Tires problems, dry rot stress cracks

[Ecomike]

I am curious, am I the only one having problems with nearly new tires showing stress cracks in between the treads that look like dry rot on barely used tires that are only 6 months to 3 years old, that still have most of their tread unused?

Mine are mostly Uniroyal Liberator, Goodyear Wrangler (on the Jeeps) and Michelin ??? on my sons ford, and I forget the brand on the Saturn, but they ALL came from Walmart. I have >24 tires with various amounts of stress cracks and even sidewall cracks on the tires that are less than 5 years old, some are only 6-24 months old and look like they are 10 year old tires but have little tread used on them yet.

I am seeing on the internet that Uniroyal and Goodrich are made by Michelin, and they have a huge recall underway on two 16" tires that was just issued about 5 weeks ago (mine are 14" and 15"). I am also seeing lots of complaints about these Michelin brand tires on the internet.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/26/travel/tire-recall/index.html

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/tires/michelin.html

 

[TA2Jeep]

I remember reading somewhere that WalMart takes inferior quality tires from the major suppliers because of the bulk pricing that they're dealing with. Ergo, Goodyear (just using Goodyear as example) makes a batch of tires either on purpose that are slightly inferior to their normal product, or they have the batches that come out inferior just due to normal production variances and those are the ones WalMart picks up. So both parties are happy, the supplier gets to offload junk rubber and WalMart gets to carry a name brand tire. WalMart may also be selling tires that were sitting on shelves somewhere for too long before making their way to WalMart and WalMart sells them before they get toooo old..


Here's how to read the maufacture date for tires -

Date Codes: Every tire has a date code stamped on the sidewall, which gives the date that the tire was manufactured. They look something like this: DOT PDHH MLOR 3403. The date code can be on either side of the tire, so you may have to crawl underneath the rig and look on the inward facing side. The date code always starts with the letters DOT and ends with a 3 or 4 digit number. That last number is the date code, which tells you when the tire was manufactured. The first two numbers indicate the week (out of 52) and the last one or two digits indicate the year. For instance, 3403 means the 34th week of 2003, or the last week in August 2003. Starting with the year 2000, the date codes have two digits for the year, prior to that, only one. A date code of 079 would indicate the seventh week of 1999, or the third week of February 1999.

 

[Shorty]

double check your pressures too-- a slightly low tire/set of tires will run much hotter and dry out the rubber much quicker. If the pressures are good, check the alignment-- the added friction can also generate extra heat.

 

[Ecomike]

double check your pressures too-- a slightly low tire/set of tires will run much hotter and dry out the rubber much quicker. If the pressures are good, check the alignment-- the added friction can also generate extra heat.

There is no heat sitting in the driveway, LOL.

I have driven a good 1 million miles since 1972, paid very close attention to my tire pressure, and alignment and front ends. If you have read my Renix posts here on you know how an*l I am about engineering detail. This is a rubber in the tire problem, with Michelin, BFGoodrich and Uniroyal (all the same company now). This a problem I started seeing in 2006-07, and noticed getting far worse the last 2 years. It is the same problem on 4 jeeps, a Ford Taurus and a Saturn, the family fleet that I do all the service work on. The only connection is Walmart and Michelin/Uniroyal tires.


Read this:

I purchased a used Ford van that just had a new set of Michelin tires installed as part of the sale. After 3 years, when I was prepping for a long trip, I noticed dry rot. I went to Costco for new tires. The rep told me the existing tires could not be warrantied and the replacement Michelins would be covered for 6 years against any problems, including dry rot.
I purchased 4 Michelin tires for my Ford E-150 van in late 2009. Now, in early 2012, I noticed dry-checking and took them back to Costco where they have been serviced almost every month. They informed me that they were no longer safe to use as they were so badly dry rotted. Mind you, these tires are 2.5 years old with 17,000 miles on them. Costco informed me that Michelin has no warranty for this and I need to spend yet another $700.00 for tires. This vehicle sees light duty use, never overloaded, nor abused. This is totally unacceptable. I have been a Michelin user for forty years. After this, I will seek out a competitor and will I not recommend them to anyone.

Four out of the four original equipment Michelin, 215/60R16 MX4V, have now blown out their sidewalls, which looks like a square flap approx 3"X3" hinged at one edge, sort of like a trap-door. The first went at around 11,618 miles in February 2012, the second and third were in March, with around 11,919 and 12,435 miles on them and the fourth blew out today, 4/2/12, with 12,535 miles on it.
The treads all looked great, but the sidewalls seemed to rip out from the inside. The car is a new 2011 Camry, and is driven only locally, never leaving South Florida. I bought their best Platinum Warranty Plan from the dealer, with the new car, and boy was I glad I did. Having to put the donut spare on along the side of the road is no fun, but Toyota of Hollywood (FL) has given me three free replacements so far. I have to take it back to the dealer again tomorrow to see what they will do.
They keep replacing the Michelins with newer Michelins of the same exact type, but now, I don't have much confidence that these will go much over 12,000 miles either. The next time could be on a busy highway, causing an accident. Luckily, these four incidents were all in residential areas, causing no other problems. The dealer has been great, but the Michelin tires have been very disappointing and a big problem. Next time, I'm getting Goodyears!

When I bought a used mini motor home (equipped with seven-year old Firestone with no cracking of the sidewalls), I decided to get good tires and replaced all seven with Michelin LTX M/S tires at great expense. Within a few years, the sidewalls had severe cracking (common problem with Michelin) and got two replaced at half price as a courtesy. I am on SS and can't afford to replace them all at once. Thirty days later, I was informed that Michelin would no longer replace the defective tires. Less than two years later, the new Michelin are cracking. The Michelin warranty claims no adjustment on problems caused by exposure to excessive moisture, heat, cold or sunlight and does not cover bubbles, knots or separation on the sidewall. I have filed repeated complaints with NHTSA and got no help. I will not have Michelin tires again. Ask any truck driver.

There are 163 more posts here:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/tires/michelin.html

I don't want to hear about checking my tire pressure, or road conditions or anything else. I only want replies from people who have checked their less than 2 year old tires for unusual stress cracks in the rubber that should not be there.

 

[Ecomike]

I remember reading somewhere that WalMart takes inferior quality tires from the major suppliers because of the bulk pricing that they're dealing with. Ergo, Goodyear (just using Goodyear as example) makes a batch of tires either on purpose that are slightly inferior to their normal product, or they have the batches that come out inferior just due to normal production variances and those are the ones WalMart picks up. So both parties are happy, the supplier gets to offload junk rubber and WalMart gets to carry a name brand tire. WalMart may also be selling tires that were sitting on shelves somewhere for too long before making their way to WalMart and WalMart sells them before they get toooo old..


Here's how to read the maufacture date for tires -

Date Codes: Every tire has a date code stamped on the sidewall, which gives the date that the tire was manufactured. They look something like this: DOT PDHH MLOR 3403. The date code can be on either side of the tire, so you may have to crawl underneath the rig and look on the inward facing side. The date code always starts with the letters DOT and ends with a 3 or 4 digit number. That last number is the date code, which tells you when the tire was manufactured. The first two numbers indicate the week (out of 52) and the last one or two digits indicate the year. For instance, 3403 means the 34th week of 2003, or the last week in August 2003. Starting with the year 2000, the date codes have two digits for the year, prior to that, only one. A date code of 079 would indicate the seventh week of 1999, or the third week of February 1999.

I have been checking date codes since the first news came out 4-5 years ago on PBS about Walmart selling old inventory that was causing this problem. These are new tires, new date codes that are falling apart.

 

[Ecomike]

They recently recalled the 16" cousin to the 15" ones I have on the jeeps.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/tires/michelin.html

 

[Ecomike]

Hmm:

http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/wal-mart-to-pay-4m-in-tire-lawsuit/

And I ran into this same attitude at Walmart last week. Be sure to read all of this one!!! This kind of attitude will be the quick end to a company like Walmart!!! WOW:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/auto-ti...enter/walmart-tire-center-reno-defe-ac63c.htm

We showed her the tire, and apparently she is also a tire expert, because without even touching it or attempting to remove it from the car to have it actually looked at, she said “no, we will not help you. You need to call 1-800-Walmart” I asked her again and again about the manufactures warranty because it was such a new tire and she brushed my question off. I can tell you by this time, our level of frustration was high. My son was extremely upset due to the way we were being treated. We were able to get another manager, Margo, to come out and once again, look at the tire but in no way attempted to get the tire removed to do a detailed inspection.

Time and time again we referenced the back of the work order that talks about Walmart’s pledge to the customer. (see the back of your work order!) . Margo apparently had never read the verbiage on the back and even though we asked about that, we were brushed off….again. At no time did anyone answer our question about the manufactures warranty.

Why did no one even offer to provide us with the information so we could go to the manufacturer?

After Margo’s “inspection” of the tire we were told that the best they could do was give us 25% off a new tire.

I am adamant that this tire was defective. All I had to do when I got home was Google “Goodyear tire recall” and low and behold as of November, Goodyear has been silently recalling tires due to injuries and deaths caused by “TREAD COMING OFF THE TIRE”.

 

[Ecomike]

And it looks like my newest Walmart tires have been recalled, but this is the first I have heard of it. I have several of these (2 or 3) on my jeeps now (IIRC), as they stopped selling (or making ) the 15" liberator the last few times I replaced tires.:

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.co...-blog/2012/02/Goodyear_Announces_Tire_Recall/

And the newest one already has some stress cracks in between the treads.

 

[Ecomike]

I found this interesting:

http://www.safetyresearch.net/Library/Recalls_RFID.pdf

 

[Ecomike]

WOW, does any one make a safe tire anymore?

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/tires/goodyear_tires.html

 

[Ecomike]

Shocking!!!

Mike of collierville, TN on Oct. 21, 2011
Satisfaction Rating1/5
Tires with less than 300 miles on, started cracking on the sides (all 4) Goodyear said that it was not covered by warranty but they would be glad to give me more for 968.00 dollars. I will never have another Goodyear tire!

 

[Ecomike]

I still have not read more than 20% of all these complaints. Now I have a head ache. If we can't trust Goodyear, Uniroyal, BFGoodrich, and Michelin tires anymore, then whose can we trust. This is a disaster!!!

"Katrina of Mercersburg, PA on July 8, 2011Goodyear is selling defective tires!! I purchased four new Goodyear Assurance fuel max tires to be installed on my car on Friday 7/1/11. The garage could not install all four because they found that one of the tires had a bubble in the side with a small whole that the air was seeping out of. The garage showed me the whole in the tire and advised that they think that Goodyear is making tires with a bad mold.
The garage advised they would return the tire and order another so the back two tires could be installed on Tuesday 7/5/11. This was done and the car was driven home from the garage which is located about 15 miles from my home. The car has not been driven since the drive home from the garage.
As I am leaving for work on the morning of 7/7/11, I realize that the back tire on the passenger side is flat!! These are brand new tires with only 15 miles on them!!! I called Goodyear customer service to advise that they are selling defective tires, that out of 5 tires, 2 of them had wholes. The Customer Service Rep was extremely rude and told me that I had to prove that the tire was defective, that I had to take my car to a garage and have them deem it defective. Well, we put air in that tire and watched a small area bubble out and the air start seeping out. I am no 'expert' but it is quite clear that the tire is defective. (I posted the video on Youtube tagged with goodyear defective tire for all to see so no one else pays over $800.00 for these defective tires and takes a chance of getting into an accident because of them.)"

 

[98stocker]

My bet is tires are as good as ever. There are more vehicles being driven more miles than ever. There are more people who can complain on the internet than ever. Out of hundreds of millions of tires, being driven billions of miles, there are a couple hundred people who got bad tires. Maybe a few thousand if you count the people that don't complain on the internet. Still pretty good record.

By the way, massive advertising budgets don't make better tires. My last set of tires on my Maxima lasted about the same as all the other sets. And it was not a name brand tire.

 

[Al S]

I think there are two lessons to be learned here. #1 Don't buy from Walmart, they accept poor quality to keep prices low. #2 Buy tires from a reputable local tire dealer, they know tires and want to keep their customers happy.

 

[souske]

Always had good luck with Discount tire.

Maybe try some of those covers like RV's use if the vehicle is to be sitting for a long time?

 

[Jeepguy03]

I bet its the rubber they are using. There are a few posts over on bobistheoilguy.com about similar issues. They are all Michelin tires, particularly the Michelin all-terrain tire for light trucks.

I know BFG ATs are also famous for dry rot. Mine are a little over 1 year old and look fine, but I will be watching them closely.

There didn't seem to be any pattern to the cracking, like cars that sit vs. those daily driven or cars that are garaged vs. those that spend their life outside. :dunno:

I've had good luck with Cooper tires, so if my BFGs start cracking I will probably go back to Coopers.

 

[Ecomike]

Always had good luck with Discount tire.

Maybe try some of those covers like RV's use if the vehicle is to be sitting for a long time?

Many of the recent complaints were nearly new tires that are on show cars kept indoors!!! So it is NOT weather related. This is something entirely new, never seen anything like it 40 years.

 

[Ecomike]

Always had good luck with Discount tire.

Maybe try some of those covers like RV's use if the vehicle is to be sitting for a long time?

I had great luck with MontWards, and then with Walmart since MonkeyWards went under (1998?). The service issue seems to universal if you read all the complaints, it is the all the dealers and the OEMs, Goodyear, Michelin, Uniroyal for starters. Dealers can not afford to replace hoards of bad tires if the OEMs refuse to back them up. It is not just Walmart.

 

[Ecomike]

I think there are two lessons to be learned here. #1 Don't buy from Walmart, they accept poor quality to keep prices low. #2 Buy tires from a reputable local tire dealer, they know tires and want to keep their customers happy.

Also, I have gotten great tire wear life and balancing at Walmart for almost 15 years now. The Michelin tires have the dry rot problem 10 times worse that Goodyears, but my 1 year old Goodyears are already showing stress cracks where I never use to look, in between the treads!!!

People, Git off your rear ends and go check your tread area and see if yours are also failing!!! POst up the brand, age and condition!!!! That is why I started this post!!!!

GEEEEESHHHHH!

 

[souske]

I used to work for discount back in HS. They are a christian owned company, and really take making the customer happy to heart. When I worked there we gave away a few new tires to single mothers etc, that had no money but badly needed a new tire. They figure that customer loyalty is ultimately better for the bottom line. YMMV

No issues with my 3 year old BFG KM2's here. Hope you get it sorted