Good Year RSA Replaced
 

First time poster but I just wanted to pass this along....

I noticed side splitting on my RSA's (27k miles) and took them in to get looked at. I have a Good Year place right around the corner from me.

I noticed cracking the most on the front tires, but when they put it on the rack they showed me the cracking in all four tire, not just on the outside but the inside as well.

Basically, they told me it's a manufactures defect and they would pro-rate me based on the tread, yaddah yaddah....while I was on the phone with Nissan trying to find out if they would replace them, I was told basically the pro-rate was the best I would get.

Well, the good year guy made a call to Good Year North America to discuss it, and basically plead my case for me that all 4 tires exhibited the cracking...they were willing to make a concession based on all four tires, so get this: I GOT ALL FOUR TIRES REPLACED FOR $303.00 INSTALLED!

I basically went in thinking this was going to cost me a probably $600 minimum, but I walked away with 4 new tires (with the first set with 27k on them) for about half that.

Moral of the story:

1. If you see cracking on the outside, have them rack your car and look at the inside of the tires, some were worse on the inside.

2. Take it to a Good Year Repair Facility. Not everyone may be as cool as they guy I worked with, but he made one call to corporate and it saved me a bunch of cash. MAKE THEM CALL ON YOUR BEHALF and I'm not sure a discount place can do that.

Let me ask you something - were the cracks in the "hatched" area of the sidewall where the Goodyear name is?

Also, were they very, very hairline cracks? I just examined mine and found a couple of razor-thin "cracks" maybe 2" long in a radial direction around the sidewall. They are very straight (well, in a curved way), like a razor blade had made a careful cut. NOT a ragged crack.

Lastly, I presume they put more RSA's on your car. Any reassurance they have fixed the problem?

Mike

Yanger : do you have any pictures of your faulty tires. it would help to relate to our tires . thanks

I just posted a pic under a new thread - "RSA Split (pic) & apology".

Mike

Sorry folks no pics....but the pic Mike is showing is about right, but on the front tires the split was even more pronounced, especially when the crack reached the 6 o'clock position. When in that position both front tires would split enough to reveal the cording underneath.

My rear tires did not show any signs of splitting on the outside but when they racked it and looked from the inside there were splits more like Mikes picture.

To really see some of the splits you may need to have the crack in the down position to see how bad the splitting is, but if you have the cracks, they will get bad pretty fast, the crack on the left front driver side went from 3 inches to 5 inches in a matter of days.

I haven't checked mine for splits, yet, but I don't like the RSA anyway. I had them on my last car and every one of the valves leaked after about 10,000 miles. They're horrible in snow, too, and don't grip from a start.

Opinions on the RSA's are all over the place. I personally like them fine, and while we don't have as much snow to deal with as some of you, I find them to grip well on wet pavement. It's rainy today, and I can still beat everyone from a stoplight because my tires seldom spin.

And to be fair, the valves aren't even part of the tire, so you can't blame the tires for that.

There's something going on here, but I want to be careful not to just trash the RSA's. Everything manmade is subject to failure and defects, and the first 20,000 I've gotten from these tires have been fine. But I respect your right to dislike them.

Mike

I really don't mind the tires at all tbh. I've been happy with them, though the last couple K's I've heard some more road noise etc, but that's with 27k on them. The splitting just worried me more than anything else, and the splitting was considered a defect.

I'll tell you this, after getting the replacements, and the alignment (which they did free)....BABY's GOT A NEW PAIR OF SHOES!!!! New tires make me want to drive even more lol.

The goodyear RSA's were the original tires on my car. Initially, they were fine. But after 10K, they get noisier and the performance degraded noticeably on both dry/wet pavements...let's not talk about snow condition here! I ended up changing all 4-tires at around 15K w/Bridgestone Turanza LS-H. So far, these tires have been on my car for more than 40K miles. They got a little noisier but the tractions and thread wear are still very good.

rsa suckage
 

good year RSA's are the WORST tire ever. i had them on my old focus, and theyre just plain dangerous in rain, snow, anything. steph up and buy something nice, it'll pay you back tenfold.

North vs South
 

I noticed a trend in location of posters. Those of us up North have a bigger problem with the design of the tires and those down South have a problem with wear/splitting.
I drove a Probe GT in more than a foot of snow lots of times. Its original tires were Eagle GTs (long since discontinuued) - Z rating, too. Those kicked butt in snow. The RSAs slipped more than gripped - and in wet, too. Same thing on my work's Focus and my Maxima. Maybe I stomp on the gas a bit, but I can chirp these tires without trying. I'd rather be able to just launch without the delay.

The RSA's are bad news... I have 5 cars in my family and the Max is the worse in the rain and snow... Lots of slipping without pushing the car. My wife won't use it in the snow... Smart gal.

You should buy her some snow tires. That should eliminate the problem.

Good point. Proper snow tires make an unbelieveable difference. I wouldn't drive my Maxima with out a set.

The right way to go is decent all season tires... Snows are not needed in front wheel drive cars... They're for rear drives, like Camaros, Mustangs, Crown Vics. etc.

The point is that the RSA's are bad news in snow AND rain.... They are a bad choice for a midsize four door family sedan.... This type of car should at least handle water on the road.