Has anyone else out there had problems with their Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires beginning to crack and lose chunks of tread near the inner and outer tire edges? I've read about this problem on various tire forums and will be doing battle with Michelin because it is beginning to occur to the two front tires remaining on my wife's XK8. My research prior to purchasing the car shows that the two front tires were probably installed in October 2009 at about 24,000 miles. The car is now pushing 50,200 miles, about 14,000 of those miles having been put on the car by my wife since we acquired it in early February 2012. I have consistently kept the tire pressures at 32 to 33 psi. Just had an alignment check done this morning and all four wheels are within the factory specs....

Because I do not have the purchase receipt for these tires, I expect Michelin to fight me tooth and nail. I have the time and inclination to fight back and actually enjoy battles such as this one. So we'll see what happens....

Shame on Michelin for charging astronomical prices for what have apparently turned out to be lousy tires that are prone to premature failure....

 

I have quite the backround dealiing with Michellin and they play very fair. You will need to go to a tire store that carries Michellin and have them inspect your tires for remaining tread and condition first. You can go to several stores and only use the results you like the best if they differ. You then call Michellin customer service (this can be found on thier web site). and plead your case. They will prorate the tires for how much tread wear is left, and by the original reciept if you have it. If you dont they will go by the DOT code on the tire which shows the production date. The reciept if you have it, will be much better for you, even though its not in your name as the tires may have been sold up to 3 years after the production date. Michellin states the tires are only safe for 6 years. They will only credit you if you replace them with another michellin product, the one you have is the best compromise as they wear better than most and still handle very well.
Good luck and let me know if you need any more info or help

Brian

 

^^ what a superb response ^^

Good luck with the fight

 

One of the thongs to look in to as you go forward is if you have stsggered front and back, eliminating rotation, they do cut the warranty mileage in half.

I got the same tire through america's tire with their warranty and had to replace at around 15,000 when i did a laft right swap (maintining rolling direction) to scuff off the edges that were starting to feather, I did notioce a little spalling but i chalked it up to a very narrow tread area and the smoothed off in around 2,000 miles.

I would be curious as to outcome as they are quite expensive. I do like the way they handle and (fingers crossed) none of problems you have had.

Curious as to how it comes out, may not hurt to mention that we are all anxious tire purchasers, lookin gover your shulder.

Good Luck!

 

Update:

I called Michelin Corporate USA and opened a case. I acknowledged that we did not own the car when the current front tires were purchased and installed, so I do not have the receipt. My case was filed, and I was instructed to go to my usual tire dealer. I have a strong relationship with the Discount Tire branch about ten miles away, so I went there just after noon today. I had put two fantastic Yokohama YK580 tires on the rear axle of this car back in mid-April, and when I pulled up in front of the store today, Tom (the store manager) recognized the car, knew me by name, and came outside to greet me....

I gave Tom my Michelin case number, he grabbed the info he needed off the two front tires, we went inside, he got on the phone to Michelin with my case number, and about an hour later I had a brand-new pair of Yokohama YK580 tires on the front axle. They needed to be Hunter Road Force Balanced in order to get them as close to perfect as possible, so Tom did that for me at no charge....

Michelin paid $356.24 of my cost at Discount Tire. I paid the rest, which came to $145.44. The new Yokohama tires are rated 580/A/A and carry a 45,000-mile treadwear warranty. As I said, I have been extremely pleased with the performance and treadwear of the two rear Yokohama YK580 tires that have been on this car since mid-April....

Tom told me that Discount Tire sees so many "chunking" failures of these Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires, they have their own internal failure code assigned to them by Discount Tire Corporate. Lesson learned, guys - NEVER PURCHASE THESE MICHELIN TIRES....

All things considered, I'm very happy. I've never paid just $145.44 for two premium 245/40/19 tires before....

 

There was a brand new set of these things on my 06 XKR when I got it four years ago. They were chunking and throwing tread off alarmingly. I immediately threw them all away and vowed to never have another Michelin. I have kept my promise.

 

I haven't purchased Michelin tires in more than 15 years. Some of the other tire companies began stepping up their game in the 1990s and building better tires at more competitive prices compared to Michelin. The rise of the Internet allowed me to research my planned tire purchases thoroughly and select much better bang-for-the-buck tire choices than Michelin. My wife's XK8 now sports Yokohama YK580 tires all around. Our S-Type wears what has been a fantastic set of Dunlop SP Sport Signature tires. My Dodge Ram pickup has a nice set of Firestone Destination LE tires that are holding up beautifully. All of these tire models cost me far less than their Michelin counterparts would have. I've been extremely happy with the performance and durability of the Dunlops and Firestones, and expect to feel the same way about the Yokohamas. My tire research has proven to be well worth the time and effort it requires (I researched these Yokohamas from November 2011 to March 2012 because they are relatively new, so gathering the criteria I needed took awhile)....

Michelin certainly outspends them all in the advertising world, but they no longer dominate the other tire companies from a quality product perspective and have not done so for many years now. I simply cannot justify spending the astronomical prices that Michelin tires demand....

 

Jon, thanks for sharing your story...it worries me personally because my XJ also has these same tires on it, and recently installed prior to my purchasing it in August. I certainly know what to do if I notice anything strange going on...and will keep my eye on it more carefully now as well.

 

Just a thought guys;

I wonder if the manufacturer of your new, Non-Michelin, tires will treat you as well should anything untoward occur with their tires?

I run Contis myself. One can only hope they are as "stand up" as the Michelin boys. Back in my Army days one of the troopers postulated that if the government issued us women every night some guys would bitch about there's a damn women in my bunk again.

 

Over the decades I've claimed treadwear warranties on Dunlop, Bridgestone, Firestone, and Hankook tires. The key is to keep full documentation on the required rotations, usually at least every 6,000 to 7,500 miles depending upon manufacturer. Some stepped up to the plate right away (Dunlop and Hankook), some I had to wrestle to the mat (Bridgestone and Firestone). All of them eventually owned up to the fact that I had the necessary documentation to prove that I properly cared for the tires yet they did not deliver their treadwear as promised. All of them contributed to my replacement set of tires, ranging from $200 to $500 in total reimbursement to me depending upon the situation....

I keep my tire documentation at hand. It has always paid off for me when various tires do not deliver as promised by their warranty....

 

What do you mean by chunking. I hav a set of these on my 2000 XK8 and have very little miles on them but several years of time. The previous owner put them on and drove the car only about a thousand miles a year.

What can I look for on the tire? Concerned about tire failure while on the road.

Thanks for your help.

 

"Chunking" means small pieces of tread (usually pencil eraser-sized) separating and falling off the inner and outer tread edges of the tire while driving. I could take a small screwdriver and easily peel off the tread edges of these two front tires before I got rid of them last Thursday. Under careful inspection, surface cracks were visible at the tread edges all the way around both tires. Very, very dangerous - especially at high speeds or heavy cornering. Tom at Discount Tire told me that those tires could have blown at any time....

If you have the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires on ANY vehicle, you need to inspect them NOW. Doesn't matter if they are 5 years old or 1 month old, they can fail at any time....

 

No problems with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S on my Porsche Boxster during 4.5 years of daily, spirited driving in all four seasons (garaged at night). 30k miles and they were in splendid shape before a tree fell on the car and totalled it.

I just put same tires on my 2002 Jag XKR coupe, I will be keeping an eye out...

 

Note: Pay careful attention to ALL of the words contained in the model of the tire in question. To refresh everyone's memory, it is: Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus.


We're not talking about the Pilot Sport A/S, or the Pilot Sport, or any other Pilot series tire other than the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus....

 

Tire chunking is nothing new. I've "chunked" a few tires myself over the years with some very hard cornering.....like "autocross" severity....so I'm a little surprised that nobody has questioned what kind of use the tires have been subject to.

Not that mine is the final word by any means but I've personally never seen a chunked tire that wasn't run very hard.

Of course, there's a "first time" for everything so if there's a quality issue at Michelin that allows chunking under normal, non-aggressive use then that's a big problem. Doubly so if it is being marketed as a high performance tire which you'd reasonably expect to withstand at least some degree of hard service.

Cheers
DD

 

As written by Jon89
When I first read the post I didn't realize till I read it the second time that it wasn't the same tire that I had on my XKR. I have had Michelins on many cars and never have had a problems, three of them at present. Car & Driver just did a review of the top ten performance tires and the Pilot Sport was rated #1

 

Doug,

This is indeed a flawed tire model. My contacts at Discount Tire have essentially confirmed that, as has some of the research I did last week....

How Michelin has managed to get by without issuing a product safety recall is beyond me. This tire can become unsafe very quickly. I'm not saying that all of them do, but when Discount Tire sees enough of them fail to assign their own internal failure code specifically for this tire, that speaks volumes....

 

This is one case where a Plus is a Minus.

 

Touche....

 

lucky me