woppenhe

I have 5400 miles on the tires and unfortunately have a nail that they tell me is in the forbidden area to repair. The good news is that the pressure reporting system alerted me to the problem with 26# of pressure left so I could drive over to the dealer. The dealer is going to replace the tire for ~$300. I recognize that road hazzards are not covered by the warranty, but I am interested in knowing if anyone else is having a similar issue with their Bridgestone Tires. (Tirerack has these for about $100 less, but I don't have time to fiddle with putting on the spare and waiting for delivery and then finding someone to mount the tire, etc, etc.) According to Tirerack, Bridgestone Tauranza's are not a very popular tire for replacements. Of course the experts who write these reviews are not necessarily very expert, but again, this would be a good place to talk about replacements for the Tauranzas and how they are faring thus far as OEMs. Anyone have to replace these tires prematurely as in this case.

Johnny

I have the same tires as you, and had a flat in the same area you did. The tire was replaced under the tire warranty, so it did not cost me anything. You better inform yourself before you shell out $300. Sounds fishy to me. Call Bridgestone. Tire warranties don't change between Canada and the US. The dealer may be trying to pull one over on you, or doesn't know what he's talking about.

woppenhe

I have read the warranty and don't see how they are obligated to replace a tire with a nail in it. How did you get them to do that. I will show your letter to the Lexus folks.

Johnny

I went in thinking I would have to pay, but they told me the tire warranty covered this type of damage. The puncture was on the tread close to the edge, which is not repairable. Feel free to make them aware of my post. If you check your "Lexus Warranty and Services Guide" page 29, Tire Warranty under "What is Covered" you'll see the Road Hazard Protection Plan is sponsored by Lexus for a period of 36 months. In Canada anyway, the wording is explicit and implies replacement of OEM tires. My tires had 10,000kms on them when this happened. Hey, I didn't even have to fight for it...

Good Luck! And don't back down...

rominl

iTrader: (4)

i don't know about other areas, but in cali i highly doubt. i mean, that's tear and wear. you don't expect warranty work if you scratch your bumper. my 2 cents

woppenhe

Actually, the price of the tire was $256 compared to 202 or so on Tirerack, and they charged $25 for labor, 21.12 for tax, and a hazardous waste charege of 1.01, so all in all not too bad. I was more interested in whether the Tauranzas were good enough tires for the LS460 in terms of durability, quietness and ride. I suppose anyone can get a nail. They offered me a tire and general road hazzard option as they were closing for $1K or so, but I figured that I would get rid of the tires rather than have the dealer replace them. We wil see but now I am only $700 ahead on the deal. Since most of them have to be replaced before the 36K coverage limits, they claim that you at least get a free set of tires for taking the coverage. They might have been right on this one.

Tires are not covered by lexus. It is a named exclusion:
- Tires, which are covered by a separate warranty provided by the tire manufacturer.

Nospinzone

A nail in the tire is not covered by the car's warranty, however I know my dealer tried to sell me tire road hazard insurance and maybe Woppenhe had this coverage.

Also, sometimes a dealer will help out the customer by declaring a particular part defective and hence covered by the warranty. Once my wife dropped her pocketbook on the seat heater switch on her Infiniti J30t and broke it. She told the Service Manager what she did, and he just wrote it up as a defective switch and replaced it at no charge. Woppehnhe's Service Manager may have determined it was a sidewall failure and hence covered under warranty.

Johnny

I guess the Tire Warranty's list of exclusions are narrower in Canada and include replacement as I read it anyway.

Compare ours to yours, see if they're similar.

Also note the conflicting definitions...

Nospinzone

The US is much different. The Lexus warranty manual states - "The tires that come as original equipment on your vehicle are warranted by their manufacturer and not Lexus."

The Bridgestone warranty does not cover tire damage due to puncture.

sidgriggs

I took delivery of an LS460 in June (May build). When I purchased the car I added oem chrome wheels, which were installed the day of delivery. The next morning, I checked the tire pressure on all 4, with my tire gauge--all 4 were at 33psi, per mfg specs (18" wheels). Looks like everything is fine, but I do make it a habit to manually check my tires every month (always in the morning, after the car has sat overnight, so as to get a good cold tire pressure). When the car was a month old, I checked and all tires were low. I added air to all 4 and decided they must not have seated the new tires well--or something. But, in the past month, I have checked the tires each Sunday morning--and the cold tire pressure (using the same air gauge)has decreased each week, & in every tire. After the last check, I aired all 4 up again! The loss was 2.5 lbs in 3 tires and 3 lbs in tire four. The spare's pressure has remained constant. I am in Dallas, TX, and it is hot here this time of the year. That being said, usually at the first cold snap each year I would loose tire pressure in my prior Lexus models with the tire monitors--I knew, because of the monitor. After 3 months of continued air loss, I took my car to my dealer--they remounted all 4 tires and aired them up to 36 psi. I just checked the tires and all 4 are loosing air as before (approx 1/2 lb per week). I plan to give this a couple more weeks to make sure the air loss continues--But who should I contact "Bridgestone or my Lexus dealer"?

woppenhe

I have no idea, but I would try the dealer first. When I had the flat, the dealer told me that if it was a valve stem leak they would take care of it under warranty as a defect, which sounds as if could be your issue, or for sake of arguement, they might try to tell you that that is a normal amount of air loss. Take it in and see what they say. If they do not take care of it, you can try to get Bridgestone to do it directly. Good luck. In my case, I have not had to put air into any of the tires over 4 months. The were delivered with 45# of pressure, so after a month, I bled them down to 33#, and I have noticed that after they heat up they are usually at 36#. One of the irritants in this system is that you cannot easy tell which tire is represented on the panel. That is an obvious exception to the pursuit of excellence. I had to check each one manually before I identified the one at 28# one afternoon, but at least the system notified me while the vehicle was still driveable.

woppenhe

PS--how do you like the chromes. I had initially ordered them, but then cancelled. I preferred the wheels to be understated, but hat is a personal preference. The style of the vehicle grows on you. At first I preferred the look of the LS430 with the larger trunk, but now, I am happy to be driving the more sleekly styled 460.

sidgriggs

I felt the same way about the style of the car. I had one on order prior to announcement day and when it came in, I turned it down. I also did not like the look of the wheels, but they too, grow on you. This is my sixth Lexus--all have had chrome wheels and tint. My wife has had two RX's--same color inside and out--no chromes. We are all different. But, I dislike having to constantly add air to all four of the tires (the spare has not lost any).

Craig B

I also have the chrome wheels on my car with Dunlop tires. I've also had to add air in my tires from time to time. I thought it's normal...

Craig

sidgriggs

Craig, a tire will normally loose about 2lbs every 3 months, so if you add air 2 or 3 times a year, I would consider it normal. But I'm loosing 2 to 3 lbs every month.