i went in for an oil change today and while it was up on the lift, my mechanic took a look at my tires for me. what he found was a crack on the shoulder of the tread on the driver's rear tire. adjacent to it were two more bubbles in the tread ready to go. we moved around and checked all four and found the same on the driver's front tire too, only the tear was so big you could see the steel belt underneath!

i wasn't too happy about that and went on a hunt for new tires today.. very expensive friday it turns out. well, i couldn't find good tires in the size i wanted so i ended up getting a pair of the new yokohama avs e100 in front and remounted the front passenger's tire and moved it to the rear driver's side. i was out $300 today unnecessarily. and i'll have to order a full set of the s-03s within a year or so. again, not too happy, altho the new yokos are pretty dang cool.

we're pretty sure the cause was alignment but i'm still going to take the issue up with tirerack and see what we can do about a warranty claim.

fyi, the tires i had on there are the BF Goodrich G-force KDWs in 235/45/17. i've still got em in a bag if anyone wants pics.
so as a reminder, check your tires on the inside too guys, at least with your oil changes. i never would have found this prior to a truck-esque tread flying down the freeway unless my mechanic picked it up.

 

At the risk of starting another tire thread from hell, it appears from the pictures on your home page that you're running the 7.0"-wide OEM rims. That means, of course, that 235/45R17 tires are out-of-spec for your rims. You don't think that could have anything to do with the fact that your tread separated, do you?

 

 

With that many failures something is very wrong. Probably wrong size tires on a stock rim or if you really know your stuff, report the tire failures to NTSA. I also don't want to start another thread from hell, but I suspect you have mounted tires completely inappropriate to rim size and suspension geometry for reasons I can only guess. Before your tire guy pronounced it was an alignment issue, did you inform him you were running a non-stock configuration? It's very hard to believe both your front end and rear end, BOTH, went out of alignment to such a severe degree.

I'll add a general statement. Those who sell tires or custom wheels and tires, rarely have a clue. Of course, there are exceptions. Mostly these people are only too happy to make large commissions on tires or wheels, to a poorly informed public who believe lower profiles or wider tires are always better.

 

Sad but true. The basic rule in sales is to sell the customer what he wants to buy. In ancient times, this practice led to the development of a Latin phrase that has held up well throughout the centuries:

Caveat emptor!

For those whose Latin is a bit sketchy, the phrase means, "let the buyer beware". Of course, that phrase doesn't apply to those who make inappropriate purchase decisions with full knowledge and intent. While the latter group usually gets what they deserve, I wouldn't wish death or disability on anyone.

 

Is this truely out of spec? I just ordered a cheap set of Hankooks.
They were only $90 bucks a piece. From all the threads on this subject, that tire size would be just about right on our oem rims. Now 245's are another issue 235 however just fit the limit if I'm not mistaken. Anybody with some help here let us know. Sorry to hear about those tires. If i'm not mistaken I just read that someone else had a similiar issue with tires sold from tirerack; a dry rot issue. Have you inquired about the age and year of the tire. They may have been sitting in a warehouse for a while.

 

Unfortunately, you are mistaken. The minimum acceptable rim width for the 235/45R17 tire is 7.5". The OEM Maxima 17" rim is 7.0" in width. Hence, if you mount a 235/45R17 tire on your 7.0"-wide rim, you will be out-of-spec.

 

Someone is feeding you bad advice. These tires belong on a 7.5 rim. I used the tire rack for 20 (?) years. Zero complaints. You are begging for tire failure and all that, that implies. Also you are changing your suspension geometry slightly.

 

forget it. sorry i brought this up. but i HIGHLY doubt that 235/45 on the stock 7" rims have anything to do with it since i'm positive that i'm not the only one using that size. however, i do seem to be the only who has developed this problem. bf goodrich is a long standing company with a reasonably good reputation so i'm fairly certain that it's not crap tires either.
i've had more than my fair share of run ins with obscenely clueless mechanics and salesman, that's why i'll drive out to another county to give my business to a knowledgable and very fair mechanic. even if it is for mundane stuff like an oil change.
the reason i'm inclined to believe that alignment caused this problem is that my max had developed a bad pull to the left which was causing uneven tire wear. hence i had an alignment done recently and also rotated my tires (front to rear and rear to front since they're unidirectional tires). since there's no alignment in the rear and since both of the driver's side tires had been run at the front for roughly 10 - 15000 miles, it is reasonable to believe that improper alignment could cause this.

i really hope this thread doesn't degenerate into another proper-tire-size-for-the-stock-rims debate because i sincerely doubt that's the case. plus, i think we've all established an opinion for ourselves on that issue. for what it's worth my next set of tires will most likely be in 235/50 or 225/55 on the stock wheels.

 

why? nobody is blaming the spec, only questioning it. The people in this debate have enough sense not to take your one isolated case and use it to 'prove' anything. Its just a possibility, thats all.

Truthfully, the 5th gen 17's using this tire size have only been around 2.5 years. It may take along time to show a problem. who knows. I just hope that if you do find out spec had something to do with it, you'd tell us. Nobody is going to dogpile you about it.

If anything, the case could be made that a tire *prone* to separate could be a problem when run this way. I think that is at the center of the whole debate. *Outside* normal parameters, the 235 could be trouble, like a mfg defect which happens from time to time, or an extreme emergency manuever.

 

noted. and yeah, i'd definitely post about it if it turns out that that tire size on oem rims contributed to this happening. with the number of people running that size in light of the lack of oem sized performance tires, i'd certainly want to get the word out.
of course, by now it's going to be hard to discern the exact reasons why this happened. the only reason i'm reluctant to point at the tire size is cuz i'm a high mileage driver on his third set of tires (63,000 miles in the 235/45 size and 11 k on the potenzas) and no other problems have arisen. considering that i was recently having alignment problems, it stands to reason that it's high on my list of probable causes.
i'll post either way to let you guys know what the tirerack guys say about it.

 

After much searching on this board I stand corrected. I assumed instead of doing through research that 235 45 17 were acceptable however I asked repeatedly and the salesman said they fit our cars. Will they be liable in the event these tires fail? If they followed the T&R guidelines why would they say that these tires are acceptable for a 2k2 Max Se? Time will tell. This is an extremely serious topic and the T&R guidelines are there for a reason. Thanks for the info.

 

The reason many tire dealers recommend improper tire sizes is because they don't know that the tires they're recommending are out-of-spec for the rims on which they're being mounted. Whether they SHOULD know is another matter entirely. Tirerack.com, for example, will tell you that it's not their responsibility to know the width of your rims. They may be right given the fact that rim widths are normally stated in Vehicle Owner Manuals.

I wouldn't lose a great deal of sleep over your 235/45s CJLax. As Tim pointed out, there hasn't been a single confirmed case yet of a 235/45 failing on our OEM 7.0" wide rims. Just make certain to follow tire safety guidelines religiously. Keep your tires properly inflated, rotate them regularly, and inspect them thoroughly for abnormal wear each time you have them rotated.

If you're still concerned, return to your tire dealership and point out their error. Perhaps they'd be willing to exchange the 235/45s for tires that are in-spec for your rims. If they continue to insist that it's OK to mount 235/45R17 tires on your 7.0"-wide rims, tell them you'd like them to state it in writing on their business letterhead. If they're actually dumb enough to do that, report back here and we'll have some serious fun with them.

Last but not least, you can keep your 235/45s and stay in-spec by purchasing a set of aftermarket rims that are at least 7.5" wide. Then you can sell your OEM rims to help defray the cost.

 

 

I agree with virtually everything y2kse has said on the subject except the remark "don't lose a great deal of sleep". I WOULD! You are playing with fire. Even poorly designed tires, badly underinflated, rarely fail. If you look at the Ford/Firestone debacle, only a few tires failed per million! So by looking at the experiences of the relatively few members of this forum or your own experiences is not an appropriate way to draw a conclusion.\

It could very well be that the out of spec tires COMBINED with an alignment problem caused the failure. Still, it's a warning. Why not contact the tire manufacturer and report the failure and since no accident was involved, they should be willing to speak freely about the issue of rims versus tire sizes.

This is an important topic and when people violate specifications it should be done with expert knowledge and the facts to back that judgement up.

In conclusion, I second the suggestion of y2kse that you return to your tire dealer and get them to mount more appropriate size tires. In my experience, they will back down (I did this for a friend and got free replacements). Bring a rim chart and if they refuse you new tires, get the letter y2kse recommended. Obviously - they can't have it both ways. Either the tires they mounted are safe for your car (and they give you a letter stating that - highly unlikely) or they replace the tires -period!

 

sure it is... but Serin isnt really interested in participating in this debate, so dont poke him about it too much about it. He said he'd let us know what he finds out.