Front Tires Flaking at 1500 Miles

While checking tire pressure today, I noticed the fronts had serious flaking. The car came with Bridgestone Ecopia on it. Pictures below. This has only happened on the front tires. I regularly check tire pressure. They are currently set at 37, just slightly above the recommended 36. I plan to take it to the dealer. Any ideas what could be causing it? Thanks in advance.

http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k563/af1999/IMG_1467.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k563/af1999/IMG_1466.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That looks like a manufacturing issue with the tires. I've never seen that happen.

Mine are still good at 9300 miles. Didn't see anything to be concerned about when I rotated them a few weeks ago.

Is it just that one spot on that one tire, or both tires in multiple spots?

It looks to me that you locked up the front tires on a sharp edged surface briefly or have done engaged ABS on a harsh surface.

I wouldn't necessarily worry about it that much.

That doesn't look good, does it.

Anyone know if Nissan put "B" grade tires on the Leaf (doubtful as there may not even be "B" grade of this particular tire)

Armand said:

While checking tire pressure today, I noticed the fronts had serious flaking. The car came with Bridgestone Ecopia on it. Pictures below. This has only happened on the front tires. I regularly check tire pressure. They are currently set at 37, just slightly above the recommended 36. I plan to take it to the dealer. Any ideas what could be causing it? Thanks in advance.

http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k563/af1999/IMG_1467.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k563/af1999/IMG_1466.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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About 10 years ago, Kumho had one batch of autocross tires that chunked in the same way. The same defect was reported by many many autoxers. Your pics, blurry as they are, look like the defect is of the same type. Yours is the first case I've seen reported though, so I don't know if there is a bunch of Ecopias that exhibit the same defect. Here are pics of my Kumhos, from June 2002:

aqn said:

Here are pics of my Kumhos, from June 2002

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Yeah, but that doesn't look much different than a tire that's been pushed hard and seen some decent slip-angle - though I could see it caused by a tire compound that is too soft...

Here's what I did to some all season Michelins on a rough surface auto-x in a previous vehicle. This was the worst tire. The rest looked more like your auto-x tires. Click to see hi-res image.

aqn said:

Here are pics of my Kumhos, from June 2002

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drees said:

Yeah, but that doesn't look much different than a tire that's been pushed hard and seen some decent slip-angle

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If all Kumho V700's exhibited that behavior then it would have been a non-issue. The important point is that a wide variety of machinery/drivers experienced that defect, nationwide. No other set of autox tires that I had in the ten years of autox exhibited that kind of wear/defect. I had used both Kumhos and Hoosiers.

drees said:

Here's what I did to some all season Michelins on a rough surface auto-x in a previous vehicle. This was the worst tire. The rest looked more like your auto-x tires.

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Your tire is evenly abraded all over. My tires, and the OP's tire (from what I can see), had chunks missing from the edges of the tread blocks, yet the rest of the tread looked normal.

Thanks for the responses. The back tires look OK but I think that's because they are not subject to the same frictional forces as the front tires. The damage is spread evenly across the entire surface of the front tires. No ABS situation. No hard driving. Just the good old Highway 101, 60 miles daily, 4 days a week for the past month and a half. It seems to me this is due to a batch of soft tire compound. I did have enough time to stop at a Bridgestone tire shop. The guy acknowledged it was very unusual and he said he had not seen any reports on these tires. The store manager wasn't in so he asked me to come back on Monday. My next stop is the dealer first thing tomorrow. These tires will not last much longer the way they are coming off. I have never been fond of Bridgestones.

Are the yellow-colored stripes part of embedded cords?

Looks "abby-normal" to me.

aqn said:

drees said:

Here's what I did to some all season Michelins on a rough surface auto-x in a previous vehicle. This was the worst tire. The rest looked more like your auto-x tires.

Click to expand...

Your tire is evenly abraded all over. My tires, and the OP's tire (from what I can see), had chunks missing from the edges of the tread blocks, yet the rest of the tread looked normal.

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Yeah, unfortunately I don't have pics of the other tires, but those looked a lot more like yours, where there was only heavy abrasion wear on the outer edge of the outer rows. Check out the pics from this guy's tires - not much different than yours: http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=536039" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyway, back to the OP's tires - need some good pics of the tires (like aqn's which are awesome) to tell.

My LEAF's tires show normal wear except on the outside shoulder due to my habit of taking corners a bit aggressively - but nothing where the leading edge is showing abrasion wear like that.

IMO the OP's looks like it hit some sort of fairly sharp object under braking - like hitting a raised metal plate you'd see in a construction zone. If there was abrasion wear like that all around the tire (which doesn't appear to be the case from the pictures) then I'd be more likely to suspect a defect.

drees said:

IMO the OP's looks like it hit some sort of fairly sharp object under braking - like hitting a raised metal plate you'd see in a construction zone.

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That was my first thought...some kind of road debris.

You might rotate them and see how it goes. Otherwise apply some forgetaboutit.

smkettner said:

You might rotate them and see how it goes. Otherwise apply some forgetaboutit.

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Yes - except tire warranties are heavily weighted on wear/mileage, so if these are to be replaced under a pro-rated warranty, the sooner the better.

What is the mileage warranty for these tires anyway?

LakeLeaf said:

What is the mileage warranty for these tires anyway?

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Treadlife Warranty: 5 Years / 65,000 Miles
Uniformity Warranty: First 1/32" of wear
Workmanship & Materials Warranty: 5 Years / Free replacement first 3 years, then prorated until 2/32" remaining depth.
Manufacturer's Road Hazard Warranty: None

Took the car to the dealer today. Tires were inspected and deemed defective. Going back on Wenesday for replacements which needed to be ordered. Will update the board when the job is done.

Are they replacing all four or just the fronts? If just the fronts, I'd have them put the current rear tires on the front, and see if they do the same over then next 1000 miles or so.

A quick update on this. The dealer replaced the front tires. I requested the new tires be put on the back wheels but when I inspected them afterwards, I saw that the fronts had one new and one old. That will do for me. We'll be able to see if the old tire does the same thing.

I spoke to the service manager afterwards about the other two tires. He said he was pushing to get the other two replaced and was awaiting an update from engineering. The saga continues...

That is typical dealer quality right there :roll:

This what I am talking about when there is always something to fix coming home from the shop.

Not good! One of the back tires blew out on the free way. Waiting to get towed to the dealer. This time the car wil not leave the shop until I have some assurance I have safe tires on this car. I have zero confidence in these tires but I seem to be the odd one out. There is no other report of defective ecopia tires as far as I can tell. Any suggestions?