As most of you remember, I had some real problems keeping air in my brand-new RE01Rs at Wake the Dragon. With a lot of good help, they were nursmaided through, but I worried about them constantly during the Saturday drive, and on the way home. All was ultimately OK, thank goodness.

Upon returning home, I contacted the Bridgestone/Firestone Customer service group, mainly to explain the wierdness of the situation and ask for guidance. Secondarily, I was not too pleased with the local Bridgestone independent store that installed the tires, and I told them so.

Bridgestone has agreed, at their expense, to do a full inspection of all 4 of my tires, including whatever is necessary to get to the root of the problem. They are going to do this at a Company-owned store, so I do not have to deal with the idiots that installed them again.

If a manufacturing defect is found, they will be replaced on the spot. If damage was done during mounting, my recourse is back with the independent dealer. After thinking about this, I've decided it is fair, and even somewhat above and beyond - they could have simply sent me back to the dealer who installed them to handle the whole thing. I don't need more rim gouges, and bi***ing about low-profile tires!!

I go in Saturday morning. Can't WAIT to have this particular problem behind me, whatever the cause and cure.

Dave

 

Good luck with everything. I was sitting next to you watching the fiasco with Billman and his bum compressor before the waterfall tour on Saturday.

-Mike

 

I was watching from my porch, and told you about the tire...

Good luck.

 

I was just glad I was with a group of people who knew what to do, and that it all worked out.

This thread is mainly to document how well Bridgestone/Firestone support their (relatively expensive) performance tires. So far, I'm impressed!

Hopefully all will be fine, because the RE01Rs, when they have air, are FAR superior to the RE050s I've run on the Dragon until now.

And Billman and I both have new compressors

Dave

 

Will be watching this thread for an update

 

Well, interesting morning. Firestone Company store in Durham was most accomodating, and allowed me to watch the whole process.

Right front (one that went flat at the Dragon) had a patch of bead about 2 1/2" stripped down to the belt. Obviously, the people who mounted them knew it, because the debris was not found inside the tire itself. Chunk that was missing was about 2 1/2"x 1/2".

Left front had a tear in the bead approximately 6" long but was not missing a chunk. Didn't bother to unmount the rears; they are harder to mount and almost ertainly have similar damage. Ordered 4 new tires on the spot.

Lesson learned: Make sure your tire installer has appropriate equipment for installing this type of tire! They go on the rims very easily with the right equipment.

So, Firestone Customer Service and I will be demanding a full refund from the original dealer in Mebane. I've got the inspection write-up and will get pictures of the damage when my new tires come in next week.

My biggest fear was getting the things off the rims and not finding a cause, and that did not happen, obviously. Thank goodness I didn't suffer a catastrophic tire failure while on the Dragon - it could have been much, much worse!

Again, thanks to all that helped in this episode, and see you all at Fontana in September!

Dave

 

Good write-up Dave.....Seems latly, that it's very hard to find a tire dealer that has the correct equiptment to do the installs on the newer generation wheels etc....They don't want to invest the money, in the "High-Dollar" equiptment that it takes to mount the tires...!!!! Then they want to pay their "Tire-Jocks" very minimal wages, so they don't even know or care about the customer's concerns. I know this from my experience very recently....however the installer paid for the damage done to my wheels...but it was still a great bit of greif that I had to deal with...besides the inconvenience....

 

Amen, Denny. The Firestone Company store I went to today has all new stuff, and know how to use it. I got to watch the whole process, and it seems almost impossible to scratch a rim on their equipment. Watching the laser alignment machine in action was a hoot as well. Obviously I will be visiting them in the future. One of the techs there has a '01 S, and the manager I dealt with has an Acura TL with full body kit, dropped, etc.

I think I have found my new tire dealer, and I'm really pleased with response I've gotten from Firestone/Bridgestone Customer Affairs!

Dave

 

Ya mean I shouldn't go to $.99 Tires anymore?

They mount all tires with crow bars and a lot of grease!!!

Glad to hear that its all being taken care of Dave....

See you in the fall!!!

 

Having a trusted tire guy is essential.

I'm glad you found yours.