If you've had issues with Continental Procontact TX tires...

[g_444863]

Father with G90 had two blow outs!

 

[Starflyer]

Father with G90 had two blow outs!

All these rants without any description as to what happened. Two blowouts at different times? Potholes? Curbs? While I didn't hit a pothole, I did "attack" a curb at nearly a right angle. And suffered a gouge in the sidewall, but didn't lose any air.

I wonder if I would have done any better if I curbed a Michelin tire exactly the same. I have to believe that most if not all of these tales of woe were the drivers fault since Consumer Reports rates the Conti's highly.

Does Consumer Reports test potholes/curbs?

 

[g_656897]

Starflyer, you bring up very good points regarding data and analysis. We have a broad spectrum of failures discussed in this forum - some with detailed discussion of circumstances of failure, others with limited data. It begs the question how much of these 'rants' should we believe (including my own)? To that question...

Clearly no tire should be designed to withstand a 'nearly right angle' curb shot at any speed of significance. Nor should they be designed to handle large, deep potholes with very sharp edges struck at, say 60 mph. But... let's take the flip side - what off-normal situations should they be designed to withstand? IMHO tires most certainly should be designed to handle shallow, glancing blows, or low to moderate speed impacts with objects of any kind because I would guess of the gazillions of mortals driving, such an event is more routine or expected for the majority of drivers on the road. From my experience many of the tire manufacturers have designed such tires - i.e. robust enough to sustain those events because I've had many of them to date with no consequence.

Clearly on a forum like this we don't have the objective, detailed checklist documenting the circumstances and environment needed to go through a rigorous analysis of whether or not the failure is substantiated. We have anecdotal data by folks of their experience.

Which brings us to the metaphor that I purport is governing here - 'where there's smoke, there's fire'. Let me explain why I think so.

We have many folks who seem to have experienced what I'll describe as the normal, expected life events of imperfect driving where one strikes something off-normal - but certainly not cataclysmic. In other words, not that 'near right angle' hammer blow. They experience failure of the tire in the event of these minor to moderate events. The tire fails and they are surprised. This surprise is likely due to the fact that said event is no different than others they experienced except for the outcome - a failed tire. This particular forum has documented multiple occurrences of one manufacturer's particular model tire - and there are many of these instances for that one model tire spec'd out for the same car. Granted, if the post was 'how many of you have had blowout tires' (manufacturer and model not specified) - we might get a few more postings of those non Continental tires where a blowout occurred. I would opine that the instances would be far less but who knows.

More importantly, some of us on this forum are like me - technically minded, data oriented people with more than casual experience with failure analysis, engineering, cause and effect relationships, driving, etc. We, too have experienced these failures. TRUST ME - my situation was not significant enough to warrant failure (based on my prior experiences). I've road raced, driven off road and had many a tire impact of some sort or another without failure! The event that killed my Continental ProContact tire IMHO was benign. This is the only impact related tire failure I've had in my 44 years of robust driving.

All that being said - I'm simply trying to say that I think we've collectively seen a whole lotta' smoke. I think it doesn't take a rocket scientist to then conclude that there might be a real fire here!

Just sayin'.

 

[Ronewebb]

I have a 2018 G80 Sport. I was putting tire shine on my Continentals and noticed a pretty large sidewall tire bubble. I had less than 2,000 miles on the car at the time, and do not recall hitting a pothole, curb, etc. Neither the tire nor the rim showed any signs of distress (dents, scrapes, etc.), I called my dealer, and after checking, they told me that they were not replacing Continentals for this issue, and that I needed to reach out to Genesis directly.

Due to safety concerns, considering the structure of the tire was now compromised and could result in a blow out, I decided I needed to replace the tire. Therefore, I wrote to Genesis, and they contacted me by phone and actually informed me that they were giving courtesy reimbursements in these cases for a tire replacement as long as I purchased the replacement Continental tire from the dealer and the dealer installed it. Also, they said they were only giving this reimbursement one time per customer. The representative on the phone said that I needed to send a copy of the receipt from the dealer to be eligible for reimbursement (along with proof of purchase of the car, etc.), but that there was no guarantee they would honor the reimbursement. However, he seemed pretty confident that it would be no problem as long as I ordered the tire from the dealer.

I immediately ordered the tire and dealer installed the tire. With all the usual fees, etc., the single tire replacement was over $450.00. I immediately sent the receipt to Genesis for reimbursement. After following up with them twice over a 4 week period, I received an email that they could only print one page of my .pdf, and I had to resend all the documents. I immediately resent the documents. After another couple of weeks, I received an email informing me that they were no longer honoring these requests...and to have a nice day.

I responded several times explaining the circumstances, that I expected some sort of resolution in light of the circumstances, etc. I never heard from them again.

I have had no other problems with the tires, but am very disappointed that Genesis handled this issue so poorly. I have been genuinely happy with the car and with my dealer. If I would have contributed to the tire problem, I would understand and would not even expect resolution. However, I really do feel as if the tire was defective from the manufacturer. I love the car, but Genesis really dropped the ball on servicing this issue. In light of the issues I've read on this forum, I do believe that there are some (maybe sporadic) Continental tires that are defective on these G80's.

 

[Spanky61]

I will say this; if owners had purchased the wheel and tire replacement package offered by Genesis they would have replaced the tire without question. If you are within the first year of ownership you can still purchase the wheel and tire replacement package thru your dealers financier in the dealership. It's worth the extra money and will save you grief down the road.

 

[Starflyer]

I immediately ordered the tire and dealer installed the tire. With all the usual fees, etc., the single tire replacement was over $450.00. /QUOTE]


Wow, $450! At the site below, a front 245/45/R19 is $282 plus shipping and installing. So I can see the bill getting up to the $450 range. Of course, a rear tire would be more.

I bit the bullet and put on a set of Michelins for about $1100 from Costco. While I love my G80 Sport, if I had known about this tire flap, I might have looked elsewhere.

Continental ProContact TX 15498430000 Tires | 1010Tires.com Online Tire Store

Oh, and if anyone want one 245/45/R19 and two 270/35/R19 Conti's with only 2,000 easy driven miles, I'll make you a good deal. The one 245/45/R19 fits in the donut trunk hole although there is some question as to whether it would serve as a spare for a back tire.

 

[Spanky61]

Also you have a warranty from Conti for a year, which maybe prorated. Contact Continental and pitch a bitch so to speak, in a nice way of course.

 

[glennk]

Also you have a warranty from Conti for a year, which maybe prorated. Contact Continental and pitch a bitch so to speak, in a nice way of course.

+1 Continental should be the one resolving this.

 

[cappuccinoman]

Today, I can confidently said I just joined the bubble sidewall tire group. Yes, I did hit a big ass pot hole in the middle of the night. I am mega pissed but so far I feel lucky my g80 sport wheel appear it didn't get bent. I see a lot of people have this problem. Did any of you guys bent your wheel? or need to do an alignment check?

 

[Pr0metheuz]

For those of you who had sidewall issues or blowouts, did you have the tire pressure set at factory Genesis specs or did you inflate it to more? I have mine to 41 to 42psi when driving and praying they won't have this issue. Good luck to you all and hope you'll be safe!

 

[Starflyer]

For those of you who had sidewall issues or blowouts, did you have the tire pressure set at factory Genesis specs or did you inflate it to more? I have mine to 41 to 42psi when driving and praying they won't have this issue. Good luck to you all and hope you'll be safe!

Do you notice a harsher ride with the higher pressure? Are you running the higher pressure for better gas mileage?

 

[ogogolby]

No issue with the Continental Procontact TX tires at all. Make sure they are above 40 psi don't run them at 34-36 psi.

Why above 40 psi?

 

[Don88]

'Experienced a tire pressure warning with a tire pressure warning lamp on the dash one day when and the tire monitor display indicated the pressure was at 35 psi. Our '18 G80 has Michelin Primacy MXM4 245x45 R18 recommended 33 psi front and rear. With that in mind, how does one avoid warning bongs if you run the tires at above 35 psi?

 

[Pr0metheuz]

Do you notice a harsher ride with the higher pressure? Are you running the higher pressure for better gas mileage?

It's a slightly harsher ride but better responsiveness and gas mileage, as well as more safe. The ride is still excellent in terms of comfort.

 

[Pr0metheuz]

'Experienced a tire pressure warning with a tire pressure warning lamp on the dash one day when and the tire monitor display indicated the pressure was at 35 psi. Our '18 G80 has Michelin Primacy MXM4 245x45 R18 recommended 33 psi front and rear. With that in mind, how does one avoid warning bongs if you run the tires at above 35 psi?

I've never got warnings for being above spec psi.

 

[Don88]

I've never got warnings for being above spec psi.

It is an almost unnoticeable orange tire cross section profile.. Seems a suttle ding come along with it. We experienced one on a long highway trip. A quick look at the four wheel tire display revealed it wasn't an under inflate problem. After we reached our destination and was parked, tires cooled, all was well again.

 

[rroyce46]

@Don88 My 2016 3.8 AWD with the same tires as you have doesn't give any tpms warnings. I set pressure @ 34 cold when it's about 32F here & today I looked after running for about 1/2 hour on the highway & they are @ 39 lbs.

 

[inlightu2]

All that I can say is Continental crap. My wife's car has already had three replacement tires. I wish that we would have just replaced them after the second tire with a diff brand. The worst part is that the dealership is the only placed that had them at that time. Discount Tires said that they didn't carry them. But the could get us the run flat. Ever tire had sidewall problems.

 

[rroyce46]

I find it hard to believe Hyundai/Genesis hasn't done what they did when they had the problem with Hankooks back in 2015 & 16 & replaced them all with a recall with Michelins.They should just replace these Continentals after so many failures reported. I don't think there was even a failure problem with the hankooks they were just causing lots of vibration & balancing issues.
The Continentals have to be a safety issue.

 

[Don88]

rroyce46 et el,
Did a bit more info gathering regarding my experience of the orange tire icon on the instrument panel. It's part of the Tire Pressure Monitoring System. And I erred when when mentioning heat when I should have said low pressure. (At the time of experience, one tire was high and I ASS U ME d heat.

To see the Orange Tire icon, start your Geni, the TPMS icon lights up just above and to the right of the big white P on the instrument cluster.

Reference:
2018 G80 Owner's Manual. page 3-58 and page 3-96