Over the last year I have had issues with my 2012 Durango RT pulling to the right and a steering wheel wobbling. This issue was there from the day I drove it off the lot. I never test drove my Durango as it was ordered in after test driving a 2011 RT and another 2012 RT. These units did not have the options I wanted therefore one was ordered in. The other two drove smooth and straight, so I never guessed I would have had an issue with the one I purchased. This is a mistake I will never make again. (live and learn I guess)

Now my vehicle has been into the shop 4+ times and been through three different dealers. All did alignments and balances with no success. My last dealer guessed it could be a tire issue (alleged Tsb for flat spotting) but never searched for the problematic tire. I was told they had no control over tire warranty and that I would have to speak with Kuhmo directly or buy four new tires. I attempted to call Kuhmo but never spoke to anyone personally. I left a message but never received any call backs from Kuhmo. A rotation was done weeks later and the issue lessened throughout the winter. I had a tire rotation this spring which appears to have returned the troubled tire back to the front of the vehicle.

A couple weeks ago, I drove from Edmonton to Seattle (14hours+ trip) and the issue never disappeared. Therefore, I was no longer satisfied by my last shops belief that flat spotting was the culprit. My vehicle was returned to the dealership and low and behold they now found that one of the tires was misshaped / separated. To prove it was a tire/rim issue they took the tires/rims off a citadel and placed them on my vehicle. Sure enough, the vehicle drove straight with no steering wheel wobble. Here comes the good part.

Their fix that was suggested was that I now had to replace all four tires, on my expense ($1000.00) of course, due to kilometers (18,000 / 4500 which came from my Washington/Seattle trip) on the vehicle. I explained to them I would gladly pay for the defective tire, but refused to pay for the remaining three as one of the three dealerships should have caught this issue in the fall when I visited all three dealerships with less than 4000 km on my vehicle (First was at 875km had a 500+ km trip several days after purchased). If this had happened they would have only had to replace one tire.

Upset I went on a hunt for Kumho dealers in my area as I no longer wanted to leave messages only to receive no calls back. Fortunately, I was able to find one in my town. Upon speaking with the manager, I was quickly informed that Dodge is responsible for replacing the tires and not a Kuhmo dealer. He went a step further and contacted his area Kuhmo representative who quickly informed that Dodge indeed does take care of the replacement of the tires.

As it turns out it is true that Dodge does not pay for the tires but instead all they have to do is fax a warranty claim form to Kuhmo. Kuhmo would then supply the replacement tire and even pay for the installation. All Dodge has to do is fax the warranty claim form. Kuhmo will not take a personal call from the customer and will they only replace the tires with proper dealership documentation.

As the dust fell, Kuhmo has decided to goodwill two tires. They refused to do all four due to kilometers and rightfully so. This issue should have been resolved last year. Even though my dealership acknowledged they and the two previous dealerships had dropped the ball they still refused to cover the cost of the remaining two tires. The best they claimed they could do was give me the tires at cost($700). After an hour of speaking with the general manager it was decided they would cover $250.00 of my $700.00 balance. At this point I just want my vehicle fixed and I will pay the remaining $450 just to have my vehicle drive the way it should.

Please don’t let the Dodge Dealership tell you they cannot do anything for stock Kuhmo tires. As you can see from my experience this is BS. All they have to do is fax a warranty claim form which if they don’t have they can get from Kuhmo when they contact them. Kuhmo will replace the tire if there is any defect that shows up in the first 2/32 of the tread wear.

I hope this helps anyone with the same problem or any future issues that anyone may have.

 

Good write up and research. No matter what you do that involves the dealer, they will never take accountablilty without allot of effort on your part. I went through this last year convicing them I had a 2011 730n radion put in my 2012 as it kept showing 10GB free instead of 20GB. But weeks of research and customer care calls, finally got my radio replaced. I had nothing on my hard drive, I know it may be a 40gb drive with 20 free, but technicain told me that I had 10GB of updates in the past year initially, that why only 10GB free now. I'm like WHAAAAAA.

Anywho, its things like this that make life allot more easier for the other DD folks out there who have these kind of issues.

 

They sure did drop the ball on that one. My first inclination when reading your piece was that it would be a tire problem and assumed they'd run a balance check, which would've spotted the defective tire. I guess your guys just don't want to do waranty work.
Years ago I had a Mitsubishi Endeavor that had an AC problem. The local dealer refused to fix it under waranty though it was covered. I went to a second dealer and he did the work and got my business from that point on -- until I T-boned some kid in a Camry running a red light. Ouch.

 

A good friend of mine a couple years ago had a warranty issue with his new car. After numerous attempts, at multiple dealers to get it repaired, he had enough. He parked his new car in front of the selling dealership with a big sign in his windshield explaining how he got screwed by his dealership. His car was fixed in 48 hours. Glad your D is finally fixed but mine will be parked out front if they ever give me trouble. We paid to much money for crap like that to happen. This is AMERICA!

 

Its not the Kumho's, seems to be a common problem on the rango's that guys have come across running various tire set ups!

 

It's the KUMHO's they are garbage tires.
All other complaints with Goodyears have been alignment problems, which I understand due to teh way these vehicles are bounced around from Trains to trucks etc when being shipped. Some idiot wraps a chain around a control arm the wrong way when tied down to a truck and the alignnmet is surely gonna be off.
Never heard nothing good about KUMHO tires.

 

Ditto. I have a friend in the tire business and while he carries them, he won't sell them to me. They are cheap, are well marketed to the rice rocket crowd, and well...cheap.

 

I guess opinions vary, while I'm not a huge fan of the kumho's I've seen no more/less complaints on here than the goodyears and in my experience through the years I much preferred my one set of kumho's over either of my sets of goodyears which both sucked horribly... Point is have the dealer find the problem as there's tons of vibration complaints on here that are alignment related not simply one tire manufacturer!

 

it is the kumho.... i had to replace mine at 25k. the WORST ever tire. you would think someone would stand by their product..

I went to the goodyear fortura (sp?) so far im happy

 

At this point i think i would put that $250 toward some goodyear forteras.