Premature cracking and failure - Pirelli P-Zero Rosso N4 Tyres

So here is the saga of a faulty pair of Pirelli PZero Rosso (N4) 265/35ZR18 tyres which were fitted to my 996 in April 2019. I wasn't aware at the time but the date code on the tyres was 4917 and 3217, so just under 2 years old for the oldest tyre. In April this year (2022) I was washing the car and checking over in preparation for the annual MOT when I noticed some cracking around the outer edge of the tyre. On closer examination I noted that it extended the entire circumference of the tyre just below the level of the tread. The car covered approximately 2,500 miles on these tyres between April 2019 and April 2022. The car is stored under a large car port which keeps it out of the rain and sun when not in use. Tyres have always been kept inflated and when it wasn't used for longer periods in deepest winter the pressure was increased to 45PSI. I returned the tyres to the purchasing dealer who informed me that they would need to be sent back to Pirelli for examination and this could take some time. They weren't joking, I built up some rapport with the guy on reception at the tyre dealer after ringing weekly to find out the status. My local tyre dealer had been taken over my Micheldever Tyre Services Ltd at some point during lockdown. The tyres were lost in the distribution warehouse for several weeks before they located them and finally sent them off to Pirelli at the end of July 2022. We finally received a report from Pirelli UK on Tuesday 16th August (well the tyre dealer did, even though my name and address is on the report I did not receive a copy so the dealer forwarded it to me) stating that there was no manufacturing or materials fault found and that this was a normal degradation of the tyre in response to environmental factors. It is worth point out at this point that I have another pair Pirelli PZero Rosso (N4) on the front of the vehicle which show no similar signs of degradation. Pirelli pointed out a note that the tyres were outside of the 4 year warranty period (even though I had only owned them for 3 years at the time of the complaint). I brought this up with the tyre dealer who said they were entitled to sell stock of 2 years age. The photos provided do not show the extent of the damage to the tyres. When I returned them to the tyre dealer he struggled to see the damage but when pressing on the edge of the tyre after it had been removed from the wheels a large crack opened up between the tread and tyre carcass. In my opinion this was severe tread delamination which does not appear to be mentioned anywhere in Pirelli's report. Pirelli's report also shows two photos where someone is carefully examining the outer edge of the tyre. I have spoken with their claims department and explained that perhaps the examination wasn't thorough enough to reveal the damage that was seen by the tyre dealer and I but the claim the tyres have been fully examined. I'm happy to share privately the contents of the report to those who are interested. Please if you have Pirelli tyres fitted to any vehicle go and check your tyres or get someone competent to do so for you as a quick Google reveals that this isn't an isolated incident. I would also recommend you to check the date code of any tyres you buy and ensure they are not old tyres! I replaced these tyres with a pair of Michelin Pilot 4 and I will never again purchase Pirelli tyres. When I spoke with the claims department they were not prepared to negotiate with me or offer any form of recompense apart from an offer to return the faulty tyres for me to have independently examined. Does anyone know a company that offers such a service?

Funnily enough we've just experienced similar deterioration on the wife's 981 Boxster S. Pirelli P-Zeros, N4 20". Rears were low on tread so had those changed but the fitter then drew our attention to the fronts which were showing signs of cracking all around the circumference on the outside shoulder - tread was still good, tyres were 4 years old IIRC. My Michelin PS2s on the Turbo are up for renewal but they are 7 years old and apart from getting low on tread show no other signs of deterioration. Must be the compound that Pirelli use. Boxster lives under a car port out of direct sunlight, ~13K on them

I would suggest a Class action suit as this is common issue with Pirelli

Have a look through the following ... Independent Technical Report Vehicle Assessment - Motor Ombudsman (themotorombudsman.org) Who offers independent reports? DEKRA : DEKRA is a company providing independent technical reports nationwide. ACE : Automotive Consulting Engineers is a company providing independent technical reports nationwide. IAEA : The Institute of Automotive Engineer Assessors accredits engineers who can provide independent reports. Enter your postcode, and you’ll find an engineer local to you. Pirelli N`s on many Caymans / Boxsters of a few years back suffered cracking between the tread blocks. Pirelli`s initial response was to offer to inspect at one of their local centres or to receive photographs to assess, some people were awarded new tyres whilst others like myself were not Your issue appears far more serious than those tread block issues, pretty disgusting treatment by Pirelli. Hope that you manage some recompense In saying the ^ ... only 2500 miles in three years would not have helped any

Small claims court ?

Thanks Folks - I've written a suitably wordy reply and finished off with the suggestion that I will pursue with an independent examination and small claims courts if they still don't want to sort it out. I spoke to a person in their claims call centre yesterday who wasn't interested in helping at all. Maybe they have so many complaints now they have had to setup a call centre to deal with it and have become more rigid in their acceptance of faults.

i would check the wording on the warranty - if they said it was for 4 years implying from purchase then that is clearly misleading

Although not to do with cracking, I have previously found Matt Bell at Pirelli very understanding and helpful with several issues. It is a couple of years since I contacted him but worth a try. He is the marketing guy who seems to manage the relationship with PCGB, arranges the joint events, web presentations on their products etc. If he is still there, his email is [email removed] .

While it’s great that you’ve tried resolving the matter directly with the manufacturer, and even considering taking the mighty Pirelli to small claims, why is the merchant off the hook here? They supplied the goods that are fundamentally of an unsatisfactory quality and unfit for purpose - having degraded prematurely and become quickly unsafe. My suggestion would be to lean on the retailer to put it right and if they fail to do so, and you paid by credit card, to consider raising a Section 75 (S75 under the consumer credit act 1974) against the credit provider. They’re equally liable for the breach. Again, this only applies if you used a credit card. There’s other qualifying terms also - around value for instance; but this wouldn’t be an issue. I apologise in advance if this isn’t applicable, but thought it was worth mentioning this free piece of consumer credit protection before you try taking Pirelli to Court. I hope this helps. John

Thanks John - I did indeed buy the tyres with a credit card so something to look into then. The retailer could only offer me a free MOT at best [ ] that is after I purchased the replacement Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres from them. The other difficulty is that between the original purchase date and now the business was taken over by a national tyre supplier so not sure who would be responsible? Thanks David

Hi David, The credit card supplier would raise the S75 claim against the transaction. So it wouldn’t matter that the business has been sold. Indeed, it wouldn’t matter if they’d ceased trading. You’re essentially telling them that they’re jointly and severally liable for the breach of contract of the merchant. The breach - based on your experience and the submissions of others who corroborate this - is about the (lack of) durability of these goods. You could argue these are unsafe and therefore unfit for purpose. The remedy - according to the same merchant (appreciate they’re now a larger outfit) has been to replace them - so not as though the failure is just superficial. Surely that submission alone supports your claim. We can accept they are the professionals after all and they have deemed the tyres as no longer fit for use. In addition, their remedy is an unacceptable one. By way of comparison, I changed all four of my tyres to new Michelin Pilot Sports back in 2016 and they still look as new as the day they were fitted. I have probably driven several thousand miles on them. I never adjust tyre pressures. Just keep them clean. That’s all. The question is therefore whether your Pirelli tyres should break down to the point they become unsafe and need replacement in such a short period of time and after such little use? I don’t think that’s right, and it seems many would agree. You should be fully refunded less a sum for reasonable use/enjoyment. That’s my opinion. I hope this helps. You’d be welcome to PM me if you have questions and I’ll do my best to answer them for you. Have a great day, John.

Well some good news - I sent a letter to the tyre dealer and also Pirelli explaining that I believed the supplied tyres were not fit for purpose due to the degradation in a short period of time and limited usage. I also explained that I was going to take it further with an independent examination of the tyres, possibly then pursing them through the small claims court. I had no response from Pirelli, shame on them and I will never purchase or recommend Pirelli products to anyone in future. I received a phone call from the manager at the tyre dealers who had been dealing with the issue so far. He said after speaking with head office he'd managed to get them to agree to supply me with a pair of tyres free of charge. So as my daily BMW was need a pair of front tyres I took them up on the offer and had a pair of Michelin Cross Climate 2 fitted to the BMW this morning. EDIT: Forgot to mention I did reach out to Matt Bell at Pirelli but he was unable to get the decision changed and instead offered me a discount if I got a new set of tyres fitted at their own Pirelli Performance centre in future...

Positive news, thank you for the feedback

Hi David, I’m pleased to hear you managed to get a more positive outcome. Good for you! All the best, John

The same happened today on P Zero from 2019 with 5mm of thread left. I had to replace the back set tires. The next set will be Michelins.

Hi Nasdacbull, If you feel like you have the energy, please could you make a complaint with Pirelli. The more people that make complaints perhaps they will do something about it. I feel the club should do more about these scenarios seeing as Pirelli are a sponsor of the club and also many events.

Agree, but will buy alternative instead. I raised issue of crack/crazing on another thread. The system filing for ‘issues’ could be better than via thread chasing.

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Agreed ^ and for many other areas of Club membership e.g. direct technical - maintenance links to Porsche GB Surely the club does sufficient flag waving for the brand ? Subject for a separate Members only thread then ?

I have just had a similar experience with Pirelli over the premature wear of a pair of rear N4 Pirelli Rosso tyres on my Boxster. I supplied detailed evidence of the mileage, purchase date, backed up by MOT mileage including 4 wheel alignment carried out @ the tyre retailers ( a top performing Pirelli Performance centre ) who returned the tyres, after loosing them for 5 months or so! Tyres did 6k miles from new to 2mm road use only, the previous set of N1 did 13k miles including 2 track days @ Blyton ( abrasive on tyres ) the fronts are N1 & have 6mm tread left after 12k miles! Pirelli sent me a letter saying car out of alignment causing premature wear! No negotiation goodbye! I have had Pirelli tyres on my cars since I was 18, ie 54 years, I currently have in our family 3 cars running on Pirelli tyres, they will be the last Pirelli tyres that I ever purchase. Never again, this has left a very sour taste. On top of that I have a Pirelli reward card from the purchase of the Boxster new rears that I can’t get a retailer to accept. Very poor experience.

Hi Stephentodd, Agree Pirelli reward card is useless with general retailers, however I loaded mine to my Amazon account and as long as you purchase goods that don't go over the card value everything went through ok. Hope this helps but agree very poor otherwise