Renault India — Renault Duster Tyre Noise Issue

Address:

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Sir, I bought Renault Duster in May 2013 in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. Within few months of the purchase several issues started coming. The latest one is the following. (other issues are mentioned below) MRF TYRE NOISE ISSUE IN DUSTER: The first wheel alignment and wheel balancing was done during the second free service at Renault service center, Coimbatore when my duster had just clocked 9543 KM(See A1). I always maintain the tyre pressure of 29 psi as recommended by Renault and used to check the tyre pressure almost two weeks once, and in particular before any long drive. When I was driving from Trivandrum to Coimbatore I noticed a rattling noise above the speed of 60 KM/hr coming from the front tyres. I stopped at Renault Kochin and asked to check the noise. After doing a test drive, they simply said that nothing is serious and you can drive on. However the noise was keep coming during my drive to Coimbatore and so stopped at Renault-Coimbatore(Anamallais) for confirming this issue. Renault-Coimbatore did a test drive and found that inner most part of both front tyres have worn out leading to the humming noise. They did wheel balancing, rotation and alignment(see A2). Further said that noise will settle down in another few hundred kilometers but it is not the case; I noticed the noise during my return trip to Trivandrum. Again this forced me to stop at Renault Trivandrum and they did only wheel rotation and delivered the vehicle saying that we will recheck during 3rd service at 20000 KM. Though the noise was increasing rapidly I was patiently waiting for 3rd service, and did the wheel balancing, rotation and alignment at 20149 KM in Renault-Trivandrum (TVS ) along with other maintenance(see A3). During this process, the wheels have been rotated three times resulting inner part of all the tyres worn out. Now the noise is coming like, driving a car with broken tyre and service engineers agreed to raise the complaint at this point. After this delivery I took the car two times for measurements and videos of the noise. As a result, Renault Team has just replied saying that this might have occurred due to hard braking and driving in patchy roads. This is totally unacceptable since I am not a race driver and most part of the driving is on highways. Therefore Renault team, please think twice before giving such a hasty answer hurting a customer who has paid 14.6 lakhs(including tax) and faced several issues in the car right from the beginning of the purchase( given below the other issues separately). Eventually, I complained this issue directly to Renault Customer Care (No:[protected] and customer care representatives asked to check with MRF engineers. I took the car to MRF service center at Trivandrum along with a Renault service engineer. He inspected the car and gave a report (see Attachment 4). First of all I do not wish to go for their opinion since I am not attached to MRF for this purchase but only Renault is having tie-up. In one way I out-rightly reject their statement since it seems that this is a standard opinion given to Duster customers. The reason is as follows. When I am facing this serious issue, I did find an MRF Report of an another Duster customer from Rajasthan in online who is facing the same problem. I don't attach it here and can be found in team-bhp website. The report is line-by-line identical with what I was given after the inspection. It looks clear that noise is not happening normally and due to some fault at the Renault's end. It is also obvious that these kind of tyre wear is not arising in general for all other brand cars and in fact not for other models of Renault itself. Note that noise is coming due to uneven wear in all the tyres but it is not because of some patchy wear in some area. I have done four times wheel balancing rotation and alignment and I am very serious about tyre pressure right from the beginning. Hence there is no way the tyres can wear out only in inner part and that too in a minimum kilometer of 17500 as the normal life span of these tyres is around[protected] KM. It opens a serious question of whether the dyes used have negative camber angle issues and any other alignment problems!!! Or Is there any serious issue in MRF tyre itsel[censored]. One has to do some more research to find out the root cause of the problem. So Renault, please don't just give an inappropriate answer which you have given before and ask to change the tyres in every 17000 kilometers. Renault India, please don't irritate further a customer who has already put enough effort on running a car with handful of issues for the last 18 months. Since inner part of all the four tyres worn out, I am afraid of braking problem might easily happen and it may also result in excessive heat only in outer portion of the tyres. "Taking this issue very very SERIOUSLY, Renault has to fix this problem at the very earliest and compensate me with new tyres under warranty as soon as possible in order to avoid any other series consequences". The following are the OTHER ISSUES I faced with Duster within a Year and Half: AC water leakage inside the cabin. I reported this problem in Trivandrum service center, they could not fix it at the very first visit. Within a month I traveled to Coimbatore and left the car in Coimbatore service center and they just replaced AC water outlet hole with a bigger one. By that time inside carpet was completely wet and I had to wait for four days to get it delivered. But later within a month water was coming out all the four corners of the car as the AC water is filled under the floor mat in the entire cabin Then I approached the Renault customer care and they directed again to Trivandrum service center. I could not imagine how smell the car was during those months. This time Trivandrum service people found that there is a leakage in the AC main unit itself. The took a week to rectify this issue. (if you want I can send these complaints as well) After a second service, due to the mistake of the service engineers in Coimbatore the engine oil started leaking while driving without notice for few hours. By contacting Renault road side assistance, we tow the car to service center and rectified the problem. In this case I narrowly escaped from engine seize. The hazard light switch was not functioning when I am about to use in invisibly heavy rain. Due to mall functioning of wiper switch, wiper started functioning all the time. Why I am claiming all these issues here is that they were all happened within one and half years of delivery of the car. In order to overcome these problems I had to leave the car several weeks in two service centers and have to spent several week days and weekends (Saturdays) wasting my research time on these service stations. The car has already given me enough STRESS, so Renault India please don't add one more on this list. RENAULT'S REPLY: Renault has replied with the following: As MRF has rejected that the noise is not due to any manufactoring fault and may be the damage occurred as a result o[censored]nequal and excessive contact pressure exerted at the road contact area of the tyre, we can not do anything further on this. I know that the tyre warranty is given by MRF; Renault is having tie-up with MRF but I am not. So I don't stand on MRF's decision since MRF is giving same statement to every duster customer and there is an evidence too. What does it mean? What is the meaning MRF trying to convey the Renault customers? Is it like the fault not due to MRF tyres? Then who will take the responsibility of this issue. Is it not Renault? Or is it going to be the customers fate? As I explained above, I have done all the works in order to use the tyre life maximum possible. In the later case, is Renault asking me to buy a new set of tyres for Rs 40, 000 for every 17000 KMS in order to drive safely without such a nasty noise coming from the tyre? If it happens to be the Renault's answer, I have to proceed further in this issue. Moreover, what is the assurance that the new set of tyres will last at least for the minimum kilometers given by a tyre company. This is a really very serious issue. The Renault has to answer all my queries and SOLVE the issue immediately. THANKING YOU Sakthivel K Ph. [protected]