Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| TIRES | |||
| 12/26/2010 | 109544 | ||
| Tires from walmart store#1541, with less then 10,000, rotated & balanced,at 45-55 mph tires wobble & shake. they rebalanced them today x2 but still not correct at 50-60 mph they still wobble. i just couldnt go back a third time. the store manager just said fix them to his staff and walked away. | |||
| 07/08/2008 | 13000 | 1 | |
| Over the past 20 years, i have owned 6 cars (5 cadillacs and 1 mercury) equipped with michelin tires. of these 24 tires, i experienced tread separation failure on 18 of the tires and 1 sidewall failure at 13000 miles. two tires, i removed at 25000 miles to avoid problems as i was planning a long trip. three of the tires are still on one car with about 13000 miles on those tires. the standard size for the cadillac is 215/65-16. michelin only recommends that i speak with their dealer. the dealer said he could not adjust for the tires. needless to say i did not replace the failed tires with michelin tires. i experienced an unreasonable tread separation failure rate with michelin tires (time will tell for the remaining 3 tires). this indicates a systemic problem with the michelin design/manufacturing. i did a little research on the subject of tread separation failures and the resulting problems and found that there are some deaths attributable to tread separation failures. because of this and the extremely high failure rate, i feel that the michelin radial tires present a serious safety hazard. i recommend the nhtsa investigate this problem. note: i read that tires manufactured in europe do not have this problem due to a different design/manufacturing process. if this is so, the us should mandate the european design for us manufactured tires. i have specialized education in the automotive industry through the general motors institute and 6 years experience manufacturing automobiles. the approximate incident date is for the latest incident on the 13000 mile tire. before that, i experienced 2 tire failures around the first of june. *tr | |||
| 05/30/2008 | 1 | ||
| In feb., 2007, my mother-in-law bought a set (4) of michelin symmetry tires for her mercury marquis. within two months, one had a sidewall blow out. the dealer told her that she must have hit something, so she bought a replacement tire. last week, may 30, 2008, while driving from myrtle beach to rock hill, sc, another tire had a sidewall blowout. after waiting almost 2 hours in 90 degree heat, aaa arrived and changed the tire. she drove to two tire stores looking for a replacement. after purchasing one at the local ford dealer, she started home again. within 50 miles, another tire had a sidewall blowout. this time while waiting for aaa, a schp officer stopped and at least provided some water. she drove home on the temporary replacement tire. today we are going back to the dealer that installed the original tires. i suspect that her options will be to either purchase another michelin symmetry, or an entire replacement set. on her limited income, she'll probably just but the michelin. her daughter and i are concerned with her driving on long trips with these tires. i have found 23 pages of complaints on michelin tires on the consumeraffairs.com website. *tr | |||
| TIRES - SIDEWALL | |||
| 08/01/2007 | 20000 | 1 | 07/01/2005 |
| 2005 mercury grand marquis with defective tires customer states that the tires are coming apart around the white side walls**cc the tires were by michelin. *jb | |||
| 10/21/2006 | 14980 | 1 | 05/27/2005 |
| On saturday, oct. 21, 2006 at approximately 12:00pm i was driving on i-95 just south of port saint lucie florida, traveling at 70 mph, when i experienced a catastrophic blow out of the right rear tire on my 2005 mercury grand marquis, with 14,980 mile on the odometer. the tires were all original equipment tires. the vehicle sustained no damage but the sidewalls were completely shredded, after traveling about 500 to 600 feet to pull over to the shoulder of the roadway. i had to purchase a new michelin tire at a cost of $144.96 -with a 65,000 mi. warranty! the tire that blew with less than 14,980mi was not warranted or pro rated by the dealer or by michelin. i did not run over anything in the roadway, and brought the tire to two different tire shops and they could not figure out what happened. i called michelin and they told there was nothing they could do. this is ridiculous! michelin, advertises itself as one of the safest tires on the road, -well this particular one certainly was not. it is a p225-60r16 energy lx4. i am reporting this in hope you may be able to get michelin to help defray the cost of the new tire, and or see if there is a safety defect with this style of tire, which may warrant further action. i remain anxiously awaiting your reply. *nm | |||
| TIRES - TREAD/BELT | |||
| 05/15/2007 | 35000 | 60 | 07/01/2005 |
| Tl*the contact owns a 2005 mercury grand marquis. the vehicle has vogue custom built radial ix tires, size 235/ssr17 (na). while driving 55 mph, the contact heard a loud bang and then the vehicle swerved. he noticed that the tread separated from the driver side front tire. the dealer stated that the cause of failure appeared to be a damaged tire. the failure mileage was 35,000 and current mileage were 37,000. | |||