Spotted cracks on my daughter in law’s front Dunlop tires

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I was doing an oil change on my daughter in law’s car and noticed her worn Dunlop front tires had cracks and luckily I spotted them. She will get new Cooper tires tomorrow at Tire Kingdom.

How serious are these cracks ?


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Looks like belt separation about to happen. My OEM Michelin cracked but they were small cracks all around the sidewalls. Michelin gave me some credit on new tires.
 
She's tearing up the curb scrubbers.

Look at that tire wear on top. Might need new tires and an alignment anyway. Otherwise, PSI isn't checked enough and tires aren't rotated often enough.

DOT date?
 
I was doing an oil change on my daughter in law’s car and noticed her worn Dunlop front tires had cracks and luckily I spotted them. She will get new Cooper tires tomorrow at Tire Kingdom.

How serious are these cracks ?


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That would most likely be cause for me to replace . From your pics it doesn't look like the tire has lots of tread life left on it anyway.
 
She's tearing up the curb scrubbers.

Look at that tire wear on top. Might need new tires and an alignment anyway. Otherwise, PSI isn't checked enough and tires aren't rotated often enough.

DOT date?

I need to check date, but the car is 2 years old with 38K miles.

I asked and she said tires were never rotated.
 
I was doing an oil change on my daughter in law’s car and noticed her worn Dunlop front tires had cracks and luckily I spotted them. She will get new Cooper tires tomorrow at Tire Kingdom.

How serious are these cracks ?


View attachment 51431
View attachment 51427

About a year and a half ago my daughter snagged a curb right on the tire bead....enough to peel back 4 or 5 inches of the steel wheel.

I bought a new rim, threw on a new LCA (just as a precaution) and took it to my usual tire shop. Alignment just needed a slight tweak of the toe.

I was concerned about the sidewall of the tire. My tire guy checked it out and said it was fine.

Fast forward 18 months. Was doing my weekly safety check and noticed cracking in the sidewall and even cracks between the tread blocks on the contact patch....only on that tire.

I didn't hesitate. On went some new Cooper Evolutions.

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Many (front wheel drive) cars chew up the front tires if not rotated. It looks like she has one of those. Those tires need replaced....not because of the cracks.

Yeah, thats what happened. But I wonder if rotating every 10K miles would have prevented these cracks ?
 
Yes, those are deep to be so visible with the tire inflated. I would only drive the vehicle straight to the tire shop .

Lack of rotation did not cause those cracks. That would just cause uneven wear, particularly on the outside edge of the tread. That looks more like the tires were driven severely underinflated, maybe hit a few potholes while doing so.

You should rotate the tires every 10K mile anyway, or more often than that if used in more city than hwy driving.
 
The tires are the most important parts of the car. They make contact with the road - replace them.
 
I would only use those tyres on a donkey truck.

unless a tyre specialist or the manufacturer says it's ok, I would replace them
 
Be wise to suggest that she get an alignment along with the new tires, and tell her to stop curbing it. If she cannot tell where her tires are while driving, suggest lessons.
 
Those tires are done! For more then one reason. I'd replace ASAP.
Got a new set of Dunlops. The old set were worn to the treadwear marks. I've never seen cracks on the sidewall before. Chalk that up as another BITOG moment.

 
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