Potentially Lethal Tyres

[rickquattro]

Apologies for posting on the same topic twice but I have just found out some disturbing info on the tyres that have come off my car. The original thread was Split Rubber.

Have a look here at the damage on the sidewall of two tyres. The damage was on the inside wall and was not caused by the removal of the tyre from the rim, incorrect tyre pressures or kerbing.

I have run these for a year, bought August 2004 in the UK. They are not specified and constructed for the Euro market, or legally imported to the UK. They are made for the American market. This is backed up by checking UK and USA websites.

More worrying is the fact that had the failure caused, or been a contributing factor to an accident my insurance would have been invalid.

The tyre manaufacturer have responded well in explaining this and I dont blame them. There is more info on the Split Rubber thread which I started before I had a call from Continental.

So if you are running ContiExtremeContact, have a very very good look.

Rick

 

[Masterm8fo]

fcking hell - thanks god you found the splits before anything happened !

 

[rickquattro]

By the way, they came from Rochford Tyres in Essex. They found my last years order on the computer, to get my address for this years order.

Rick

 

[Scotty]

I emailed the guy I regularly speak to at Rochford and it seems as if this is really being looked into.

His comment so far was :
[ QUOTE ]
Tyres were purchased form Micheldever who are one of the largest tyre suppliers in the UK, I have spoken to our account manager at Micehldever this morning and he has assured me that the tyres are e marked. We only purchased 12 of these tyres in total in June 2004.

[/ QUOTE ]

It seems somethings gone wrong somewhere but perhaps its too early to point fingers. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Glad no one was injured or no damage caused!

 

[Scotty]

More news :

[ QUOTE ]
Have spoken to Rick Harrison this morning, we are now both of the opinion that the tyres carry the E mark, he has them in his back garden so we were able to check. Also as the tyres are not yet 1 year old, they are under warranty, they will be collected shortly examined and warranted.

[/ QUOTE ]

 

[rickquattro]

[ QUOTE ]
I emailed the guy I regularly speak to at Rochford and it seems as if this is really being looked into.

His comment so far was :
[ QUOTE ]
Tyres were purchased form Micheldever who are one of the largest tyre suppliers in the UK, I have spoken to our account manager at Micehldever this morning and he has assured me that the tyres are e marked. We only purchased 12 of these tyres in total in June 2004.

[/ QUOTE ]

It seems somethings gone wrong somewhere but perhaps its too early to point fingers. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif



Glad no one was injured or no damage caused!

[/ QUOTE ]

I think your right ScoTTy

Just had a good call from Dave at Rochford. Obviously he is worried by this for a number of reasons. After talking to him and decoding the info on the tyre wall, it seems that the tyres have an E number and technically can be used in Europe. The opposite of Continental's point of view.

When I called Continental, they assured me that the tyre was not an official import to europe, and doesnt appear on their UK web site, but does on the American site. The tyre is in fact made in the States......

I know that Rochford get a lot of good press here, thats why I originally bought from them and in fact just have again. They are neither the importer or manufacturer. It gives me a bit of confidence that they are willing to take this on. Its often a measure of a business to see what they do when stuff goes wrong, rather than when its all fine all the time.

Dave at Rochford is arranging the collection of these to get looked at and sorted.

I offered them to Continental to examine and they politely declined saying I could chuck them in the bin......

I am sure the truth is somewhere in between. But you can't imagine how pleased am I to get these off my car.

Watch this space......

 

[madvw]

if theres more than one, i'd only give them one of the tyres.. retain one of them as proof yourself, should they conveniently get lost.

mind you, i could be just paranoid after watching an episode of 24 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[rickquattro]

[ QUOTE ]
if theres more than one, i'd only give them one of the tyres.. retain one of them as proof yourself, should they conveniently get lost.


[/ QUOTE ]

Dont agree here. I'm not vindictive. Its in their interests to get it sorted and they are taking it on rather than dodging it. I will help Rochford (or Conti), as much as possible, if it provides an earlier quicker solution. This site is a good enough public forum on what, who, when etc. Dont forget there are more of the same tyre out there somewhere that may be still attached to cars....

Rick.