I just turned 6000 miles on my new ES 350, when one of my tires blew out. The blow out was on the side wall of the tire and not due to running over something. Lexus replaced the tire for free, but from what I gathered they have had several cars experience the same thing recently.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with the Michilen (sp?) tire?

 

No problem here after 14+ months on Michelins.

 

Ouch - sorry to hear about the experience. Can you share what was said that made you consider the possibility of a widespread problem? It's definitely specific to the Michelins?

My wife has just under 9k miles (in less than four months!) on the tires with no problems to report.

 

I'm not a big fan of Michelin tires. As soon as the ones on the ES need replacing, there will be a set of Yokohoma tires in their place.

 

How does getting new tires affect tire pressure monitors? In other words, is it just a sensor that is transferred to the new tires?

 

16K miles on mine, have been rotated twice so far. Even wear, and still a lot of tread left. No issues to date.

 

The RFID tire pressure monitors are built into the valve stems. When the new tires are mounted and inflated to spec, the reset button under the dash lip to the right of the steering column needs to be reset. The multi function display will confirm the reset. This is a combination of what I have read, and what my sales person told me.

 

That confirms one of the 2 buttons there. Anyone know what the other one is for?

 

The second button is the AFS "off" button, I believe.