Break in period for tires?

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George Bynum

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Dec 18, 2004
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Greenville SC
This isn't a joke, or a troll. I just bought a set of Michelin HydroEdge for my Chevrolet Venture. Anything within reason to improve wet traction on dark wet highways is good to me. Ten miles after installation, I hit the road to a customer in the rain. Traction pulling out of my driveway was scary ... very light foot, traction control light spent more time on than off in the first 5 minutes. I got out on the interstate, and at 60 was hydroplaning like on slicks. Cars passing me were having no trouble. 300 miles into these, they MAY be a little better, but traction control still comes on with gentle acceleration on dry roads. I replaced BFGoodrich Traction TA's, also a unidirectional tire. Yes, I DID check that the tires are mounted correctly as to rotation ...

What is wrong? Do I just need to give them more time?
 
Tire rack says it takes 500 miles for the oil from the manufacturing process to wear off and get good grip.
 
What is the air pressure? I never drive more than a mile or two after having new tires mounted up before checking them with my own gauge...shops are notorious for dangerously overfilling tires, they just crank them up to seat them and never check it again. That will surely cause your TC to come on early. Within 500 miles the mold release should be scrubbed off and wearing into the real rubber.

FWIW, on Kumho racing tires, we scrub them down with Simple Green and a very coarse rag before we initially heat-cycle them, and then race on them 24 hours later. Not all brands need to do this, but some tires have special preparation required. I have no doubt that this is also true of some passenger car tires.
 
After 300 miles, I'd think that all of the release lubricant would have been worn off. Maybe michelins need more of a break in? I don't know. I would drive them another 200 miles to see if they get better. Hydroedges are supposedly one of the better tires for both wet and dry traction.
 
Crazy. They have a treadwear rating of 800, so I'd expect them to be very hard, but not that bad!

Nothing on the tire should affect its hydroplane resistance other than tread pattern and tread depth. I have no idea what's going on there.

Check tire pressure and date code.

The instant I drove away from the tire shop with my Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires I had more traction than I'd ever had before.

Did you have the T-rated BFGs or the higher speed rated ones? The higher speed rated ones have a AA traction rating, so it's unlikely you'll get similar levels of grip with an A traction tire.
 
I have the Hydroedges on my work van, an '06 Freestar, since this past January. I love them compared to the stock GY Integrity. I did notice that they were a bit soft initially and required approx. 40psi but then my van is way overloaded (a lot of brass valves and copper pipe.) I have had zero hydroplaning problems with mine but we had a fairly dry winter and early spring so my hydroplaning opportunities were after any break-in period. They did do fairly well in the limited snow use they had, but then anything would be better than the Integrity.
 
Originally Posted By: rpn453
Crazy. They have a treadwear rating of 800, so I'd expect them to be very hard, but not that bad!


Tread life and how hard the compound is are supposed to be independent. Many of the high-performance summer tires I've seen with treadwear ratings under 300 are rock hard at room temperature, and need to be warmed up on the road before they get decent grip. The 560 treadwear rating on the tires on my wife's car come with some of the softest tread compound I've ever felt.

It may sound counterintuitive, but all-season compounds have to be reasonably soft to avoid getting rock hard in low temps. And I haven't seen many treadwear tires in today's market that aren't all-seasons. There are some really soft compound summer tires too.
 
Did they check your alignment to make sure you don't need one?

As for break-in period, they shouldn't need more than about 300 miles.
 
Originally Posted By: rpn453
Did you have the T-rated BFGs or the higher speed rated ones? The higher speed rated ones have a AA traction rating, so it's unlikely you'll get similar levels of grip with an A traction tire.

The T rated ... very good tires, better if I had rotated when needed ... had 2 with way too little tread, 2 with good, wanted to try the HydroEdge ... HOPE it is a mold release issue and that the rubber on the road was slick making the hydroplaning much wors that it really was.
 
George,

The Carolinas have had an incredible amount of rain recently. As we know, hydroplaning is a function of speed, load, inflation pressure, and water depth - and I think water depth is not helping.

BTW, mold release compounds are not oils. There are quite a few different kinds (and they have differing levels of road surface friction), but fundamentally they all will wear off in a few hundred miles.

But be sure to check the inflation pressure. That will eliminate one variable. Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to be able to control the weather!
 
This probably isn't the problem faced by the OP, but it is somewhat related.

Do the label/stickers on the tread affect hydroplaning at all? I would think that they could, but then they aren't very large (compared to the total tread surface area) and wear off fairly quickly.
 
First few minutes of arain storm are the most dangerous as well as all of the oils on the road come to the surface and make for hazardous driving conditions.
 
I've about 1100 miles on them now, and they are a LITTLE better. My TRACTION ACTIVE warning comes on less often in dry weather than it did. We've not had rain when I've been out. I'm in upstate SC where drought conditions are present, but not yet severe.

Oh, inflation was spot on being balanced, 1 over label (33 actual, 32 label) which is 2 lower than I'd normally run, but will stay there for now.

I don't think, as of now, that I'd buy another set of these. Until I have 5k or so, I won't complain more and am driving with more attention to traction than I do usually.
 
Last edited:
Has it ever been determined how old the tires are? Yes, they may be "new", but the tires could have been stacked in a warehouse for 3 years.

Traction usually decreases as a tire ages, some motorcyclists are sensitive to the age of a tire.
 
I had a set of HydroEDGE installed on my 02 Camry 2 months and 4K ago. Inflated @35PSI I had driven through some heavy downpours and I have to say they are the best rain tires I have had on this car (vs. Toyo Proxes, Michelin Destiny).

Your traction may vary, of course.
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Has it ever been determined how old the tires are? Yes, they may be "new", but the tires could have been stacked in a warehouse for 3 years.

Traction usually decreases as a tire ages, some motorcyclists are sensitive to the age of a tire.
Dec 07
 
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