So... I'm at 35k and my Integrities are BALD. When I bought my Prius I received a 50k Integrity Warranty insert with the rest of my manuals. Well I talked to Toyota and the local Goodyear shop, and neither would honor it. So I called Goodyear.com and laid out my case. She asked with the Goodyear store said, and I told her that it was something to the effect of "If you didn't buy the tires from this location, we can't honor the warranty". Well the Goodyear CSR went ballistic. She put me on old and called the manager. Then came back on the line and asked me to "Try again, and call back with the results". So your 6 step procedure would look something like this: Keep your tire maintenance record Inspect tread until it reaches 2/32nds When it reaches 2/32nds call Goodyear.com and tell them you would like to make a warranty claim. Take note of the case file and the Goodyear retailer they want you to go to. Go to said retailer and replace your Integrity with some nice Fuel Max or some other reliable tire. Smile at the discount you get from your warranty proration. Now I've only gotten to step 5 so we will see how this goes, but based on the warranty, I'm eligible for a $30 credit per Integrity. Apperently, that line in the warranty about "not applicable for original equipment" doesn't apply to Integrities. The CSR mentioned it and said that Integrities were specifically excluded from that clause (ie.. they ARE covered). Wish me luck, I'll let you know how it goes 11011011
I rotated with each oil change, per the Prius Maintenance Book. When the dealer changed the oil, they rotated (and noted) the tires. When I changed my oil, I would go to Discount or NTB and get them to rotate for a few bucks. 11011011
Success... well sort of. Retail on the Fuel Max was listed at $109.39. The Warranty calm came in at 24.78 bringing it to 84.61 / tire. I can get them from TireRack (price + shipping) for $85/per. After all the haggling, I got the Goodyear shop to come down to $81.25 / per. They charge a bit more for install than I'd like ($21 / per) but they offer free lifetime rotation nationwide. Total came out to $431.65 after all the haggling. Without the lifetime rotation, Tirerack.com came in at $412.78. With the lifetime rotation, Sams Club came in at $428.05. Since I like the lifetime rotation, and I'm not a member of Sams Club, I'll take the deal. I think I bleed this poor Goodyear shop dry. I'm willing to pay the extra $20 to get 10 free rotations. Not a bad deal. +1 satisfied haggler. 11011011
Sweet! Actually it's a bit safer not to rotate. The front pair wear faster than the rear, but that's fine because the better pair should always be at the rear to help prevent fishtailing. When the front pair wears out, move the rear pair to the front and put a new pair on the rear.
If the vehicle is used for racing and/or it is driven very, very hard, then that would be the right thing to do. But for normal street applications, it makes more sense to cross-rotate the tires whenever possible to ensure even wear across the tires. Most people won't be driving hard enough to realize the benefit from having the best tires on the rear. At least that's what the Michelin Tech Line told me.
But you can't cross rotate most new tires because they are directional. Front/back rotation only. Unless you remove them from the wheel. I didn't want junk tires on Pearl. For about the same as you spent I got Nokian WRs, and I threw away the OEM "Integrities" after 4 months of use. Best thing I ever did.
Weird that they went bald that soon, because I *know* you ran 'em at real pressures and mine certainly still had a fair amount of meat left at 45K. . _H*
, Yeah I was thinking about that too, I checked with my neighbor who got his 2007 Prius a few months after mine from the same dealer. The neighbors tires went shinny at 30k and by the time I went to talk to him about it he'd already gotten another set. I don't know if heat may be an issue since most days of the year in Texas its over 90. Most streets are concrete not smooth asphalt. plus I corner REAL hard on them which I know will blow the sides pretty dang quick. When I took them in they checked the alignment and found a toe of 1.34 deg on the back left tire. They said that's out of spec but refused to shim it. Said they won't shim, so I either need to deal with it or drive to Bryan to take it into my friends shop where we can do it ourselves (ie he does it and I bug him with questions). Interestingly, they did accept the warranty claim and put them through the ringer. If I hit any inflation or alignment flags I figure they would have claimed the old "uneven wear clause", but they didn't. So apparently it wasn't uneven enough to disqualify. Checking posts, I'm finding a fair number of people getting under 40k out of the Integrities. Either to 2007 Integrities goodyear sent Toyota are half-treds or there is a fair amount of mis-aligned 2007 Prius out there.... or the integrities just don't hold up and some people get lucky. 11011011
Really! I didn't see it in my manual. I asked Goodyear and they said that all front wheel drive cars should cross-rotate those tires. Since Goodyear warranties the tires and not Toyota, I took their advice. 11011011
The 2001 Prius owner's manual recommended x-rotation. This went away in subsequent model years. However I think it is OK to x-rotate if you find that tire wear is greater on one side vs. the other, as long as the tires are not uni-directional. Regarding Dan's post #1, I am surprised to hear that Goodyear honored the concept of a treadwear warranty. Usually original equipment tires are warranted only for workmanship, not for a particular # of miles. However, from post #4 it appears that the bottom line was that Dan paid around the same price (actually $3.60 more) at the Goodyear retailer after his haggling and warranty claim, vs. the Sam's Club price without any negotiations or warranty. Do I correctly understand that??
You got it. Since it would have cost $30 for me to get a Sams Club membership, I figured it worked out in the end. Your also correct that OEM tires aren't covered, but apparently for some reason Goodyear's customer support rep said that they decided to honor the thread warranty on the Integrities. So Goodyear called the tire shop for me and told him to make a warranty claim and that started the ball rolling. 11011011
Uneven wear suggests an alignment problem that would only be masked by rotation. Fixing the alignment would increase tire life, rotated or not. Not rotating also reduces annoying interactions with tire salesmen :_>
My Intregrities were pretty much gone at 24K in 2.5 years. I had no problem in getting a 45% discount on a replacement set of FuelMax tires from GoodYear dealer on a warranty adjustment. He did have to get it approved from the big GY in the sky. Plus there was a small rebate. I rotated front to back every 5K. The right side tires were worn a little more than the left.
You got the Physics, Math, and your Wallet wrong. First the Physics: Just think of a tire's tread as a rubber-band. It gets worn down from stretching. You stretch the edges of your front tires when you steer the car. Plus now you add torque from engine. That's double whammy for the edge for of the tires. You need to rotate the front tires to the back so you let them edges relax like a rubber band. If you stretch the rubber-band too much and too far it breaks. With the tire, you will wear the front edges way faster due to the same principle. The front tires would wear down at least 40% faster than the rear if you don't rotate them and you'll have to replace them sooner. Don't forget the unused middle tread you don't get to use and might or might not get recycled. It will cost you more in the long run plus you will make an extra trip to the Tire shop versus 1 trip for 4 tires if you had rotated them.
Most Shops don't recommend cross-rotating because some tires are directional. Bad to cross rotate directional tires. Plus it's easier and faster for the Shops to do front to rear. Another Reason to Cross Rotate them
