so i jumped on the lrr band wagon.

[kit352]

just a quick update on these tires. i was finally able to break the car out of snow to mount the tires. oem tires weighed in at 16 lbs and these are 17.5 lbs. they mounted up no issues but were very stiff for such a small tire.

Initial driving impressions arent that good. the car is very twitchy in the rear (only ones i put one). my front are new regular tires since i was concerned about all weather handling. Its very easy to slide out the rear on corners now. It reminds me of when you put a brand new motorcycle tire on a bike, It just slides until broken in. Ive put a decent amount of miles on the car and they havent changed grip at all. ive had to slow down about 10mph in the corners so my back end doesnt slide. Ive called kumho about it and they said the llr tires need time to break in. They also said they dont like the cold very much either and its further aggrivating my issues. ill give it a few more weeks but as of right now im gonna say they are a bit dangerous in these conditions. im not usre how they would do in the hot weather but i feel the twitchyness would still be there.

[kit352]

so these tires are officially garbage. with just over a month on them all 4 sidewalls have split. i only had the pressure set to 35 psi also. when i took the car to the kumho repe couldnt believe it. when he removed the tires the bead on them had cracks all on the inside which is what caused the air to escape into the sidewalls. when he tried to warranty them for me kumho denied the claim for the following reasons which i though was awesome.

1-these tires are very hard compound and in severe weather ie cold can become brittle.
2-these tires can only be mounted on very specialized machines which normal garages dont have due to the hard compound design
3- werent oem size for my car ( i can understand that one but it lead to other questions)
4- my car wasnt originally equiped with lrr tires there for arent suitable replacements

the best was when i asked which cars these are suited for. the kumho hq guy told me no car currently available in the us is equiped to run these tires. he went on to say that no car sold that runs lrr tires uses this particular tire size. so basically in a nut shell they are selling tires with no warranty but claim they do. kumho has reached the same level as uniroyal in my book. absolutely zero assistance with warranty claims. both will fight tooth and nail against you even when an authorized shop is on your side. back to the super cheap pepboys tires. ill post pics later is needed or wanted.

[theholycow]

Wow, that's pretty awful. I was interested in some Kumhos before but I don't think I am anymore. They could use all four of those same excuses against me.

I cannot believe that they would say that first one at all. That makes them a negligent manufacturer. They are sold as "all season" and Massachusetts is not Alaska; MA weather is common.

[kit352]

basically they gave me a list of reasons why they wont warranty it and left it at that. i didnt even argue really. when they are that far deep into the excuses nothing will change there mind. the warranty clearly states that the tires loses it warranty if its fitted on a car that doesnt take it oem and the lrr tires carries the extra claim of it must be originally equiped on said car as well. those 2 reasons alone make it impossible to fit on any sold in the us. hell sears said the only car they could find that took those tire sizes stock was a 1998 toyota corolla le never mind the lrr part.
In there defense about the cold weather thing they had warnings all over it about poor driving in the cold. I was even told again when i purchased it and when i read the reviews. i assumed it ment traction not life.

lesson learned. stay away from kumho. cost me $160 bucks to warn people. I didnt even see a mileage gain either plus they drove like crap.

[bobc455]

Thanks for the heads up. I never liked Kuhmos out of instinct, but never had a good factual basis. Now I do.

I've been installing lots of different tires for people lately, but I will recommend against Kuhmos for sure.

-BC

[theholycow]

Can anyone find the warranty and the cold weather warnings on kumhousa.com? That'd make it easy to spread the word on other forums.

Edit: The one on tirerack doesn't have any of that fine print.

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted by kit352

so these tires are officially garbage. with just over a month on them all 4 sidewalls have split. i only had the pressure set to 35 psi also. when i took the car to the kumho repe couldnt believe it. when he removed the tires the bead on them had cracks all on the inside which is what caused the air to escape into the sidewalls. when he tried to warranty them for me kumho denied the claim for the following reasons which i though was awesome.

1-these tires are very hard compound and in severe weather ie cold can become brittle.
2-these tires can only be mounted on very specialized machines which normal garages dont have due to the hard compound design
3- werent oem size for my car ( i can understand that one but it lead to other questions)
4- my car wasnt originally equiped with lrr tires there for arent suitable replacements

the best was when i asked which cars these are suited for. the kumho hq guy told me no car currently available in the us is equiped to run these tires. he went on to say that no car sold that runs lrr tires uses this particular tire size. so basically in a nut shell they are selling tires with no warranty but claim they do. kumho has reached the same level as uniroyal in my book. absolutely zero assistance with warranty claims. both will fight tooth and nail against you even when an authorized shop is on your side. back to the super cheap pepboys tires. ill post pics later is needed or wanted.

I'm just trying to understand.

1) What's the original tire size on your vehicle and what size did you put on?
2) Did you get pictures of the split sidewalls? If not, describe them - radial cracks, cirmferential cracks, diagonal cracks, crazing?
3) In a later post, you mention a low temperature warning. Could you document that? What did it say?

[kit352]

ill find the cold weather thing in a bit. everything else is clearly in the warranty structure though. regardless the way the basic warranty is written itll void any warranty claim anyway.
unfortunately i didnt take picks of the cracks in the bead. basically they were on the bottom of the bead and on the lower inside. the splitting was in the areas around where the steel belts started. I know because i could see the belts. the splits followed the belt rings. it didnt go completely around the tire but probably about 50% of it i could look and see belts. kumho said improper mounting and cold were to blame for that. their approved shop did it but kumho says they dont have the proper equipment to do it right. actually the guy who put them on and another that took them off said they were the worst tires they ever mounted. again its the stiff compound thing and it is cold out.

in responce to capri-
1- the original tires were i think 175/70-14 and the news i know are 185-65-14. they are different but only the width really changed. I did that for 2 reasons. I could find narrower easily and i was concerned about the warnings about the tires handling very poorly in cold or wet. I figured the extra width would help.
2-no pics of the cracks but i got some of the sidewall bubbles before they let go. iil post them later.
3-ill look for the warning. It was on the tires as a ride precaution but not in the warranty itself. kumho said both need to be considered when the warranty is brought up. Ill look for the sites that i read about that before hand. I think a reviewer on tirerack said the same thing. A bmw he had them on i believe.