Michelin LTX M/S2 - 275/70/17.

[Tuckenstein]

I had a very similar situation with a set of michelins on my Touareg, which I traced back to them being crappy tires (at least in my case, they came from the factory) and my Touareg needing an alignment. I had never seen a tire literally drop whole tread blocks from a minor misalignment, but that's what happened.

If you haven't had an alignment recently you might try that.

 

[noisebeam]

Did you happened to get a date code?
(just curious as it obviously doesn't affect the need for Michelin to swap 'em and this does not appear to be an age issue)

 

[Jesserue]

Spoke to Michelin customer service and you guys are right, they were very professional about it. Stayed on the phone with me for about 30 minutes, verified some information, and made an appointment for me to get the tires replaced at a shop close to my work. Will follow up on the thread and let you all know how everything goes. So far so good. Thank you all for the advice/support.

Awesome, between my 4R and LX470 I've driven over 350k miles on the LTX M/S and M/S 2. Best tires ever for my usage. Michelin did have a recall about 2 years ago on these. Don't remember all the details but it was for a specific lot range and size, I'm running 275-55/20 on the 4R. I had about 12k on mine and got new tires all around from recall.

 

[KeithMaine]

I have driven hundreds of thousand miles on Michelin AT/2s including a LOT of dirt roads with shale. I have never seen that type of chunking from a Michelin. Definitely not normal. It sounds like you are well on your way to getting it fixed. It is too bad that Michelin doesn't offer a more aggressive off road tire for the American market. I would be much happier with those than with the BFG MTs I am running now.

 

[bcb97]

The very same thing happened to me with a Goodyear tire. I went to a Goodyear store, showed them the tire, and they replaced under warranty. You're tires have a warranty and they should replace them at no cost to you.

 

[GO_USN]

Quick Update:

Per the instruction of the Michelin Customer Service Rep, I took my truck to the local dealer whose task was to check out the tires and report back to Michelin what the issue was; Michelin would replace tires. Easy enough you would think. Well this place (Tire Kingdom) refused to even look at the tires because (hear this :redbrick I have black rims (TRD Wheels) and the machine they have will scratch the wheels when they replace the tires. I asked if they can simply just look at the tires and report back to Michelin that they are indeed chunking or whatever the term is. Response was negative. Needless to say, I was pretty furious. Called back Michelin Customer Service, they apologized and took note of the dealer and reassigned me a different dealer to check this issue out tomorrow.
I have lived all over the United States and quite frankly, South Florida is probably one of the worst places. Utter lack of customer service or basic human decency in some cases. Mind you I do know most people are not like that but my experience has been pretty bad in the last 18 months. Cannot wait to get out of here.

 

[noisebeam]

Sounds like a shady dealer. Definitely get the date codes to pass on to Michelin. Maybe dealer know they are selling recalled (or aged or were stored in a UV hot box (i.e. FL sun), but if so there would be other symptoms and less consistent of a problem)
If a manufacturing defect and all four have it then most certainly these are not the only 4.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I worked at a tire shop in college - many moons ago. Michelin was very good at taking care of customers when issues with tires came up. If the dealer says no - I would contact Michelin customer service directly.

I concur. Michelin does not have the reputation they do by shafting customers. When you spend the extra bucks that Michelins cost, you expect top quality.

 

[GO_USN]

So I showed up at a Michelin authorized dealer, got the problem checked out and verified. Dealer called Michelin directly and let them know about "tread chunking". Michelin agreed to replace the tires and in the process I got a free upgrade from 265/70r17 to 285/70r/17. Fingers crossed and hoping these turnout ok.

 

[lilsid112]

Glad everything worked out for you. Make sure you add pics of the 285's when you get them installed!

 

[tykkor]

Glad to here that everything worked out.

I used to run these tires on my Cherokee years back, and my dad's run them on his trucks forever and I've never seen them chunk like that.

 

[Hadelson]

Multiple sets of same tires between brother and I and None have this issue. Several vehicles from Pavement Princesses to Off the Road on trails/rocks.

Bad set of tires.

 

[GO_USN]

Update: So far so good. Ride feels more solid with 285s vs 265s. Is it just in my head or can that be possible?

Additionally, I'm averaging about 1-mpg less with the 285s than I did with 265s. This kind of makes sense.

Either way, I'm happy with the ride/look of 285s.

 

[KS4RUNNER]

Curious what you think of your new tires after you get more drive time with them. I am considering moving to that exact tire and size once my terra grabbers wear down some more. I do mostly all highway driving but like the AT tire look. But your pics the tires look very nice in 285 size. Thanks for posting back your pic.

 

[ohjims]

I'm looking to put 275/70r17 on stock my Trail. Will there be any rubbing?

 

[TexasTEQFan]

I'm looking to put 275/70r17 on stock my Trail. Will there be any rubbing?

Maybe, you never know until you try... I went up one size to 275’s and rubbed full turn in reverse on the Front PS