Tires and Costco/The Twilight Zone

[late49er]

Hello Everyone,

Recently I was driving home and ran over a metal piece that blew out my right rear Michelin MS tire. The cut was so severe it could not be repaired. I had about 9/12`s remaining tread left. I have taken care of these tires religiously and had Costco balance and rotate them every 4000 miles. They did a good job.

I put on my tacky spare tire and headed to Costco to see what they could do for me under the road hazard guarantee. After talking to them I realized the hammer had fallen. What they said was Michelin doesn`t make a MS tire anymore. Seems it is the MS 2 now and anyway they couldn`t sale me one anyway because the new tire would create a problem with the other 3 because the new tire mixed with the old tire would confuse the awd system. Basically then all they could do was sell me a set of new MS 2 tires and credit me partially for the blown tire. I was then left with the option of selling the three tires on e-bay. Total cost to me for one blown tire,a set of new tires with a partial credit for the one that was blown.

The folks seemed decent enough but I found all of this confusing. I felt like a trapped dog and told them to order the 4 new michelin MS2 tires and limped off on my pitiful spare tire and tried to figure out where to get the bucks for a new set of tires.

When I got home I started thinking that this is not right. I called Michelin, explained the problem and they understood and offered to give me a credit on the tires that were not damaged. They said they did in fact make the MS tire it was just out of stock at the moment. Here is where it gets interesting. I was told to take the car to an independent dealer not Costco and the dealer could sell me the MS 2 tires, with partial credit for the 3 not damaged. I did this and then took the damaged tire back to Costco where they refunded me about $140.00.

Anyway if any of you run into this problem out there. You may want to think about this as a way to save money. I got a new set of MS2 on my Pilot for a net cost to me of $240.00. If I had stayed with Costco it would have cost me over $600.00.

On another point those of you who have used the tacky spare tire know it is not fun to ride around on. It took Costco 4 days to get the tires in stock before they called me. I had the new set of ms2 tires on the next day.

I really don`t understand why Costco doesn`t work with Michelin directly to help their customers in situations like this. I mean blowing one tire out and having to buy a new set of tires is a bitter pill and by stepping to the plate
Costco would have had me back forever. Now probably not.

Anyone out there with problem see if this works for you.

Good luck

[whizmo]

Glad it worked out, but this hyper-sensitivity to "mixing" tires of the same brand, style, wear degree, and size seems ridiculous to me. I don't see any reason you couldn't have simply replaced the damaged tire with a LTX MS or MS2 and driven happily ever after.

- Mark

[late49er]

Hello Mark,

Costco couldn`t find a ms tire in their system anywhere. Indicated that it was unavailable and only the ms2 tire was out there. They said because of the wear of the other tires they would not install only one ms2 tire. Said to do so would damage the awd I believe system.

Seems on a awd vehicle if the tires are worn down a bit putting a new tire of the same make on creates problems.

Agree all of this sounds crazy. I too can`t really understand why you simply cannot install one ms 2 tire. They were adament they would not do it.

[whizmo]

Originally Posted by late49er

Agree all of this sounds crazy. I too can`t really understand why you simply cannot install one ms 2 tire. They were adament they would not do it.

Garages move in strange ways sometimes. Places like Costco compete almost solely on price, so they have little incentive in building long-term relationships with their customers. From their perspective, they avoided making a warranty claim they probably didn't want to bother with, so they're probably happy it worked out the way it did.

- Mark

[mikemcm]

That's all they sell at costco ottawa, ms, I had to special order the ms/2. The Pilot is 99% front wheel drive. If one tire goes, you replace the one tire or two tires if the tread is low. Don't let tire places tell you differently.

[rgillie66]

Originally Posted by mikemcm

The Pilot is 99% front wheel drive.

And you're basing this statement on......what???

[Chris4x4Gill2]

Mixing a new tire in with a slighty used tire will have no noticabel effect on a AWD system. These systems are not locked, they do have the ability to move independently.

In reference to the 99% front drive statement above, I do not have specific knowledge of the Pilot, but for most any AWD system, this is basically true.

The AWD sends the majority of power (All unless slippage is found) to the standard drive wheels (pilot would typically be front wheel drive correct?) Only when slippage occurs does the rear wheels recieve power. the amount fo power sent to the rear wheels will depend on the amount of slippage in the front, the limit is usually in the 60% front / 40% rear range.