Friend having an issue at dealership
 

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forums and am looking for my first 911.
At the moment I have a friend who recently picked up a CPO'd 2003 C4S and is having an issue with his dealer service center.
It seems that he blew out a rear tire recently and had the car flatbedded to the dealership. There they found that both rear tires had extremely uneven treadware on the inside and were both down to the bare metal causing one of them to rupture.
So they are telling him to pay for new tires even though they were new tires (CPO so they had to be new) and he has only put on about 8K miles since getting the car. They are denying any issues with the car. He also spoke to another Porsche dealer who told him that there has to be something wrong with the rear axle for that to happen.

He doesn't know what to do now. The dealer has the car and he either pays, get the tires and leaves or fights it but he doesn't know how to proceed.

Can anyone chime in?

Appreciate.

Ted

If there is something wrong with the actual car that caused this problem, I would think that the CPO would apply.

However, tire-wear is explicitly excluded from most warranties no matter how many miles he drove since buying the car. Also, I am not certain that the tires must be new for the car to get a certification. I think the tires have to have even wear and have a certain amount of tread remaining, but I don't think they have to be new tires. For example, when I bought my '08 997TT as a CPO car, I know that the tires and brake pads were not new. They were certainly fresh, but not new.

Hope some of this info might help. Good luck to you and your friend trying to get this resolved.

The CPO program allows service at any authorized Porsche dealership in NA. I would put the car back on the flatbed and have it taken to the *second* dealership (the one that told him that there must be a issue with the rear axle).

1) Car if probably OK. [second dealer is probably mistaken with the rear axle comment. Tires wear out on every car.]
2) Inside tire wear is usually from too much negative camber or toe in. My guess is that the alignment is off or car is lowered.
3) 8000 miles on rear tires is not abnormal. Some get more, some get less, especially with a bad alignment
4) Tell your buddy to buy new tires from Discount Tire or NTB and have the dealer install them to save a few bucks.
5) I use sumitomos.

-td

...you're saying the alignment is *not* checked during the CPO inspection??

I bought a CPO car.

They don't check the alignment. If the tire wear were unusual or severe, they would look into it. But as long as the tread depth is adequate, tires, alignment, etc., are up to the owner.

As others have said, it is not unusual for tires to wear more in the center. This can be made worse by a poor alignment or different suspension settings.

I don't want to sound insensitive, but it is an owner's responsibility to make sure the tires are road worthy (wear, pressure, damage, etc.) It really is proper to take a careful look at them once in a while to prevent exactly what happened to your friend.

No, they do not check alignment during CPO.
Obviously if tires are gone in 8k miles car should be realigned and rear toe set to 0.10 or 0.14 but not more.

as it was told many times: -1 degree front camber (max possible) with 0.02 toe, -1.5 degrees in rear camber with 0.10 toe and your tires will serve much longer.

CPO inspection is NOT a PPI. Sorry to say it, but if your buddy didn't do his part, well, that's on him.

Good luck getting new tires out of this, but it really appears that your buddy is SOL on this one. Have him get the new tires, get a proper alignment and chalk this one up to experience. He'll sleep better at night.

-td

The rears usually wear on the inside edge first. This is not uncommon at all. And it is worse the more negative camber on the car, which can be caused by lowering. Also, 8,000-12,000 for rears is not uncommon. What type of tires was he running. Get some new rears, check the alignment and camber and move on.

Not knowing your car is not properly aligned is not going to get your friend free tires from the dealer. If he drove the car 8000 miles he had plenty of time to see the uneven wear. Tell him to man up, get new tires, get an alignment and ask someone who knows how to maintain his Porsche.

A good craftsman never blames his tools.

^^^ What he said!

Even if there was an alignmenment issue that caused tires to blow out, I don't think CPO covers it.

How often are the tires checked for pressure? It should be done once a month. Get new tires and have an alignment check if the other good tire is worn unevenly

Just got a 04 C4S cab 2 months ago. Cpo'd. The rule for CPO was 60% tread life or more, otherwise tires replaced. Also, need to be Porsche certified tires (z rated) which have less treadlife than the sumi's or Kumho's that are cheaper.

When I got my car I noticed a slight pull, and i had the alignment done and it was TOTALLY OUT. So alignment is not part of CPO

Getting 8000 miles on 60% treadlife of z rated tires, with a possible bad alignment is actually pretty lucky.

Moral of the story - A car is only as good as the driver, and a driver is only as good as his equipment. Your friend needs to look at his car more than every 8,000 miles. Would have seen the treads in time to avoid the blowout.

I recently had an alignment done at the dealership, and the receipt specifically stated that that the alignment is only warrantied for a period of 30 days due to variations in the road and driving styles which could not be controlled. So even if the car was perfectly aligned when he purchased it, no guarantees it stayed that way.

As many others have stated, keeping an eye on tire wear, pressure, etc., is the responsibility of the driver plain and simple. I hate to say it, but not a lot you can argue on this one. Had he gone to the dealer prior to wearing the tires down to stubs and pointed out the uneven wear, maybe they would have worked out a deal with him on an alignment and or rotation, but again since CPO does not look at alignment, they really would not have been bound to do even that...

I have had my car less than 3 months and just replaced 2 rear 18" p295 PS2's because someone was nice enough to leave a metal ladder laying in the middle of an on ramp. Blew out one rear, and had to replace the other to keep tread wear equal... That was a tough pill to swallow, but thems the breaks...