OutlawTita

iTrader: (1)

I got even wear on mine set but after 12K miles they were down to barely 5/32 and I replaced them. This time around I went with Michelin Exalto which is an H rated all season tire. Giving up some performance in hopes of getting more than 1 yr from a set of tires.

Shahryar

I'm about to deal with Hankook's Customer Service. I just sent the e-mail today (8/4/2011) via Hankookusa's website after confirming that both of the rear Hankook V12 tires I purchased for my 2008 IS 350 were defective.

The tires:

(2 x 1008405 - Hankook Ventus V12 Evo K110 - 225/40/18 / 92Y / 280 AA A
for $128.99 each
2 x 1008658 - Hankook Ventus V12 Evo K110 - 255/40/18 / 99Y / 280 AA A
for $162.99 each
Total : $583.96 USD)
.... were purchased 4/28/2011 from Gripston.

These are the first set of Summer Replacement tires (I have Blizzak winter tires I've put on and taken off twice now).

I had them mounted on May 7th from Radial Tire in Silver Spring, MD. I took the car back on May 14th because the ride was really shaky. They told me perhaps it was mounted badly and did the mounting again. The car was driving better, but still not as smooth like it should have been. I tried to give it some time to settle, hearing sometime threads need some time to get smooth. Plus it was hard to keep going back and being separated from my car.

But after a month in mid June I gave up and took the car back to Radial Tire telling them to take as thorough of a look as possible. They told me that the left rear tire was not perfectly round and that was the problem. I wasn't sure what to do at this point. I thought maybe I could live with it but after another month, I decided I couldn't.

I e-mailed Gripston on July 19th informing them of the problem. Alex Nucci, president of Gripston replied on 7/25 saying he could not help me since it had been after 30 days since the purchase. He suggested that I find a place that had the gsp9700 machine on www.gsp9700.com.

I found a place near me called Ye Olde Wheel Shop in Elkride, MD and finally had a chance to go in today. They looked very closely and found that not one but TWO of my rear tires were defective. (They were surprised at this too - the statement was, "Damn, it is the tire"). In both cases the rim was fine. They gave me printouts as well from the machine (attached in case anyone wants to see).

I know it's three months after purchase, I still do feel that Hankook should be responsible for replacing them. So everything I have written here is what I said in the e-mail. If they did agree, when new ones are sent, I will send the defective ones back.

I also am trying to see if I could get them pay me the cost for mounting the two new tires ($50) as well as the extra cost I had to pay today for the diagnosing at Ye Olde Wheel Shop ($60).

A fault in this run around is with Radial Tire in Silver Spring because they should have caught from the start that the tires were the problem thanks to the GSP9700 machine. So I think from now on I will go here to Ye Old Wheel Shoppe. Downside is that mounting/balance is $45 vs $25 at Radial Tire.

I'm not sure what impact there will be (if any) on having the front two tires have about 3ish more months/5k-ish miles of usage versus the new ones I'm hoping I get. (Today during the diagnostic the mileage of my car was 47,288 miles - the car was bought new January 2009)

If anyone's dealt with Hankook's Customer Service - and especially if you have a contact - please chime in.

GS4_Fiend

iTrader: (22)

ANY Major brands will have some defective batch. Yours are one of the bad batch.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

I bought a set of these tires for my car because my Falken 452s were worn out. New vs new, the Hankooks are quieter and grip better. Only time will tell whether they're good tires or not but so far so good. I hated the Falken 452 from day one. If anyone has a choice between these two tires, get the Hankook. Falken tires are some of the crappier tires, minus the Azenis line. Those are pretty decent for performance if that's your thing.

I was going to buy some Michelin PS2, but I don't really care for my car any more so I bought cheaper tires. Was definitely surprised at how they performed for the money.

Shahryar

Yeah maybe. But BOTH rear tires being bad? (possibly even the front right which is on a bent rim right now so we don't know for sure yet - but since the front left one was ok, I'm thinking this would be ok too). I'll keep an eye out more now for thoughts on the Hankook. I just saw another post possibly blaming their Hankook V12 for steering wheel not coming back (Here's a link to my comment) which is a separate left pull issue I'm dealing with right now and I think related to the tires as well.

Hankook replied and I think they're going to work with the shop I went to yesterday to replace the rear tires. (At least that's what I'm hoping, they haven't outright said that yet - they're asking questions about the shop, if they sell hankook etc.)

Going further into the pull issue which I didn't get into in my previous post on this thread, I had my alignment done in February and took the car back again after the mounting and revisits of the new tires and it seems the alignment should be ok. They said the left toe had come out possibly from hitting a pothole and adjusted it. I felt the same pull leaving the place.

Something I may try is to switch the left and right tires on the fronts (as recommended at the shop yesterday and also in this post.

Debonair

I am not surprised by you having two bad tires together, they are made and shipped in batches.

Two of the four Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS tires I put on my OE wheels were defective. Tire Rack did not want to help because I purchased them FROM THEM through a relative who worked at a shop that was no longer in business - we are talking 2-3 weeks from purchase and I had all the paperwork. I even paid out of my pocket to have them checked. Thanks Tire Rack.

Americas Tire stepped up and warrantied them for me even though they had nothing to do with the sale and stood to make no money from me. I bet you know who I buy tires from now.

Shahryar

Yesterday we looked at the right rear tire in detail. After about 5k miles it had the inner wearing at .2mm more than the outer. Not sure if it helps but attached are my alignment specs:

Assuming Hankook is willing to work with me and replace my tires, when I'm back at the show, I'll take a deeper look w/ the tech to see how the other tires are wearing.

Shahryar

What about Bridgestone themselves? Would they have stepped up to help you? I was kind of annoyed that Gripston wouldn't do anything for me and didn't reply to my further messages. Going forward, I'd like to be able to get my tires from a place a B&M place where I can mount there as well and even have access to get alignment done. Seems the most likely way I can leave the place making sure my car's driving 100% assuming the issue isn't something beyond that.

Debonair

Bridgestone told me to go to a certified retailer and they would handle it. The Goodyear where I paid to have them checked declined to help even though they were a certified retailer of Bridgestone and I had just lined their pockets. Americas Tire stepped up and took care of it. I have many personal connections for tires and service but they won my business even if I have to pay few bucks more for the mount and balance.

I still get my alignments for close to free so i can't complain.

sway162

iTrader: (5)

I have been on my set of evo v12s for about 1.5k miles now. Staggered: 225/35/19 and 245/35/19. PSI to 38 fronts 40 back.

Tires are def more quiet compare to Generals UHP, Goodyear eagle something, and dunlop sp signatures. I felt stable and in control with these EVOs on. I actually felt as if I was on 16s with these 19" tires. lol The Generals were crap....I felt very unstable at highway speed...and they were crap in rain along with the dunlops. I did however felt that the Generals and dunlops felt better on turns. EVOs are soft like what others said. I only use for DD so that doesn't really bother me. I am most worried on tread life since I am lowered 2"+.

zig@tr

In our track testing and road drive I liked the Hankook overall, I thought the tire was "good" at everything but not particularly "great" at any one thing. Which, in the tire industry is pretty significant because sometimes if a tire is really good at one particular thing it will sacrifice in other areas. Like for instance a tire which has impressive dry road grip usually wears quicker than other tires. So with all of the give and take that goes into a max performance summer tire, the Hankook is very well balanced and does "good" in about anything you can throw at it. I know one of the biggest things I hear customers say they like is the longer tread life, so while there are similarly priced tires in the max performance tire category the Hankook Ventus V12 is a great choice to compliment a sporty vehicle which is not particularly driven to its limits. Take a look at some of test results and videos of the tire testing for more info.





http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/videoDisplay.jsp?ttid=149&affiliate=DZ1

Supremeng

I'm thinking of buying these from Sears. My IS250 is basically stock with the original 18in. wheels but the website is telling me they won't fit. Can anyone confirm?

FRONT: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...87000P?prdNo=7
REAR:http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...0000P?prdNo=10

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

Something like that is what separates the larger brand names (Michelin and Bridgestone) vs. the smaller brand names like Hankook... Michelin and Bridgestone (I did just take a new job working for Bridgestone, again!) have excellent customer satisfaction policies and off top of my head, you have 2/32" worth of tread wear to report a ride disturbance issue, so, on most tires, 1/4 of the tires life is allowable... Had you come into my shop with a Bridgestone tire with that type of issue, especially only a few months old, I would have just replaced it, no questions asked!


Unfortunately, this is not entirely correct. Tires are made individually, one by one. Especially when we are talking about ride quality issues, something happened with how one of the belts was laid down in the factory - it wasn't perfectly straight, it overlapped a little too much, etc. After the belts are laid and the layers of rubber (there is so little rubber in a tire, its hard to call it rubber anymore even) each individual tire is put in a mold where a bladder of hot water and/or steam is inflated inside of the tire - this is where things can go wrong and make a tire have a heavy or high spot, as the OP's obviously do - the bladder doesn't inflate perfectly or sticks to the internal layer of the tire pushing it around a bit. Whats crazy about this is that you could do 10 tires in a row in the same mold and have a problem with 0, 1 or more in that "batch" of tires. Also, most tires with ride quality issues are found at the factory in a quality test, at least the major brands are, I have no idea about the smaller brands. Bridgestone checks every single tire. I do not know what other companies policies currently are, but I do know some only check 10% or less of the tires going out...

And one more thing - its not that there is a bad tire, but how the manufacturer deals with it... It would seem Hankook is performing poorly in this area...

If the pull changes direction, you have a tire issue, period...

Places like Americas Tire (I was an assistant manager there for 5 years) understand that its all about customer service in this industry... We have the exact same theory at Firestone / Expert Tire / Bridgestone now... We get reimbursed from the manufacturer for the warrantied tires - its kind of a pain, but it works out.


Definitely... Any retailer of Bridgestone tires is capable of starting a warranty claim...


Here's the deal with brand name tires vs. cheapie tires... Typically, the major brand names are going to outperform the cheaper tires, and some will argue if its worth the cost - I get that... One thing I have definitely seen though is that overall, there are fewer issues with the major brand names, and, when there are issues, these guys are going to take care of you, period... I remember having such a tough time getting credit for a few defective cheaper brand names that I just tossed them and took the hit - it wasn't worth my time...

dorkacho

iTrader: (5)

Hi everyone,

Is hankook k110 v12 the same thing as ventus?

What would be a good price for a set of these at 225/35/19 , and 265/30/19?

Also, if you buy these in 19" and previously own 18" stock, do you buy 1 more as spare tire in your trunk ?
Thanks

dorkacho

iTrader: (5)

Does anyone know where to get the Hankook Ventus v12 for the best price? Thanks !