Tire / Tesla warranty on tire flats?

Tires are warrantied by the tire manufacturer, not the automaker. In general there is no road hazard policy for OE tires, but you'd need to check with a Michelin dealer to be sure as policies change from time to time.

Agree with yobigd, and tesla does not have the dealership "business manager" who sells you the road hazard add on, so you may be SOL. I had conti oem sidewall blowout at similar mileage, and continental comped me a replacement... Though in reality they were under no clear obligation. If you have the 21s this is very common to lose tires. That's why I switched to 20s. 21s are beautiful but high maintenance.

tomas said:

Agree with yobigd, and tesla does not have the dealership "business manager" who sells you the road hazard add on, so you may be SOL. I had conti oem sidewall blowout at similar mileage, and continental comped me a replacement... Though in reality they were under no clear obligation. If you have the 21s this is very common to lose tires. That's why I switched to 20s. 21s are beautiful but high maintenance.

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I had 3 blowouts on my 21" tires within 3 weeks this spring due to Chicago potholes. I also had another one just over a year ago. There was no chance of a warranty claim since it was not due to any defect. Yes, high maintenance, high cost. I was going to just send the invoice for the new tires to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, but I didn't think that would get too far. :wink:

I buy my tires from Discount Tire (America's Tire in the western states, I think.) I just took delivery of my Tesla last week.
I have no interest or business relationship so this isn't an advertisement.
I just spoke with them and they are selling me "tire replacement certificates" which include lifetime rotation and balance, and full replacement coverage as long as the tire is legal. This will cost me around $170 for my 85D with 19's. It isn't much more than just buying a rotation and balance package. One new Michelin Primacy is over $300 with mounting, balancing, and tax, so if I have a single failure it'll pay for itself. And I can get the tires rotated more frequently than if I bought the Tesla service plan which I'm still debating.

dailydriver said:

I had 3 blowouts on my 21" tires within 3 weeks this spring due to Chicago potholes. I also had another one just over a year ago. There was no chance of a warranty claim since it was not due to any defect. Yes, high maintenance, high cost. I was going to just send the invoice for the new tires to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, but I didn't think that would get too far. :wink:

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Actually, I live in Chicago, and you CAN charge pothole damage to the city. I remember reading a newspaper article about claims. Unfortunately, after I had already replaced.

PS My first one was worse than a pothole. Some lame brained street worker removed a manhole cover and did not put up a sawhorse or cone, so stupid me (watching traffic and pedestrians, as I should) drove right over it. Thump!

tomas said:

Actually, I live in Chicago, and you CAN charge pothole damage to the city. I remember reading a newspaper article about claims. Unfortunately, after I had already replaced.

PS My first one was worse than a pothole. Some lame brained street worker removed a manhole cover and did not put up a sawhorse or cone, so stupid me (watching traffic and pedestrians, as I should) drove right over it. Thump!

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I did think of that, but decided that dealing with the City of Chicago would be an exercise in futility (and they really don't have the money :wink. My last blowout was on a county maintained road, so I did submit a claim to see what would happen. It was denied because they claimed they were unaware of the pothole even though it was fixed within a day after my incident.

Tire warranties don't cover flats. That is not a manufacturing defect.

Oh and by they way we need to charge you extra because you are driving an EV and do not contribute to the road repair via gas tax.

AmpedRealtor said:

Tire warranties don't cover flats. That is not a manufacturing defect.

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Probably not the case with OEM tires, but pretty much every after-market tire I've seen will come with some sort of road hazard insurance standard. My last Cadillac included road hazard on the tires, and I even took them up on it once.

mknox said:

Probably not the case with OEM tires, but pretty much every after-market tire I've seen will come with some sort of road hazard insurance standard. My last Cadillac included road hazard on the tires, and I even took them up on it once.

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There are two types of road hazard warranty: The kind offered by the tire manufacturer, and the kind offered by the tire seller. If the RH warranty is offered by the tire manufacturer, it will show on their website. If it's offered by the tire store, car dealer, or car manufacturer it will be on the paperwork you received. The main difference (other than that it's usually extra if it doesn't come from the tire manufacturer) is where you can go to use the warranty.

MileHighMotoring said:

... Tesla saves $20 per car by not including that kit, and then eventually every car gets a flat tire and they spend $250 on a tow. I don't know how the bean counters figured that one out.

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Sadly (?) out of 100 cars 99 probably won't ever have a tire problem, saving nearly $2000, which is more than enough for some tows.

A tire repair kit was actually my one free ask when I picked up my Model S but no luck (all I got were the [plenty nice] owner ballcaps).

I've put a battery-powered air compressor in my trunk but haven't yet decided on an emergency repair kit -- I'll probably end up with both the Tesla kit and a can of goo.

jerry33 said:

There are two types of road hazard warranty:

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Right. I was certainly thinking of the kind offered by the seller. With my previous car, all I had to do was take it in to any Cadillac dealer. I have purchased Nokian winter tires and replacement Michelin summer tires for my Model S from a tire dealer I like, and they offer lifetime rotations, seasonal swap and road hazard as part of the "package".