Goodyear Comfortred Liner Cracks/Cut

[javacontour]

In the on-going saga with the 2002 Sienna and tires, last week I had my van in the shop for the timing belt and re-visiting the vibration issue.

They thought they found one bad tire, so they mounted the spare. Drove to Columbia, MO from our home and had one bout of the vibration again. Pulled over, nothing obvious and never saw it again the remainder of the day.

However, I woke up yesterday to look at the age of the tires and that's when I noticed that the wrong size tires were on the van.

The van had P205/65R15's on it, and the factory size is P215/65R15. So, I bought new tires yesterday and had them give me the old ones.

I took them home and examined the tires inside and out. That's when I noticed the liners of two of them were cut, cracked on a splice. The cut is near the shoulder of the tire.

The cut seems to follow the splice as it appears to go nearly perpendicular to the direction of travel. One has about a 1.25" cut inside and the second has a mere 0.5" cut.

Has anyone seen such a thing?

Could this cause balance/vibration issues that would be difficult to diagnose.

The van really feels like a new vehicle with its new tires, so we'll see if this does it.

Comments?

 

[Hokiefyd]

Could you take a picture of it?

 

[javacontour]

The tires are at a local Goodyear dealer. The manager is going to look at them today and let me know if there is any adjustment on replacement tires.

I can put new tires on the Camry since it's due for tires shortly.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: Jason Adcock
Could you take a picture of it?


+1

 

[CapriRacer]

The innerliner is made from one of the butyl family of rubbers - which hold air better than other types, but, unfortunately, they don't like to adhere to other types of rubber. This makes making a tire with an innerliner somewhat problematic in that in order to adhere to the inside of the tire, a different type of rubber is layered onto the innerliner while it is being prepped and still warm - and that means some of this rubber is between the layers at the splice. It is not uncommon for this to crack - especially when subjected to overload / underinflated conditions. Since the tire were too small for the vehicle, at the very least that contributed to the cracking.

No, this would NOT cause a balance / vibration issue. The only thing that might happen is that the tire would leak - slowly.

And unless the tires were replaced by the selling dealer, do not be surprised if no adjustment is forthcoming.

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
The innerliner is made from one of the butyl family of rubbers - which hold air better than other types, but, unfortunately, they don't like to adhere to other types of rubber. This makes making a tire with an innerliner somewhat problematic in that in order to adhere to the inside of the tire, a different type of rubber is layered onto the innerliner while it is being prepped and still warm - and that means some of this rubber is between the layers at the splice. It is not uncommon for this to crack - especially when subjected to overload / underinflated conditions. Since the tire were too small for the vehicle, at the very least that contributed to the cracking.

No, this would NOT cause a balance / vibration issue. The only thing that might happen is that the tire would leak - slowly.

And unless the tires were replaced by the selling dealer, do not be surprised if no adjustment is forthcoming.


And of course they don't want to do anything and gave me the number for Goodyear, so I'm debating if I call, or just call it the price of doing business.

I've taken pictures with my cell phone so I'll see if I can get them hosted for all to take a look.

I didn't think it would make them out of balance, but I wondered if the tire could deform periodically and as far as it appears, randomly as it doesn't seem to be repeatable with anything I've tried.

I agree, with them being the wrong size, I probably don't have much to complain about to Goodyear. The difference in load rating is about 100# less on the smaller tires I.E. 1400#/tire instead of 1500#/tire. The factory size is a 95 load rating, where the tires removed were a 92 load rating.

Just curious if anyone has seen this type of failure before?

 

[javacontour]

Sorry about the quality, I took these with my cell phone.

 

[CapriRacer]

Sorry about the quality, I took these with my cell phone.

Are kidding? Those are small compared to some I've seen - but I'm in a position to see them!

 

[javacontour]

So let me ask you this. Would you run those tires on your car?

Like I said, 1.25 to 1.5" on one and 0.5" on the other.

Does it compromise tire safety? I'm thinking yes, but I'm a computer guy, not a tire guy.

I'm thinking after patching. I have a car that is an around town car now. So if I patched the smallest of the two cut tires and mounted it an the one I have that is un-cut, I could put those on the Camry (correct size for that car) and use them around town. They have say 6 or 7/32nds remaining so they would be good for a while, since the car has 213K miles on it now.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
So let me ask you this. Would you run those tires on your car?.......Does it compromise tire safety? I'm thinking yes, but I'm a computer guy, not a tire guy......


No, I wouldn't put them on the Camry.

1) The tires were too small for the vehicle they were on and that compromised the safety of the tires. There is only so much durability built into a tire (or any product for that matter), and some extra has been removed because of it being used outside the norm.

2) You have an indication of a reduction in the durability with the cracks. While those cracks would only affect the air retaining properties of the tire, they are a symptom.

The only way I would put them on is if the car is NEVER going to go more than 50 mph - and I mean NEVER!!

 

[Rand]

the factory size for 15" rims was P205/70R15
so you werent overloading the tires.

Without seeing them in person...

That cut doesnt really look severe from a structural standpoint.

I'm thinking they just might leak a little more air than the normal 1#/month

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: Rand
the factory size for 15" rims was P205/70R15
so you werent overloading the tires.

Without seeing them in person...

That cut doesnt really look severe from a structural standpoint.

I'm thinking they just might leak a little more air than the normal 1#/month


Perhaps for a Camry,but not for the Sienna. The factory sizes for the Sienna were P205/70R15 or P215/65R15. The Camry takes this size, but not the Sienna.

The load rating for the Sienna tires is 95 or better, where the Camry requires load rating 92 or better.

These were the wrong application for the Sienna. The previous owner got the wrong tires and I didn't catch it when I bought the van.