Michelin tires are now seriously cracked or have potential safety hazards

Recently, many FAW-Volkswagen Audi A4L car owners have reported to the vehicle quality network that the Michelin tires equipped with the vehicle have a more serious cracking phenomenon, which has aroused the great attention of the vehicle quality network. According to the data of the car quality network, michelin tire cracking complaints involve multiple brands and models, and the cracking situation is more serious, and even dozens of "puncture" complaints have occurred, so it is not excluded that there is a possibility of defects in tire product quality.

Complaints of cracked tyres involved a number of models

Most often occurs during the 1-3 years of use

According to the statistics of the vehicle quality network, between 2018 and April 2022, the number of complaints in Michelin tires was 392, of which the proportion of "tire cracking" problems was as high as 72%. In addition to the recently concentrated Audi A4L models, there are also nearly 100 models of 39 car brands, and the cracking parts are mainly concentrated in the tire wall and tire crown, and the serious ones have shown deep annular cracks and tire wall ruptures.

Judging from the time of the owner's problem, the mileage of the vehicle and the age of the vehicle, the tire cracking situation is basically concentrated in the use of the vehicle for about 1-3 years, and the vehicle mileage is between 15,000-35,000 kilometers. As shown in the figure above, the complaints of new cars and quasi-new cars accounted for as high as 56.3%, which shows that the tire cracking problem occurs in the non-replacement cycle of the tire, and it is not the aging and cracking caused by the overdue use of the tire.

According to the feedback of Shandong car owner Mr. Zhao to the car quality network, the four tires of the Audi A4L he purchased have different degrees of tire cracking. When the situation was discovered and the official customer service of the tire was contacted at the first time, but the reply of normal cracking was obtained, Mr. Zhao expressed his inability to accept the answer and suspected that the original tire had quality defects.

The "dark disease" of the tire reflects the hidden danger of defects

According to the "GB/T11206-2009 Rubber Aging Surface Crack Law", the grade of the crack width of the rubber surface crack is divided, and the tire reaches the level of 3 is a serious or most serious crack level, and the tire needs to be replaced in time. According to the complaint data of the car quality network, there are 46 cases of tire bursts in Michelin tire complaints, and Mr. Du of Heilongjiang once said: "The Audi A4L I drive will often have side punctures and question the quality of the tires." In other tire complaint cases, the cracking site is also more common in the tire wall part, and Mr. Wei in Zhejiang has also had such a situation.

In the past reports, the car quality network has consulted professionals on tire cracking and other situations, and there are many factors of tire cracking, the most fatal of which is that tire manufacturers use unqualified carcass adhesives, resulting in a great reduction in tire tear resistance and strength. Since Michelin tire manufacturers have not responded positively to cases such as tire cracking, the above possibilities cannot be ruled out.

The resolution rate is less than 16% Consumer rights protection is a difficult point

When consumers face the problem of tire complaints and rights protection, they often do not know where to start, and the car quality network has consulted relevant experts on this issue, experts said: "Tire rights protection problems, first of all, to draw out the responsibility, followed by professional testing, and the difficulty of consumer complaints about tire problems lies in this." Ma Liangqing, director of the National Rubber Tire Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, also expressed the same view. For consumers in a weak position, the vast majority of people are discouraged from the identification process, and Jiang Suhua, a senior partner at Yingke Law Firm, has also said that "many consumers have withdrawn considering the cost problem."

The Michelin tire purchased by Mr. Cai in Shandong Province was found to have bulges and cracks after a year of use, and immediately complained about it. During the entire processing process, Mr. Cai recorded the whole process and described it to the car quality network: "For the first time, the after-sales identification personnel believed that the damage caused by the impact of the tire was not a quality problem, and Mr. Cai did not recognize it. After that, the tire manufacturer's personnel conducted a re-inspection, saying: "The tire dent is not a bulge phenomenon and is marked, and it is finally determined that there is no quality problem in the tire." ”

There are many experiences such as Mr. Cai, most of the tire cracking problems encountered by car owners have not been properly solved, and the demands of tire companies for car owners are usually to avoid the heavy and light, and even deny that there are quality problems, and finally the problems are often concentrated in 4S stores. Judging from the results of the complaint handling that has been resolved so far, most of them are 4S stores that have made a commitment to replace the tires to consumers, or handled them in the form of gift compensation. Of course, the owner of the solved car is only the tip of the iceberg, according to the data of the car quality network, as of the press release, the resolution rate of Michelin tire complaints is less than 16%, which is significantly lower than the overall tire complaint resolution level, and the head enterprise is far away.

At present, when consumers encounter tire problems, they will first contact and communicate with car companies or 4S stores, thus ignoring the existence of tire brands, but making consumers complain. From the perspective of automakers, they have become "back cookers", silently bearing the burden that should not be borne.

As a tire manufacturer, in the face of the problem did not use a positive attitude and practice to respond to consumers, which will cause consumer dissatisfaction, while vague official reply will also lead to the majority of consumer dissatisfaction, after the accumulation of time, consumers will gradually lose the confidence of the tire brand, and even lead to a gradual decrease in market share.

Specific to the complaints such as cracking and puncture of Michelin tires that appeared in this concentration, are they caused by their product quality defects? This also requires a comprehensive study of the tire production batch and the fault phenomenon. Here, the car quality network calls on relevant tire manufacturers to face up to the problem, actively solve the problem for the owner, and eliminate the safety hazard in time.