I've decided the sidewalls of these tires are inherently weaker than other tires. Of course this could just be my bad luck, and admittedly the first time the right front tire blew, I did hit a pretty mean pothole, so that could be forgiven on the part of the tire. I mean, sometimes it happens.

BUT.

Now the brand new replacement tire I got from the dealer has a bulge in the sidewall!! I just noticed it when I went outside to finally put in my new horn. I don't even have 3,000 miles on this car yet, and I know I haven't hit anything since the pothole of doom (which, incidentally, blew out the sidewall of the tire it flattened).

Has anyone else noticed these tires are crap? I'm going to go back to the dealer on monday and I should be able to get the tire replaced for free, and if not by them then by a goodyear dealer that's nearby, but I think I've already lost patience/confidence in these stock pieces of crap.

Maybe I should just get a new set of tires altogether before this happens again. What do you guys think?

 

I have an 08 and 09 Fit... both stock Dunlops, but different Dunlops. The 08's Dunlops suck and the 09's Dunlops are just okay. I would never get a Dunlop again... the 08 can't handle the rain slightly, and the snow, forget it. The 09 Dunlops are just okay in rain but are no good in snow. I have no confidence in either. My suggestion... if you can afford it, change them immediately.

 

Must be something with Dunlops! My old Mini had a broken belt in the tire which caused the sidewall to bubble as well as a Mini we sold to a customer at my old job. Those are runflats and cost $338 to replace, screw that! I had insurance on my tires and asked for that to be put towards the purchase of a brand new set and larger BFG KDW2's....(don't buy those either, VERY, VERY noisy when about half way worn!)

 

The sidewall of the stock Duncraps are weak. I can see them compressing when I come into my driveway. I run Falkens now and they are so much better. Get new tires if you can afford to.

 

I just bought a set of Eagle GT's and they'er very quiet and stick to the road much better. The only draw back is my milage went down 1.5 MPG, but that may improve after break-in.
The Tire Rack has the best price!! w/rebate too

 

yes, the oem and all season dunlops are not all that great, but don't bash the Z1 Star Spec! lol i think those r awesome tires.

 

Ok I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks these tires are crap, I was starting to feel crazy for a minute. Thanks for backing me up!

Now to figure out which new tires to get. What kind of sizes can someone put on the stock wheels at stock height other than the OEM size? How high of a profile can I get away with? I saw another thread where someone had some pretty beefy tires on 15" wheels. I bet those don't have a bulge in them! LOL. But I'm going to stick with the stock wheels for now. Time to do some research.

 

Stocks were ok, I am guessing just bad luck. I got about 44K miles on my Dunlops before I went with Eagle GT's too (Needed better tires for winter drives to Colorado). GT's are nice but as Perren mentioned MPG went down due to it being a heavier tire not really designed for economy.

 

Ok today I popped over to the Goodyear shop that's closer to home than my dealer (whose service dept isn't open on Sundays anyway) just to see what was up regarding warranty on these tires. The woman behind the counter, without even seeing the damn wheel, decided it was an impact, because bulges apparently can't be caused by anything else. Which is bull, mostly because I'd know if I hit something; I'm the only one that drives this car and HELLO now I am pothole paranoid! I can guarantee I didn't hit anything. But of course she decided before she even saw it that it wouldn't be covered under warranty.

I hate people. I'm going to go and bring it to the dealer and yell. If they give me the same crap, and say I need a new tire altogether, which would mean a total of $260 spent in two months on tires, I 'm going to tell them to put my donut on and just buy a whole new set. Screw these.

What sizes can I put on stock wheels besides this weird 185/55/16 nonsense?

 

195/50R16 (a bit shorter overall diameter, speed meter will read higher than actually going), 205/50R16 (just about the same as the stock size in diameter), 225/50R16 (going to be adding a bunch of weight with the width and possibly getting close to rubbing on hard turns), 195/55R16 (somewhat larger overall diameter, speed meter will read lower than you are actually going) and 205/55R16. You can fit others as well, but these are probably the best choices for the 6" width. Also is the car completely stock, hasn't been lowered any? All of these barring maybe the 225/50R16 will work with a drop. In fact I wouldn't even consider the 225/50R16s, they will be like 20mm wider inside and outside, but they would fit on the stock wheel and that is what you asked about.

 

That is just pure nonsense. I've owned dozens of cars and hundreds of tires on these cars. Some tires get bulges without abuse. Luckilly, all the tire stores I've dealt with know about these manufacturing problems and have never denied an exchange. What rubbish this counter person is spewing!!! She should be fired because of her ignorance!!!... and get a job where she has some "real" experience... obviously, not with tire sales.

 

Yeah, my car is stock height. I don't have plans to lower it, either. Mostly because as it is, I don't know how people wouldn't out and out destroy their cars on these roads if they were any lower to the ground LOL. But thank you for that explanation. I've been reading all the posts in the tire section and a lot of it flew over my head and I was left wondering "which tires are okay for stock" since everyone is cooler than me and has different wheels and lowering springs hehe. This at least explains it now. I think I like the sound of 205/50/16s or 205/55/16s. Neither of those will rub, right? The 55s would be beefier? I think maybe I want beefier. RAR BEEFY TIRE! lol

 

Unfortunately this witch with a b was the manager of the place and no matter how I argued, she wouldn't have any of it. She kept telling me to go back to the dealer, which I will do when I get a chance tomorrow. But I can guarantee I will never buy a tire from her place. I'd rather drive another five miles on a donut than give her a cent after that display. I should call Goodyear corporate and tell them how she lost a customer.

 

dunlops suck!, the rubber gets hard and traction sucks, they walls blowout like my 2 month old, shame on dunlop.

 

My new Continentals are waaaaaay better than the stock Dunlops. First I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that they're larger (205/50), so I went up 20mm in width and reduced my aspect ration by 5%. Not only this is the tread design, this tires is supposed to be amazing in the winter too but the handling has really improved too, very noticeable! My mileage didn't go down either, already did a roadie and got about a .5 mileage increase going home (38.5 compared to 38.0)

 

Thanks sexy, good info to have.

 

When I asked about going to 205/55 at Tire Rack, they said there are some pretty tight clearances both front and rear and that they might rub. I'm sure they are going to err on the side of caution when going to strange sizes so they don't have disappointed customers, but Tire Rack is usually pretty knowledgeable/helpful.

I'd love to go with a bit wider and taller tire, but I don't think I'd risk it on something non-returnable like tires unless I know someone has tried it without issue.

 

im not so sure of the initial quality of the stock dunlops because i have heard stories of some members blowing sidewalls and bulging. i think is random luck because i live in socal with heavy trips to pothole land known as los angeles. ive never encountered any of these problems with my stock dunlops after 30k miles. i have noticed decrease in grip and increased wear in the front two (i drive hard through turns and brake hard) but, i only noticed normal wear without any defects.

i guess im one of the lucky few that have the more durable dunlops from the factory. im estimating in about 8-10k miles ill need to replace all four, and when i do ill be switching to direzza star specs in 205/50/16 on my stock wheels. seeing as i put on double amount of miles or even more than the avg joe ill be seeing some new stickies in less than 6 months(excited)!!!

 

My stock dunlops have been doing good, but who knows after a few more thousand miles, I might have different results.

 

Just to pile on here, stay away from BFG's too. Me and my buddies have had nothing but problems with them and have vowed never to buy them again. My buddy Hectour and I have the new Conti DWS' and his bro with an EVO will be getting them in the late fall as well. This coming from a life long customer of BFG.