irieblue

Well today I was driving along HWY 85 in northern CA with no debris in sight (xcept for the grooves for rain in the road), and all of a sudden I hear what sounds like debris flapping around in the right front wheel well. Low and behold the tire is beginning to shred !!!

This is the original Goodyear tires that came on my 2006 RX 400h with only 20,000 miles under it. The Vehicle gets serviced every 5000 Miles at the same dealership. I also brought it in at 19,000 miles to have an iPod adapter hooked up. Silly me for thinking lexus would have checked the tires for wear, especially since they "claimed" to have done an Alignment at 10,000 Miles.

But "Sir" we don't check the tires if you bring it in for and iPod connection. Yeah but these are the same ****'s that forgot to plug the antenna back into the radio after they hooked the ipod adapter up (but that's another story).

On a good note, my Lexus dealership is replacing both front tires "free" of charge (if I pick up the cost of the back ones), and they are also eating the cost of the alignment. Also Since it was due, I am having them perform the 20,000 mile "A class" service (A**hole service?)is how it's written on the work order (oil change anyone) for the tune of $6xx.00. Me thinks i'm not getting any favors here...

To make my blood boil even more I have to listen to the F'heads tell me it's the electric motors and their massive torque that's making these tires only last 20,000 miles.

Yeah right buddy, my wife is doing hot laps in her RX 400h.

Couple of questions for you guys , what did you pay for your 20K Service, what exactly do they do?

I was offered a chance to have the tires replace with Michelins, but frankly I think that's an even worse proposition than the Goodyears.

And less anyone tell me that michelin's quality hasn't gone down in recent times , let me refer you to Michelin being kicked out of F1 (and their disastarous consequence in F1 at indy), and (2) the current Motor GP racing season where it's obvious they are not in the same league as Bridgestone..

To Top it off, I called 1800-25-Lexus and they informed me that the OEM goddyears on my 2006 RX 400h are "high performance" and that 20,000 miles is what they are rated at. *Sigh* What say you folks here? What has your tire experience been on the RX400h.

RX400h

If you wann see what it should take to wear tires out look at this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tgcioblh0XY
This was done at 25000 miles. Look at the front right tire after the car stoppes you will see the shredding if you look carefully.

herbvdh

I have the Michellin's on from the factory (spare was also Michellin)Vehicle was built 6/2005 I have 18600 miles on them without any signs of abnormal wear. Recently I got to see a new one of these tires and mine look new yet. When I had my Prius the Good (BAD) Year tires were shot and unsafe to use at 17,000 miles.If I were you call the dealer up and tell them you would like the Michellin's. Go to tirerack.com and see the ratings for both. I am not employed by either tire company or distributor.

BobBass

Go With The Michelins!

JimsGX

I agree that the Michelins are decent tires. I have 12k miles plus on mine and they're holding up well. I run them at 33psi.

oldcajun

At 13000 miles on my 2006 RX400h I noted that the inside tread on all 4 tires were badly worn. I showed the wear to the tech at the dealer and they agreed that it was abnormal wear and that there was an alignment issue with early 400h's. The alignment was done at no cost and Lexus bought me 4 new tires. I now have 28000 mi, and the new tires are wearing normally. My tires (and the replacements) were Goodyear RSA's

I would expect that 20000 mi is about all the wear you will get from the RSA's but your tire problem looks like what would have happened to my tires had they not been replaced at 13000. Wear on the Michelins is much better than the Goodyears but the harder rubber has less traction. My next tires will be either the Michelins or Bridgestone Alenzas.

Even though my car is serviced every 5000 miles, I check all 4 tires myself every week for unusual wear and pressure.

Steve

ToothDoc

It looks more like alignment problem to me. We have 22,000 miles with the Goodyears and my wife drives it, and I do hot laps in it and we have much less wear than you. We don't even bother to rotate them - but I do notice that the rears wear slower than the fronts and the rears are electric powered and the fronts are engine powered. I also notice that the front inside wheel has a tendency to spin a lot of you put the push the car and turn at the same time. Either case, it appears you have an alignment issue more than a tire wear issue. Even your wear pattern seems to indicate that you have too much camber or you are seriously burning rubber when turning.

joedaddy1

iTrader: (1)

same with our car after ~18k.

beachbum

Go with the Michelins! My R












Go with the Michelins! My RX-350, with 25k miles has had three Goodyears replaced by the dealer. The car still sounds like it's running on snow tires. My Highlander, with Michelins and 40k has much less tires noise.




x-350

wstr75

Our 2006 400h had Goodyears and they were dangerously worn out at 13K miles. We replaced with Bridgestone Alenzas. 12K miles later, the Alenzas still look new. We are also keeping a close watch on alignment, too, as the car's rear wheels were part of the earlier problem.

I'm finding that each tire manufacturer has a sweet spot. Michellin LTX series for our present truck and previous SUVs last as much as 80K+ miles, whereas the Michellin Pilot series on my previous RL were gone at 20K miles. I'd say it appears Bridgestone's Potenza and Alenza series for 17 and 18 inch passenger cars are the ticket for folks like me who want all-weather performance AND long wearing tires.

bunka

I traded in my 2004GX on a 2006 Highlander and am having similar wear issues on the same exact Good-ridence tires. To the OP who quoted Michelin's F1 issues, don't get confussed with F1 and consumer tires, they have next to nothing in common (contrary to advertising). Our prior experience with Michelin's demostrates that they are FAR more consistant (good quality) than other tires (especially consumer Bridgestones) and do tend to last FAR longer than most other brands. Sometimes you DO get what you pay for. Of course, since mine if a Toyota, I am certain I won't be seeing any "dealer participation" like the OP is getting but the info on this thread has been VERY helpful to make me aware that we are not alone. Great site as always. I was on the other sites and they had nothing on the tire wear.

CardinalRG

My dealer, JM Lexus, insisted that my alignment was within specs when I brought the 400h in and showed abnormal inside edge wear. I thought the camber was incorrect. They said the Goodyear tires just did not last long and I needed to switch to Michelins. Yeah, right! IF they were that bad they would be worn all over, not just the inside edge.

The LF got so bad it was down to the cord so I switched to the spare.

At 26K I took it to an independent alignment shop after I put new Michelins on it. There I found out the camber was OK but the toe-in was off both front and rear. So now I am getting slightly better mileage and not seeing any signs of unusual wear so far.

At the recent Taste of Lexus event I spoke to the Michelin rep. Before I said anything about it, he asked if I had problems with unusual inside edge wear. Bingo! He said Michelin was aware of the problem and was talking to Lexus about it because they did not want it to be blamed on their tires.

Jerry

Mark400h

After making a complaint to both Better Business Bureau and Corporate Lexus with the note below, we received phone calls from Corp Lexus offering us reimbursement of our cost for replacing these inferior and unsafe tires. Corp Lexus encourages those of us who own 2006 and earlier 400hs to voice our complain directly to the headquarter so they can address this situation immediately. We encourage you all to make your voice heard:

Lexus Customer Satisfaction at 1-800-255-3987 (option #4), Monday through Friday, 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., or Saturday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Pacific Time.

Mark (Livermore)

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As owner of 2006 Lexus 400hs, we were used as guinea pigs of Lexus' 1st 400hs -- OE tires of inferior quality + victim of alignment issues. We would like to file a formal complaint.

On Nov. 30, I took my 400h to the dealer for the 10K service. It was the same dealership where it gets serviced every 5000 miles. The dealer phoned to tell me that all 4 tires must be replaced because of badly worn inside tread. I was shocked! What? At 19,562 miles? Just like every other car I owned before, I expected to replace them at 40K-60K miles. The dealer said that the OE Goodyear Eagle RS-A 235/55VR18 tires usually last about 20K miles. Shocked again! I would not have bought that car if I had known this. The only thing mentioned on the window sticker was “235/55VR18 All-Season Tires.” I then got on the phone with a friend who bought the same car at the same dealer6 months earlier than I did. She said that she just paid $940 for 4 new tires a few days ago for the same problem. When asked why at such a low mileage, the dealer said because it’s a hybrid car and it is surprising that hers lasted until 32K miles and recommended Michelin over Goodyear. We
scanned the internet and learned that many out there share the same question and confusion. We were never informed by Lexus that earlier 400hs had alignment issues. Lexus should recall all earlier 400hs to address this issue.

We were never informed by anyone of the fact that the earlier 400hs had alignment issues. Lexus should have recalled all the earlier 400hs to address the issue. We were never informed that the OE tires on these expensive 400h suvs would need to be replaced roughly every 20K. On the average, a car with average quality tires would need replacement roughly every 40K-60K, which should be the norm.

We believe that we have been misinformed by Lexus and should not have to pay for Lexus responsibility of putting these Goodyear Eagle RS-A tires on such luxurious cars and make the consumers pay for the inferior quality. Since we were told by the dealer that the tire performance was due to the fact that they were running a “hybrid” car, then it is a design issue that would have required Lexus to install a different set of tires. Some of us would have opted for a different car or even a totally different make if it means paying about $1000 for every 20K we drive just on tire replacement. We are also extremely disappointed by Lexus’ inaction knowing such widely-discussed problem. Lexus cars are supposed to be luxurious as well as reliable. Another question is, why would the tires be abnormally worn just on the inside edge?

We request that Lexus immediately address our issue with the OE Goodyear Eagle RS-A tires.

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herbvdh

Mark400h:
I would also file a complaint with the NHTSA on Good Year tires I did that with my Prius where they only lasted 17,000 miles and that was way to much. My 2006 RX400h came from the factory with Michellin's which are fine at 24,050 miles. Looking at them now they will go to 50,000 miles easily.

Still gong great at 31,000 miles

19psi

wow. first of all, as a professional certified lexus tech, goodyears are junk. they got the contract because they were cheaper.
you want a good tire, get a kumho. all the performance of a michelin at half the price.
i really haven't seen that many rx models with that kind of wear on the inside unless the alignment was way off. also, i don't remember camber being a problem on them, but it may not affect all the cars.
also, on every high end car i work on, tires are lucly to get to 20 or 25k miles. they are all softer rubber for performance. the only cars these days that get 40+k miles are the economoy tires fitted on kia', hyundai, corollas, civics, etc.