Wheels and Tires

Installed winter tires with old DOT dates. Bought new. Solutions?

  • Last Updated:
  • Nov 13th, 2022 2:25 am
Sr. Member
User avatar
Jul 13, 2009
925 posts
186 upvotes

Installed winter tires with old DOT dates. Bought new. Solutions?

https://imgur.com/a/3d4POFg

I recently bought 4x Alpin PA4. Got them for the winter specifically. The tires were ~290CAD each before taxes and shipping.

I ordered the tires online and they were shipped to the garage. I dropped off the car to have them install it (without checking the dates). Unfortunately, I checked them after they were mounted+balanced+installed so the company that sold it says they cant do anything. The garage cant do anything either.

The years were 2022, 2021, 2020, 2017. Pretty huge difference. And it's pretty much Nov 2022 right now.

I'm in the process of figuring it out with the company but...
How much of a discount can I push for?
The 2017 tire cant really be sold anyways as it's 5 years old, right?
Should I do a partial chargeback via my cc?

~~

Another thing, I hear/feel rubbing of something kind based on vehicle speed. It's most noticeable around 40kph. It's not noticeable slower than that. And kinds repeats quickly enough at speeds faster than 40kph that it blends into background noise. I cant really tell if it comes from one or all the tires/wheels.
Would that be tire tire or installation/balance issue?
Thanks.
7 replies
Deal Fanatic
Jun 13, 2010
8552 posts
11762 upvotes
GTA
There's no law against selling 5 year old tires. Pretty scummy though. The 3 others are okay, lesson learned to check that they are the same recent year before installing but I would push back hard on the 2017 tire.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Oct 13, 2008
8427 posts
4668 upvotes
Durham
hahahahaha ... not a big deal. jeez.

I had a set of Falken Espia that I got in October 2015 from Premier Wheels Direct with rims ... it wasn't until a couple years later that I realized the DOT was 2510.

Big frigging deal! I still rode them for 5 winters in total for about 36,000 kms ... were still very good and sold them on kijiji in October 2020
16'x11' Living Room 11' Cathedral Ceiling. Hisense 65Q8G. Denon AVR-S740H 7.2 setup. Jamo Classic 10 280W Towers - FR+FL; Polk S35 - Center; Klipsch R51M - RR+RL; Klipsch R14M - Dolby FHR+FHL; Polk HTS10 Subwoofer x2. Unlocked Android Boxes from Taiwan x2
Deal Addict
Mar 30, 2010
3083 posts
1445 upvotes
GTA
jdmfishingonly wrote: hahahahaha ... not a big deal. jeez.

I had a set of Falken Espia that I got in October 2015 from Premier Wheels Direct with rims ... it wasn't until a couple years later that I realized the DOT was 2510.

Big frigging deal! I still rode them for 5 winters in total for about 36,000 kms ... were still very good and sold them on kijiji in October 2020
"very good".
Deal Addict
User avatar
Aug 30, 2020
3374 posts
6366 upvotes
YEG/YYZ
That's a pretty crazy date gap for new tires. For comparison, I bought 4x Michelin tires in early 2022 and 3 were made the same week in Q4 2021, and one was made about 4 months earlier than the other 3 so no big deal.

Usually RFD is too anal about tire dates (complaining about tires being 1-2 years old) but it is definitely strange to see such a big age gap between all 4 tires, especially the 2017 one.

Unfortunately don't think there's anything you can do now that they are installed.

Noise can just be the tire compound. If it's OEM rims and sizing and you haven't modified your car.
Deal Expert
Mar 23, 2004
35606 posts
18999 upvotes
Michelin's own view for new, never-used tyres in storage/warehousing prior to sale is that several years is fine. They do recommend not having tyres on a car after 10 years past manufacture but that's also a general guideline for tyres that have been used and on a car for years, not a set-in-stone number. Variables, such as the tyre being a few years from manufacture when installed, do come into play as well.

https://www.topgear.com.ph/news/industr ... 3-20170128

Regardless of date of manufacture, Michenlin quality warranties tyres for 6 years from the date of purchase--provided you purchased them new, and from an authorised seller, you will have the same warranty on all the tyres.

It's a bit odd (and undesirable) that all the tyres were manufactured on different dates--were they even all from the same country/plant? LOL. However nothing here is "llegal" or necessarily a problem. If you were to do a chargeback on your CC you'd be committing fraud yourself--you paid for tyres that were delivered. Nothing in your purchase agreement would have said anything like it guarantees all the tyres will have the same date or be less than x years old. Any complaints or return grounds you can raise were nullified since you didn't inspect them prior to being mounted/balanced and then driven on.

The fact that you went with an online seller, instead of just going with a local shop entirely, is another of your problems. Them's the breaks when you buy tyres (or any other car parts for that matter) and have them installed by a 3rd party. Anything that goes wrong you'll be stuck paying additional labour time either for undoing/removing the problem parts or for delays associated with getting replacements that work/fit correctly. This is why I rarely recommend people that "go to mechanics" to have their cars worked on, do stuff like this in general.

What you could do now is take Michelin up on their 60-day satisfaction guarantee. Only problem is you're going to have to pay the shop to pull the tyres off and then likely pay to ship the tyres back to the seller and, I'm not 100% sure about this, but you may have to select a different model tyre as the replacement. This process would have been much easier had you just bought the tyres at the shop because Michelin would have to reimburse the shop under their dealer agreement for the unmount/remount/rebalance fees (apart from the cost of the valve stems which for some reason Michelin doesn't cover).

Chalk it up as a lesson learned on why to just go with a reputable local shop/dealer in the future. Not saying "never buy tyres online", but know what you're getting into, what you need to be careful of (like checking the tyres before taking them to the installer), and weigh the possible hassles and issues against what it would cost you to just go with the local dealer entirely. Even personally though I have bought tyres online on some occasions and not had any issues, my preference is always to just go with a local shop for everything (tyres + mount & balance).
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jun 7, 2001
7994 posts
2226 upvotes
Alberta
Blackcircles recently told me over phone that their tires r no older than 3 years....was hoping that they are much newer than that.

2 of 4 of the Continental Viking Contact 7 r xx21, not sure the other 2 as the DOT code r on the inside...wont know until my next switchover. Otherwise, it has been a good transaction...excellent price, availability, pretty hassle free.
Member
User avatar
Dec 24, 2007
418 posts
244 upvotes
Toronto
Got my Michelin winters on just the other day at Costco and was kinda disappointed to find out later they were manufactured at the end of 2021. I know, they aren't old and less than a year. Just figured they were such a volume seller that I would get something made in 2022. Afterwards was told Costco only sells tires that were manufactured within two years.

Top

Thread Information

There is currently 1 user viewing this thread. (0 members and 1 guest)