I recently bought two Pirelli 215/65 R16 98V Scorpion STR tyres,only after 2 months one of the tyres had a sidewall failure and the tyre burst. The pic shows the detail. Anyway I contacted Pirelli and thier technical team apparently said it was an 'accidental cut' what ever that is. I am just interested if anyone else has ever used these tyres or had any need to contact Pirelli's aftersales department as they appear to have no interest in taking any blame.

Hi MS,

It means that a flint, or some other object has damaged your tyre. Get an opinion from a tyre fitters, they will give you a better idea.

I have some experience of 'Tyres sent to manufacturer for appraisal' and very rarely will you get any acceptance of faulty manufacture.

I've complained and returned six tyres in the last 10 years of various makes on different vehicles and only had a 'pro-rata' discount offered on one.

You get cr*p questions like 'Can you be sure it hasn't been kerbed?' or 'Have you personally been the sole driver of every mile that this tyre has covered?'

I have to say your pic shows the type of damage that can appear some time after running over a kerb.

Where was the tyre actually made? - The first 4 letters or numbers of the DOT code tells all. Also what is the date code? If it's an old tyre made in the far east then this kind of thing is highly likely.

All the big manufacturers have factories scattered around the world - and frequently the big discounting dealers get a load of elderly tyres.