the side walls being destroyed that quickly is the problem...

That's not a likely sounding story. Can you bring the flat tire to a tire store and see what their opinion is of it?

While we're here, how about a story of how tough tires really are. Some years back, I used to regularly do high performance driving events. They ranged from driving school type formats to plain hot lapping at various race tracks. Usually, a driving event would mean going completely through an $800 set of tires.

There were a couple of guys who I saw semi-regularly at these driving events, and they would sometimes show up with mismatched tires and such. I finally found out that they worked at a tire store, took high performance tires that had been punctured and deemed "unrepairable", repaired them, and ran them down to the cords at these events. Never one incident that I saw or heard of involving one of those repaired tires, and that includes running at speeds up to probably 130 MPH, cornering at and past the traction limits, and running at tire pressures exceeding the manufacturer's recommendation.

I understand that manufacturers need to be careful about litigation, but what I took away from that is that tire neglect (that includes underinflation) is way worse on a tire than significant overinflation (usually 50 PSI in a 44 PSI rated tire) and then running it at high speed.