# M Coupe: Kumho Ecsta disintegrated on highway - bought Yokohama ES100 's to replace



## TR6 (Aug 23, 2004)

My wife was driving the M Coupe home on the freeway Friday night and she called me and told me she had a flat on the right front while doing about 65 mph. It had Kumho Ecsta tires front and rear. Front had about 10K miles on them and rear had about 3K miles. I quickly drove to her location and was shocked to find that the entire road-contact surface of the tire all the way around had separated from both the inner and outer sidewalls. In other words, the complete ring of tread surface was flopping loose ALL the way around the wheel. Like a cigar band. The car was sitting on just the two sidewalls which were still firmly beaded to the wheel. Most bizarre thing I've ever seen. Luckily, no damage to the car or even the wheel! I can't think of what caused this and she swears she didn't run over anything. Its like someone went 360 degrees around the tire on both the inner and outer side with a can opener. 

So I have replaced all 4 tires with Yokohama ES100 's from Discount Tire. They actually gave me a $70 trade in on the two rear tires since they were almost new. I don't know what went wrong with the Kumho's, but I didn't trust them after this episode. Has anyone else experienced any similar problems?


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## mtbscott (Jul 16, 2003)

I bought my Kumho Ecsta MX's after numerous recommendations at a local Porsche club Auto X. Three other E46 M3's had them, the Mustang Cobra next to me in line had them, many Miata's, etc. I've had mine now for about 8K miles with no problems.


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