Tyre co. wrecked my IRD – need official proof

johnny "you messed up",
typical attitude of some people in this country is always looking for someone else to blame
as has been suggested move on and put it down to your ird was on its way out,
as the driver im sure you would feel the wind up in the transmission if the tyres were incorrect,
in the future replace all tyres at the same time

sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear, but it seems to be the opinion of quite a few landy peeps

Landroverwill recommend swapping all four tyres at the same time thus you wont win, but still they should have known better, and if there is a case tben ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law..

I can't see you getting anywhere with this tbh. If you went into Quick Fit ( often known by a more derogatory name) and asked them to fit 2 new front tyres, they did exactly as requested. How do they know you aren't running 2WD?
I think you are wasting your time trying to pursue a claim because you didn't read the owners manual. It's written quite clearly on what to do about tyre changes.
Good luck.

I'm guessing at 75,000 miles you still have the original ( probably getting slightly stiff ) VCU ?
They put the new tyres with 8mm tread on front but the rears were 7mm & 4mm that you supplied to them ?
I'm guessing the tyres were all the same make & size ?
The winter tyres are all the same tread depth/size and fitted the right way on car over winter ?

DTO said:

I'm guessing at 75,000 miles you still have the original ( probably getting slightly stiff ) VCU ?

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That's correct - although not conscious of stiffness.

DTO said:

They put the new tyres with 8mm tread on front but the rears were 7mm & 4mm that you supplied to them ?

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Yes.

DTO said:

I'm guessing the tyres were all the same make & size ?

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All the same notional size. All were Michelin - Synchrones to the rear; and the new ones were Latitudes.

DTO said:

The winter tyres are all the same tread depth/size and fitted the right way on car over winter ?

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Yes.

Cheers,

Johnny.

Look on their site an see if it mentions "expert" if so, then they will be liable, because as experts they are supposed to know. If they do not claim to be experts then it may be down to you, but if yu are a betting man, a punt at the SCC might be worth doing.

The Mad Hat Man said:

a punt at the SCC might be worth doing.

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That's the plan - yet I need a primary source from LR that this problem actually exists.

Can't go into court with loads of threads from forums; or with a couple of pages off garage web sites. That's all just hearsay and conjecture, from a proof point of view.

What is so far interesting is that, for all the chat here - and other forums, loads of web sites etc - about IRDs, VCUs and tyre fitting, the problem seems to be unsubstantiated.

I am a bit surprised that a belief so widely held, apparently by so many experts, can’t be backed by LR documentation/ primary source material and, actually, until then might as well just be folklore.

Loads of opinions, but no-one can furnish any proof; frustratingly.

Cheers,

Johnny.

The Mad Hat Man said:

Symptoms - Bell Engineering

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Thanks - and that's kind of my point. I've got a lot of these kind of references, including this one, yet not one single thing from LR itself. Which is what the tyre chain is asking for as proof that such a failure can arise from incorrect tyre fitting.

If I'm able to produce that, I reckon we'll be in with a shout.

Until then, there's no primary evidence that the issues exists outside the minds of the trade; just assertions that are no better than the tyre firm's own, claiming it's a myth.

Cheers,

Johnny.

"On the balance if probability".

If lots of companies state the same and that's the opposite of one company then case proved.

Look on Ashcrofts site

LANDROVER RECCOMEND KEEPING ALL TYRES WITHIN 3MM TREAD(and id say safe to asume matching tyres on all 4 corners) and id be pretty certain theyd recomend swappkng all 4 at the same time like new disco, i know this cos my mechanic nephew called and asked them and 8mm to 4mm isnt 3mm with that in mind i dont think you can win.
Unless theres a leg to stand on that they did not tell you any of this and maybe they should have known, or maybe just maybe it will be cheaper for them to just pay if you go down the scc route as scottjsh power did when i took them for wrecking my old spitfires newish paint job (but they were in the wrong and i would have won) but they didnt accept responsibility until 2 days before the hearing.. And i got 1800quid from them..

Johnnyd said:

The National Tyre Chain fitted the two new tyres to the front axle. This I can prove as five days later (when I noticed).

The day after the service, my wife drove to Devon (400m round trip) and complained about tyre noise at speed. When she returned, I drove it and the noise was like being in a Lancaster bomber.


Johnny.

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I had my freelander around two weeks before getting two new tyres fitted to the rear, I stood and watched, having read everything about getting 2 instead of 4 fitted, to make sure they put them where I wanted (as the customer) I'm afraid to say, your firstly at fault in my eye's,
I then drove around 80 miles with new tyres to the rear, acceleration was lost and it felt like a tank, so I popped back in and had the fronts replaced too, everything back to normal, if anything it felt better than before

I'd then go on to say your wife was secondly at fault, for doing 400 miles, if it had been a bloke, we would have done something a lot sooner than 400 miles later, so stop trying to blame the garage, if you cant accept fault, give the wife a slap and move on, life's too short

I think you've been dealt with rather harshly in the sympahy dept. here. If you leave your vehicle in the hands of 'experts' (which I'm sure they would say they were if you went in and asked!) you expect the correct service. They have definitely not done that, full stop.

So in apportioning blame, they they should admit some responsibility. However, there is also the question of how much is your responsibility. IRDs 'go' for various reasons, the primary one being the VCU "wearing out" (ie going to stiff). For this reason the LR recommended service interval for replacing the VCU is 70,000 miles. You've exceeded that, so it could reasonably be seen that you have contributed to the IRD failure. My IRD was in good condition, but was stuffed by driving with an underinflated tyre for roughly the same 400 miles - so if with noise indications of something wrong, you should be expected to investigate it sooner. Plus of course, you could go into the tyre shop and show them the LR Owners Manual, and they could respond by saying that you should have read the manual when you got the car to know what was right and wrong.

So, at best, I think you're looking at being really ****ed off with their service and possibly a pennies in the pound payout - and probably not enough pennies to go through the effort of fighting it any further. As has been said, it looks like you'll need to put this down as one of those "life experiences" and get on with the rest of your life - which won't include taking your cars back to that tyre shop!

"LR recommended service interval for replacing the VCU is 70,000 miles "

Land rover have no service interval for the VCU that's the problem

Life is too short.
Move on.

the_wolf said:

Land rover are the specialists, not a national tyre chain

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Here we go again , Land Rover Specialists have not got a clue , including main dealers , indys and tyre services in general , its left up to the freelander owner , to educate themselves , or find out the hard way , how important tyre choice can affect the freelander drivetrain , I have been there on this , I was lucky , just in time , me thinks , at the end of the day its down to LAND ROVER for not passing on the info !!!!!?

LR gave out warning material as either service notes or technical doc's many years ago. They advise to check tyre problems like mismatch and size. LR changed the transmission front to rear ratio's for 2001 models onwards (started late 2000) to reduce the problem happening but it still does. It's well known as a problem in the world of Freelandering but many only find out by mistake online when joining a forum or when something is broke'd and they look it up online.

I've seen this happen many times over the years (some really sad stories) and even witnessed tyre fitters fitting new tyres to the front myself, on another vehicle. I know that vehicle broke too. It doesn't matter how much work you put into this you will struggle to get LR to back you up. The owners manwell tells you what to do with regards to tyres. As an owner you should know this. You will struggle to prove the case you have.

You should join the "feked over" club and put up with it. That's what I had to do after my recon gearbox didn't go as well as I had hoped. If I hadn't of given up I would have gone mad. Perhaps madder than I am now. Life throws these problems at you and unfortunately you get feked over but there's little you can do.

Again buy a real landrover that can cope with a few mm tyre difference.....my disco ran tyres half an inch out for a week and was happy doing about 30 miles before I changed them all over to the right size (home to tyre shop and back then back to shop)

the_wolf said:

Land rover are the specialists, not a national tyre chain

Click to expand...

Here we go again , Land Rover Specialists have not got a clue , including main dealers , indys and tyre services in general , its left up to the freelander owner , to educate themselves , or find out the hard way , how important tyre choice can affect the freelander drivetrain , I have been there on this , I was lucky , just in time , me thinks , at the end of the day its down to LAND ROVER for not passing on the info !!!!!?

Never trust so called Tyre Fitting Experts!

Kwik Fit came to the house to fit a new tyre to my wife's motability car. The so called Expert couldn't find the locking wheel nut key.
Funny old thing it was in the boot, under the wrench next to the jack in the spare wheel. Where there is a cut out for it!

Experts my arse!!!!!!!

Never ever trust them, always check their work................:mad2: