New tyres caused £1400 damage

photome

Walkingthepeaks wrote: »

thanks for the responses.
the car is a nissan xtrail, so was in auto select for 2 and 4 wheel drive, and it was a wet day.

yes should have ordered the correct size. BUT the garage that fitted them, did not mention anything about the size being different, and also that the rims were incorrect size for the tyres that they fitted.

So although the wrong product was ordered, I would have expected a professional company to at least check with the customer, before doing something that could be dangerous.

Are you sure the rims were the incorrect size for the tyres?

AdrianC

Walkingthepeaks wrote: »

the car is a nissan xtrail, so was in auto select for 2 and 4 wheel drive, and it was a wet day.

<slaps forehead> Aha. It starts to become clearer what's happened...

Just wet tarmac would not normally cause the "auto-select" mode to use 4wd. 4wd will only be selected in that mode when the car detects a difference in speed between the front and rear tyres - which is, of course, exactly what using such mis-matched tyres on one end will give...

The centre diff on an X-Trail is actually an electronically-operated clutch pack. The ECU allows a certain amount of slip until it detects that the grip is equalised. This, obviously, didn't happen, because it wasn't that one end was spinning. So it kept the clutch pack locked up in an attempt to resolve it.

Diff-lock mode merely allows the driver to do the same as the ECU attempted to do here. And would have the same effect...

BUT the garage that fitted them, did not mention anything about the size being different

Yes, they should have mentioned them. But that's a separate issue to responsibility for the damage arising from your error.

and also that the rims were incorrect size for the tyres that they fitted.

What width are the rims on your car? 225 to 255 is only just over 1" of difference - and while the wider tyres might be outside the recommended range for the rims, they'll fit without too much difficulty at all. I wouldn't say "dangerous" in any way.

Except for the fact that you were asking the drivetrain ECU to watch out for poor grip, and try its best to keep all four wheels rotating at the same speed...

s_b

normally the transfer box pops if you do this so a cracked rear diff is a new one to me
why would the tyre fitter tell you that these tyres are wrong? you've paid to have them fitted,they complied,its not for them to advise you because these days when you try to educate the common public they always seem to know better than the specialist especially in the motor trade as google is always their friend or their mechanic who used to be a fireman or chippie
tough toughie,next time spend your money locally, help local business and they will indeed advise accordingly

Gloomendoom

s_b wrote: »

normally the transfer box pops if you do this so a cracked rear diff is a new one to me

With transmission wind up, it's the weakest link in the chain that pops. If you are lucky, it's something cheap to replace, in this case it was the rear diff.

Mr.Generous

what an informative thread, never realised 4x4's did all that.

Iceweasel

These 2 web-sites can give all the info needed when changing sizes.

If changing only tyre size:
http://www.kouki.co.uk/utilities/visual-tyre-size-calculator

If changing both tyre and wheel size:
http://www.willtheyfit.com/

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Walkingthepeaks wrote: »

Thought I would post this as a warning to others but also see if anyone can help.
Trying to save some money on 2 new tyres, we ordered some from an Internet company, they provided a list of garages that would fit them, so we purchased a voucher for fitting and had the tyres delivered to the garage. A few days later wr went to the garage and the tyres were fitted (2 front tyres). Then on the way home, about 7 miles, there was a bang at the back of the car and the 4 wheel drive light came on. We set it to 2 wheel drive and gingerly drove the rest of the journey (about a mile) home.
To cut a long story short, we had ordered the wrong size tyres (255 instead of 225). The garage did not mention this when fitting and we did not check at the garage as we needed to get back. If you have different size tyres on a 4x4, then this turns the ales at different speeds, resulting in our case the back differential to break. We managed to secure a second hand one and the bill was still 1400.
Although it was our fault ordering the wrong size tyres, I feel that the garage that fitted them should bear some of the responsibility, but have had no luck so far.
According to consumer rights, the company that supplied the tyres are responsible, as the garage was their agent, but they just say they supplied what was ordered. We tried the credit card company but same response. Finally obudsman, but company not in scheme so they could not do anything.
Just wondered if anyone any ideas, do i pursue the garage that fitted, or do I just put it down to a very expensive mistake.

You don't say!

Strider590

255 instead of 225, the wheel size was right, so im assuming the profile was the same? Which means the new tyres would have looked odd, filling the wheel arches much more than normal.

For example 225/60 would be 135mm and 255/60 would have been 153mm. IMHO a very noticeable difference.