Falken Tyre Problems
Discussion
Hope this is the right section for this, but I had a pair of Falken 452's fitted to my Focus ST when I bought it from a Ford dealer. They are 14 months old now and 6k miles on them. Plenty of tread still on them, probably 5 to 6mm ( should try harder, I know)
Ever since we had them, we have had inbalance issues. We have had them rebalanced 3 times in the last year, so today, I tried another tyre shop, who are really good. They checked the tyres and found that both of them , internally show the sidewalls are delaminating. The both have at least 50% of the sidewalls showing this. They are both blowing outwards in a large squishy bubble. Reading on the net, people seem to believe that its the roads that have caused this, but we have no problems with the rear Toyos on the car. Has anyone contacted a tyre manufacturer and complained about a defect and got anywhere rather than being fobbed off?
Personally, I do believe they should have lasted the life of the tyre.
Any sensible thoughts would be great. Cheers
Ever since we had them, we have had inbalance issues. We have had them rebalanced 3 times in the last year, so today, I tried another tyre shop, who are really good. They checked the tyres and found that both of them , internally show the sidewalls are delaminating. The both have at least 50% of the sidewalls showing this. They are both blowing outwards in a large squishy bubble. Reading on the net, people seem to believe that its the roads that have caused this, but we have no problems with the rear Toyos on the car. Has anyone contacted a tyre manufacturer and complained about a defect and got anywhere rather than being fobbed off?
Personally, I do believe they should have lasted the life of the tyre.
Any sensible thoughts would be great. Cheers
You say that the sidewalls are de-laminating and this is causing the imbalance issues, but then you also say the balance problems have been there since the tyres were fitted? Are you sure there is any correlation?
Have they always been run at the correct pressure for those tyres, under-inflation can wreak havoc on sidewalls?
Have they always been run at the correct pressure for those tyres, under-inflation can wreak havoc on sidewalls?
Very fussy with my tyre pressures. Car isnt used hard. Cant see any reasoning behind them falling apart. Shown another Pistonheader them tonight and he couldnt believe what he saw. The tyres, I guess went a bit out of balance 'probably' a month after fitting. Being I fell out with the Ford dealership where I got the car from, due to them 'breaking' my car while in for a few niggles after buying it, I went and got them balanced myself locally. Seemed fine for a little while and then it came back. So got them done again at the same place, FOC, as the weights seem to move around the rim about 5mm, so thought they had put them on wrong. Then we just sort of put up with it for a while, as other owners of ST's say they have similar issues, so put it down to a car traight of big wheels. Just decided to try somewhere else to balance them on Saturday and thats what they found. The treadwear is pretty even across the tread. Maybe a little missing more off the outside of the NSF, which is the norm, but other than that a good 5 to 6 mm left on the tyre.
I have Falkens number , which I will have a chat with them in the morning and report back.
I have Falkens number , which I will have a chat with them in the morning and report back.
t tyres then.Just to bring this back up. Falkens are regarded as a 'reputable' tyre, so not as ditch finding as some. The tyres were sent back to Micheldever tyres, who are the Falken importers. This was via a tyre guy across the road from our office, who does our vans and cars.
So, have chased 3 times now. Was told initally that it takes 6 to 8 weeks for a reply and Falken will contact me direct. I have no details of Falkens and the guy at micheldever says they send the calls to them......... Worried that they are now lost 'in hampshire' to be honest, but will be chasing again, as £180 of tyres is £180 of tyres. Really happy with the Good Year Assymetric 2's I replaced them with , quieter , more supple and generally better. Frustrating as to the time it takes to resolve these things....
So, have chased 3 times now. Was told initally that it takes 6 to 8 weeks for a reply and Falken will contact me direct. I have no details of Falkens and the guy at micheldever says they send the calls to them......... Worried that they are now lost 'in hampshire' to be honest, but will be chasing again, as £180 of tyres is £180 of tyres. Really happy with the Good Year Assymetric 2's I replaced them with , quieter , more supple and generally better. Frustrating as to the time it takes to resolve these things....
Justin S said:
They are both blowing outwards in a large squishy bubble.
I was searching for Falken tyre reviews as I have a good pair on the back of my car and wanted to put them on the front as they need changing soon.I was initially worried as I started to read this thread, but the above is just from pot holes and bouncing up kerbs. Any tyre will do the same and having worked in the motortrade I've seen it loads.
Falken are good tyres for the money the 452s are a little noisy partly due to being a directional tyre. They are also produced on the same production lines as Dunlop with the latest tyre technology in their production. They are also very good when it comes to vibration control compared to most other tyres including a lot of leading brand tyres. The complaint the OP has posted is very unusual it would be good if the OP could come back with an outcome of this problem. I have also found the large manufactures very good at dealing professionally with complaints and can air on the side of the customer as a goodwill gesture. The same cant be said for budget tyres.
Bit late, perhaps, to be adding this note, but having abandoned a pair of 'unbalanceable' Goodyear Grand Prix on the front of my Peugeot 406 diesel coupe, I fitted Falken FK452s. No further balance problems, reasonable wear rate, great grip and a sympathetic response from Micheldever when the outer walls were seen to be developing cracks after 4 years and 24000 miles. They contributed towards a pair of replacements - Falkens of course!
I have no quibbles with either the tyres or the company.
I have no quibbles with either the tyres or the company.
to add another post for balance I used to have Contisports on the back of my VRS. Had a vibration problem that got worse and worse and was finally found to be that the tyres had gone 'oval'. (checked with a micrometer)
New FK452s were fitted and the car is quiet, vibration free and the grip is simply stunning. They grip much harder than my Hankooks at the front which, TBH dont do a much better job than the 'infiniti' tyres I swapped them with though of course why the rears developed such a problem could be car, could be tyre, could be previous owner....
New FK452s were fitted and the car is quiet, vibration free and the grip is simply stunning. They grip much harder than my Hankooks at the front which, TBH dont do a much better job than the 'infiniti' tyres I swapped them with though of course why the rears developed such a problem could be car, could be tyre, could be previous owner....
Ran 452s on the Jaguar S Type I had, this is a heavy car 1750kg or so & never saw any problems. My only complaint is they take a long while to run in, typically 500miles. They also aren't great in low temps but then a lot of tyres aren't. I've only had one lot of tyres delaminate & that was some Goodyears years ago.
Well today after what seems a very long time. I have a conclusion. They were faulty. Falken admit them to having a fault and have offered me an 80% credit for them. Thats all that was advised to me today. Seems nuts that as a consumer we have to wait for such a long period of time before a settlement could be reached. It has not exactly made me think 'lets put Falkens back on the car' 'If' the answer was in a reasonable time, maybe, but I must admit to liking the GoodYear Assymetrics 2's on the front , so since the rears are getting low, I have used the credit against another pair of those.
Some years ago I had a set of Falkens on my track Sprint.
They were fine until worn to about 3 mm and then became lethal in the dry (never used in the wet.
My normal lap time for Castle Combe is about 1min 31 sec using 032 Yoki's and with these awful Falken tyres it was reduced to 1min 39 sec and like driving on ice................err not for me I will never use them again.
They were fine until worn to about 3 mm and then became lethal in the dry (never used in the wet.
My normal lap time for Castle Combe is about 1min 31 sec using 032 Yoki's and with these awful Falken tyres it was reduced to 1min 39 sec and like driving on ice................err not for me I will never use them again.
trackerjack said:
Some years ago I had a set of Falkens on my track Sprint.
They were fine until worn to about 3 mm and then became lethal in the dry (never used in the wet.
My normal lap time for Castle Combe is about 1min 31 sec using 032 Yoki's and with these awful Falken tyres it was reduced to 1min 39 sec and like driving on ice................err not for me I will never use them again.
Sorry what do you expect compairing a mid range road tyre to a compotition tyre. They were fine until worn to about 3 mm and then became lethal in the dry (never used in the wet.
My normal lap time for Castle Combe is about 1min 31 sec using 032 Yoki's and with these awful Falken tyres it was reduced to 1min 39 sec and like driving on ice................err not for me I will never use them again.
Justin S said:
Well today after what seems a very long time. I have a conclusion. They were faulty. Falken admit them to having a fault and have offered me an 80% credit for them. Thats all that was advised to me today. Seems nuts that as a consumer we have to wait for such a long period of time before a settlement could be reached. It has not exactly made me think 'lets put Falkens back on the car' 'If' the answer was in a reasonable time, maybe, but I must admit to liking the GoodYear Assymetrics 2's on the front , so since the rears are getting low, I have used the credit against another pair of those.
Agreed this is too long to wait for an adjudication on this matter. The only good thing is you have a positive outcome and can now put your money to the premium Goodyears. It comes as no surprise that the Goodyear are better than the Falken as the Falken is designed to be a mid range product. That said I alway prefured the Ze912 and now Ze914 to the Fk452 tyres anyway. To be honest with margins being squeezed all the time even the premium manufactures are taking longer and longer to give a verdict. Hi all
I was sold the wrong size tyre on Xmas eve, and I see that you're talking about it here.
The Goodyear Asymmetric 2's are awesome tyres. Problem is i have a pair of 30 miles old 215/45 Y17 which were incorrectly fitted to my car so i had to switch back to 215/40 17 (4wd car - the diff almost exploded!) and now i have a massively expensive pair of brand new tyres i will never need.
Any offers from anyone who needs a set in that size?
I was sold the wrong size tyre on Xmas eve, and I see that you're talking about it here.
The Goodyear Asymmetric 2's are awesome tyres. Problem is i have a pair of 30 miles old 215/45 Y17 which were incorrectly fitted to my car so i had to switch back to 215/40 17 (4wd car - the diff almost exploded!) and now i have a massively expensive pair of brand new tyres i will never need.
Any offers from anyone who needs a set in that size?
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