Mileage Warranties

At Souza's we don't get too excited about mileage warranties, because in order for the manufacturers to honor the warranty, you must meet the following conditions:

The tires must be rotated at the manufacturer's specified intervals (usually every 5,000 to 8,000 miles)

You must keep records of the rotations and the original mileage

The tires must be evenly worn across the face of the tread

Sometimes there are even more requirements than these, (such as yearly alignments and air pressure tracking) but all of the warranties we've seen have at least these requirements. Even though it may be hard in our busy lives to keep the tires rotated, the real problem comes with the third requirement. All sorts of vehicle conditions can make the tires wear unevenly, underinflation, alignment or even vehicle design. For instance, some vehicles are made so that the rear tires tilt in at the top so that you always wear the inside edge of the tire, and that voids the warranty. Another major problem is just the Auburn area. With all of the hills and twisty roads around here, tires will naturally wear faster, and often on the edges. Short of moving away, (or slowing down) adding more air pressure is the only thing you can do to help with the edge wear. Even though this requirement for even wear may seem rotten, it is actually fair. After all, the tire manufacturers really can't be held responsible for premature wear when it's caused by bad roads, a lack of proper maintenance or issues with your vehicle.

So the bottom line is, if you want to actually take advantage of a mileage warranty, this is what you will need to do. Even if the tires don't have a mileage warranty, you will still get better wear if you follow these guidelines:

Keep your tires rotated every 5,000 miles (you may go longer if the particular manufacturer allows, but for local driving we still recommend every 5,000).

Keep track of your rotations and the original mileage.

Keep your air pressure high enough so that the tires won't wear on the edges.

If you see any uneven wear, say inside or outside edge of any of the tires, have the alignment checked.

Another requirement that sometimes causes problems is that the manufacturers want the tires to be worn all the way down to the treadwear indicators, or 2/32" tread depth. They really can't be expected to warranty tires for wear when they're not actually worn out. This can be a problem when your tires aren't worn down to 2/32 but the winter weather is starting. In many cases, you would normally want new tires at that point, but you don't qualify for the warranty. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do at that point (assuming you've met all of the other conditions) is contact the manufacturer and hope for the best. Sometimes they'll work with you, but there's no guarantee.

There is also a misconception about mileage warranties that we run into. It can happen when people have a material and workmanship defect, or road hazard. People in this situation sometimes ask us: "Isn't there a XX,000 mile warranty on this tire?" Although the answer to that question may be yes, it has nothing to with defects or road hazards, it is only for mileage, and they are completely separate.

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