2-3 year old tires weathered cracking sidewalls?

[morepwr]

My girlfriends 2010 Ford Fusion has Michelin Energy MXV4 S8 tires on it and the sidewalls are weather checked and small cracks everywhere like it is a 20 year old tire. She bought the car used and has only 16K miles on it and the tires show no wear on the tread. I am guessing that these are the tires that the factory put on? I have never seen tires this new doing this. The car drives just fine and it certainly does not look the tires are going to fall apart but it just seems strange to me and was wondering if anybody else had seen this on tires that are not very old?

Also that the tag in the door jamb calls for 31 PSI and the tires themselves have 51 PSI max pressure on them so which would you set the tires to? The tire size matches the tag on the door jamb. I should have wrote down the size since I cant remember it now!

 

[Hokiefyd]

Yes, these are the OEM tires on it. I'm surprised the tires show no wear at 16k miles. We have two 2011 Fusions at work with these same tires and the fronts are shot at less than 10k each.

Weather checking is normal to a certain extent. Checking on the sidewalls can vary a lot. Some tires seem to do it more than others. If you're concerned about it, call Michelin and they will refer you to a Michelin dealer for a tire inspection. Michelin has been pretty responsive to me in the past on customer service issues, so I expect they would do the same for you.

You'll want to inflate the tires to the pressure that the vehicle recommends. In this case, 31 psi. The 51 psi on the sidewall is the maximum pressure for the tire, and also likely the pressure where the maximum load-carrying capability occurs, but this too can vary based on how the tire manufacturer interprets the rules on that.

I believe the size is P225/50R17. Or at least it is on our 2011s.

 

[skellyman]

Use the mfgr. pressure on the door jam.
That is unless you have high loads inside the car, then you may want to increase TP to closer max load Tp as indicated by tire mfgr.

 

[heynow]

They don't make tires like they used to. I have many 30+ year old used tires that have zero cracking or dryrot, almost look new (besides the worn tread)

 

[Corvette Owner]

I recently took my 2+ year old B F Goodrich tires back to the car dealer due to tire cracking. The General Manager told me that Michelin's and B F Goodrich's tire molding process and the oils they use cause this cosmetic checking and that it was usual, I believed him.

 

[JHZR2]

Youre in CA. Bad air? Smog?

Id imagine that has something to do with it.

Ive found that most tires start to look pretty bad cracking wise in around the 4 year timeframe, so if where you are has worse air and hotter/sunnir conditions than where I am, I have no doubt that 3 years would do it...

 

[morepwr]

Thanks for the responces guys. I set the tires to the 31 and they look fine, meaning the sidewalls dont look soft or like they are low on air.

Hokiefyd, I am going to call Michelin just to see what they say and go from there. I am guessing your Fusions are driven a little harder than this one. She drives really easy and never puts any strain on that car!

 

[Texan4Life]

I have always heard michelins were good, but in the last year I have had 3 blow outs with michelins. one on my truck, and two on the neon. All of them looked like they were dry rotting/weather checked. but they were manufactured in the last 3-5 years. they also had good tread.

for the $$$ michelins are they should be lasting longer IMO.

 

[volk06]

Sometimes the tire shine stuff people puts on their tires causes them to dry out and start to crack.

 

[morepwr]

Originally Posted By: volk06
Sometimes the tire shine stuff people puts on their tires causes them to dry out and start to crack.


I wondered about this but I have no idea if the tires saw that on a regular basis. The only stuff that has been on there was the goop the dealer put on it when it was for sale. Is there any conditioners that would help keep tires from drying out?

 

[Danh]

Most tire manufacturers have a 6 or so year warranty on their tires that covers things like weather-checking, at least if it's not just cosmetic. You may want to check Michelin's warranty or take it in to your Ford dealer; while you're not the original owner it's still worth a shot.

 

[Papa Bear]

What is the date code on the tires?

See http://barrystiretech.com/dotcoding.html

 

[ClutchDisc]

I have 10 year old tires (tiger paw) on my chevy S-10 and they're still in great shape. No cracking at all. Previous owner had two sets of tires (winter/summer) so they were stored for half of that time.

Not sure why yours would be cracking already.

 

[morepwr]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
What is the date code on the tires?

See http://barrystiretech.com/dotcoding.html


cool info! I will have to look and see what the date on them is.

 

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: morepwr
Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
What is the date code on the tires?

See http://barrystiretech.com/dotcoding.html


cool info!


Certainly is. Barry's site would make a good sticky.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
I have 10 year old tires (tiger paw) on my chevy S-10 and they're still in great shape. No cracking at all. Previous owner had two sets of tires (winter/summer) so they were stored for half of that time.

Not sure why yours would be cracking already.



I have 9 year old Goodyear Conquests on mine in great shape (Car doesn't spen much time in the sun in the last 5-6 years, so that may have helped), but regardless I'm spooked to run mine more than 60 mph.....

 

[Kestas]

I've had 4 year old tires that needed to be scrapped because of dry rot. This was on a 3 year old car bought used, and these were likely OEM (Continental ContiTouringContact on an 02 Volvo S40).

 

[CapriRacer]

A couple of thoughts:

First: We're talking about a car that is averaging only 5K to 8K per year. Tires need to be flexed to keep the antioxidants active.

Second: A certain amount of cracking is to be expected. It's a matter of degree. Surface cracking isn't so much a problem as deep cracks would be.

 

[GMFan]

morepwr, it is really ironic you mentioned this because I thought I saw the same thing on my 2011 Mazda6 with the MXV8 Energy tires but thought it was in my head...however it does look like the beginning of fine cracking n the sidewalls...the tread rubbers looks like new.

The tires are at 4/32" after 29,300 miles and I am thinking of replacing them..with anything but the MXV8.

The Continental PureContact Eco tires have better testing scores on Tirerack than the MXV8 and are $43 less per tire.

 

[ClutchDisc]

Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: ClutchDisc
I have 10 year old tires (tiger paw) on my chevy S-10 and they're still in great shape. No cracking at all. Previous owner had two sets of tires (winter/summer) so they were stored for half of that time.

Not sure why yours would be cracking already.



I have 9 year old Goodyear Conquests on mine in great shape (Car doesn't spen much time in the sun in the last 5-6 years, so that may have helped), but regardless I'm spooked to run mine more than 60 mph.....
I have no problem running mine at 70 mph. The tires were stored very well and they have hardly seen the sun (he parked in the garage at home and at work).