Dunlop Z2's Chunking, Defective?
 

So Here is the Story.

Live in the Washington, D.C. Area. I used Dunlop Z2's for autocrossing and daily driving in the spring summer and fall. In the winter I Switch over to Continental DWS's. This past winter I switched over in November and kept them in my garage in the winter (Garage is attached to the house so while not brutally cold, its not exactly warm especially this winter). So lets summarize 0 Winter driving (Under 35 degree temps), I don't drive like an idiot either with aggressive burn outs that last seconds. Just autocross launches. No Animals in the garage as well lol.

Fast Forward 4 Months to This past week. I go to install the tires and I see the following:

http://i59.tinypic.com/oaw681.jpg
http://i57.tinypic.com/161ytec.jpg
http://i62.tinypic.com/2ez5u68.jpg
http://i58.tinypic.com/16m5568.jpg
http://i58.tinypic.com/2eevo0w.jpg

This is only on the 2 rear tires (Not the fronts).

What do I chalk this up too?

My Abuse at Autox?
Defective Call Dunlop?

I would just like to know, If I messed them up thats fine Ill get a new set but very curious to find out.

Those are from launching the car.

I can also see a little camber/toe wear on the inner edges.

My z2 never chunked like that on my speed3 that had much harder launches! Looks almost like you did an autocross school in Las Vegas in middle of summer and overheated the shit out of them

the MS3 unloads the front as you launch, and you're not even getting full boost.

The BRZ/FRS squats, and loads the rear...

Kanundrum's also pushing north of 300 whp I believe. Someone's been having fun in their car :burnrubber:

You didn't notice this when you took them off and put them away at the end of the season? While it certainly is possible to overlook things like that, but that looks kind of tough to miss. Those top two photos do look kind of suspiciously like rodents. What I'm trying to drive at is if you didn't see something this severe before you put them away, then it's perfectly reasonable to assume that it happened while in storage. And over the colder months is when field mice and such seek warmer spots.

If it's only on the rears (were those stored on the floor with the fronts stacked on top?) then rotate the fronts to the rears, and see if the problem duplicates itself. I just kind of wonder how it's possible to chunk the tires that badly driving, but get no dust/dirt in the carved-out void during the drives to and from events. Could also be a combo of the two. Rodents start it, you drive on it and make it a little worse. Just a thought.

Honestly no, I didn't notice those how ever I probably wasn't paying attention as well and it didn't even stand out to me when I was loading them in the car to take to the shop.

Haha this is way before that, I was 300hp at the start Nov and these wheels and tires may have been on the car for a week or so at the most but never autocrossed with 300whp

Thanks. I know about the camber wear. Really interesting that this is form launching the car as I have never had this happen to any of the tires before. Also our summer was relatively mile for the autocross launches.


Thanks again.

Mice was my first thought as well. I would think that you would have noticed that when you took them off the car.

I've heard of the ZII's chunking before from RR guys, so it's not unheard of.

You know what BFG says about Rivals that do that? That its just fine. RoFl. My Rivals in my garage look like that. However I have never once in my life had rs3s that did that not once. RS3s for the win

Thanks. I used them the other day just fine and so far I have not had any issues with the tires and performance. Just interesting I saw it

Given how the rest of the tires look, I would just say bad luck. I ran them on a much heavier WRX in time attack a few years ago and never really had an issue like that. I've blown apart other tires on the track but not that tire. Normally when they overheat and chunk you'll see almost all the other edges show signs of crumbling along with a few massive chunks missing. Typically the carcass will be blueish also...at least my BFGs were.

Talked with Dunlop had them inspected at a good year shop and they are claiming it as defective.

They are giving me 60% money towards a new tire which is not bad I guess. The new tires would be the same ones though. Hmmm so all 4 new tires for about $450 + install.

Not bad considering the tire is $175 on tirerack.

Tremendous customer service and support in my opinion. Nitto told me to eat a **** when my NTO1 tires chunked, so I'll never buy another set again.

Wish Dunlop supported SCCA Contingency more, but its great to hear they at least stand behind the tire if something does go wrong.:cheers:

Nice. Makes me feel better since I just paid that $175 on tire rack. I figured it was a good price and there was a $50 rebate. Hopefully I don't have any of these issues though!

Yea Honestly I don't know what the issue was but I am getting a new set and I will make sure everything is done exactly the same to figure out what caused it or if it was truely a freak accident.


I did also talk to them one more time and they said I'd pay 15% for the 2 rear ties and like 50% for the fronts so I def come out above in the end.

I wouldn't rule out frost damage either. I don't know how cold it gets in DC, but enduring a lot of freeze/thaw cycles isn't doing the rubber any good, even if you're not driving on them. Awesome that Dunlop stood behind their warranty though.

interesting.....we run those tires on our lemons racer....a 3000lbs car that runs about 8 hours per day with only 225 front and 255 rear tires..they never have chunked & always wear quite even.

My thoughts are the tires were driven at too high hot pressure...since most of the damage is near the center & hard "drag race" launches can cause this too