Defender Conti Trac Tyre Problems

If you have any questions or have had a personal experience with this issue please let us know and we will be glad to post your response.

What is the problem ?

Several owners have encountered problems with Conti Trac tyres, especially those fitted to 1996-1998 Defenders. The problems experienced are related to cracking side walls and tread and faster than expected wear. These problems are widespread and recognised by Continental who have replaced most of the affected tyres upon inspection. However since no official announcement was made regarding this problem several owners are unaware of the situation.

Latest information seems to indicate that even the improved "ribbed type" Conti A/Ts are prone to cracking and disintegration.

What is the solution ?

This problem was apparently fixed during 1999 by changing the rubber compound in the tyres and strengthening the side walls. The improved tyres are recognisable by the ribbing on the sidewall. If you are unhappy with your Conti Tracs then you should take the matter up with your closest Continental Customer Service Centre. The two main ones are the factory in Port Elizabeth and the centre in Germiston Gauteng. You will need to call them and pay them a visit upon which they will inspect your tyres and deliver a verdict. Should your complaint be justified you will receive a refunded voucher based on the amount of life left over. If you still have more than half the tread left and the tyres have been properly cared for you should receive a full refund on the tyres.

The problem however continues..... see our latest page on the issue

Isabel Jones Investigates

Extract from Isabel Jones IOL.co.za life section 2001-03-09

Cracks in tyres no Continental drift
Howard Lazarus was concerned to see that one of the tyres on his Landrover
Defender had developed cracks two centimetres long. He went into Tiger Wheel
& Tyre, Fourways Crossing, Johannesburg to get advice.

Before he even told the assistant which vehicle he was driving or its brand
of tyres, she asked him if he had Continental tyres.

To his amazement, he was told that both Tiger Wheel and Continental Tyre
were aware of the problem and he would receive a refund based on the
remaining tread left on his tyres.

When the other three tyres were examined, they also turned out to have
cracks on the inner side.

'No attempt has been made to warn motorists about this potentially
life-threatening problem'
Lazarus says that he did get a refund cheque of R4 305,51, but says: "When I
went to collect my refund, the lady told me that she had experienced a
similar problem with Continental tyres when driving to the coast on
holiday."

"I feel that it is totally unacceptable that no attempt has been made to
warn motorists about this potentially life-threatening problem."

ASK ISABEL contacted Allan Singer, Continental Tyre's Manager of Technical
Services who assured us there had been absolutely no risk to the driving
public.

"The tyres concerned are Conti Tract A/T and these cracks were merely
cosmetic as they were less than one millimetre deep," he said.

"We ran extensive endurance tests with tyres with two to three millimetres
left on the tyre tread (new ones have 10 mm), where we loaded the tyres to
900 kg per tyre - far more weight than even a holiday-laden vehicle would
carry.

'Continental Tyre has a very responsible customer safety record'
"There was no deterioration even after 10 000 km. We run daily
quality-control tests and I can assure everyone that these tyres are safe.
However, we realise that the cracks do not look good - this is why we made
generous warranty compensation payments.

"We gave a full refund for tyres with 5mm-10mm tread still left and pro rata
with lesser treads."

Singer told us there was no question of brushing any danger under the
carpet.

"When we had some concerns with a small batch of truck tyres two years ago,
we ran a 'public recall' campaign through half-page advertisements in the
newspapers.

We made mail shots to every known owner and operated buy-backs from every
stockist. I feel that Continental Tyre has a very responsible customer
safety record."

Allan Singer telephoned Howard Lazarus to reassure him on the safety of his
Continental tyres.

Tyres sold in South Africa (both new and retreads) come under the
jurisdiction of the SABS (South African Bureau of Standards). All tyres must
comply with compulsory safety specifications.

ASK ISABEL contacted the SABS' Technical Manager, Wimpie Lyons, and asked if
they had received any other complaints about the performance of these
specific Continental tyres. He told us that they hadn't but they would run
safety tests on tyres with the same batch numbers in their laboratories.

After running four-day tests, Lyons told ASK ISABEL the test tyres complied
with all their compulsory safety specifications.

ASK ISABEL CONSUMER FACT FILE
If you have doubts about any tyres, contact:
SABS
Tel. (012) 428-6386

Do check your tyres on a regular basis. By law, tyres must have a minimum
tread of one millimetre. The easiest way to check tyres is to insert a
matchstick in the tread. Rotate the tyre and check if the matchstick has
fallen out. If it has, your tyres are potentially dangerous - and illegal.

Look for cracks and splits. It is not easy to look on the inner side of the
tyre, so have it checked when the car is being serviced and it is on a ramp.

Regularly check the pressure - and make certain you do it when the tyres are
cold to get an accurate reading. Under-pressured tyres can be dangerous as
you will be driving on the rim and you could risk having a blowout.

Find out more at www.iol.co.za , on the menu at the top click on 'life', then click on 'Consumer online', third one down is 'Ask Isabel'....you can mail her direct
on ' askisabel@iol.co.za '

What are the issues ?

Hennie van den Berg, e-mail
11 March 2001

The problem persists! I have recently seen 2 tyres on a friend's TD5 Defender which had the new sidewall beading, and they still cracked after 30 000km! It is shocking that Landrover persist with these tyres. Must be to do with local content of the vehicle? The salesman's response? "At least you get new tyres for free evey now and again" But what if someone has a blowout at 120km/h?

The worst is that the cracks are sometimes on the chassis side only. So every guy who still has Conti's must crawl under his vehicle every weekend to check both sides of the tyres? Unacceptable, I say.

Jonathan Hill, email
9 March 2001

Maybe I am naive, anyway I am from the UK and always assumed that the people here knew more about off roading than I did.

I have a 1197/1997 Defender 110. I bought it for a trip to Namibia, I got it from Forsdicks in Cape Town and it had belonged to the LandRover Regional Service Manager. I drove about 6000 KM in Namibia all tyres were shot and I had to buy a new set, at that time the car had done about 35000 km all together.

Large chunks of rubber were actually falling of the tyres and the tread almost disappeared visibly. I blamed Namibia and it cost me a lot of money, two years later I find your web site and I find that Namibia was not to blame at all. Since then I have bought more Cont Trac tyres, all along I thought it was normal. The Defender has now done 83000 KM. The car is still regularly serviced by Forsdicks, so why have LandRover not told the dealers what is going on, surely there is a case against both LandRover and Continental.

When I changed the tyres after Namibia, I noticed the difference in the sidewall, ribbing had been added. I have checked the latest tyres, there are large cracks running from the tread into the sidewall.

As I want to drive my car home to the UK within the next few months, I am not keen to live with the tyres in the condition that they are in.

Brendan Mitchell, ZA-LRO

I have done 48 000 kms on the Conti's and the usual 'splits' and 'cracks' were getting worse.

Yesterday I met with a Continental sales rep who was up in Richards Bay. Out with the vernier he quickly measured all 4 tyres and declared that they would refund 3 1/2 tyres. As long as you have +5mm tread they will refund you the value of the tyre. Less than 5mm is 50% of the tyre. There must be at least one 'split' on each tyre because they are sent back to the factory.

Notice I say 'refund' because it is an arrangement with the dealer who you are working with. They recover the value of the tyres from Continental and you can offset this against ANY brand of tyre supplied by the dealer. So you don't have to buy Continental again.

Paul Donague, ZA-LRO

Guys, Speaking from much experience the first step in getting Conti to sort
out your tyres at no cost is to phone General/Conti head office in Port
Elizabeth (number in the Book) and speak to the Quality department manager and complain and moan and complain and moan and complain. He will then refer to your local office or dealer. Do not start with your local rep or dealer as they do not have the authority to issue for full refund .
I have had several sets changed , the last with 65000 km on.

Darryl Lampert, ZA-LRO

You must be one of the lucky ones as just about everyone that I know has had problems with ContiCracks. I had the old type on my 110 and after 40000km they were shot, they had cracks running from the sidewall into the tread and the tread itself was starting to disintegrate (big chunks of rubber were falling out of individual pieces of tread). I took my truck to Continental and they swapped out all 5 (brand new spare) saying it was a fault with the compound. I had 5 new type ContiCracks put on without better success.

My truck has now done 70000km's and the "new" Conti's are stuffed, exactly the same problems as before except now I have only done 30000 km's on the set, 3 sidewall punctures as well. I run similar pressures to you 2.8 back 2.4 front. When off road I always let down pressure to between 1.7 and 1 bar depending on the type of terrain. Contrary to Izak's experience I find when driving over rocky terrain with my tyres at 1.7 bar I sustain far less cuts, scratches and bruises on the tyres then when running them at higher pressures. Sidewall punctures are also encountered whether my tyres are hard or soft. I have tested this over 5 trips to the Richtersveld last year and find that 1.7 bar seems to be a good pressure for grip and less damage to the tyres.

What I can say in favor of Conti's is that at no stage (with the exception of heavy mud) have I had a problem with grip on or off road. I will be changing my tyres in the next month or so and will be putting on BFG M/T 265/75's. All the people that I have spoken to with these tyres have been very happy and get wear ranging from 80000 - 140000 km's per set, this at ~R150 more per tyre then Conti's.