Tyres with cracks between tread (photo)

ripplyuk

I've just had my winter tyres removed and noticed this cracking in the rubber on one of them. The sidewall is fine and it holds air with no issues. The other 3 seem ok, certainly nothing obvious like this one has. It says '4610' on them so I assume they were manufactured in 2010? I bought them in November 2011. I had hoped to get 5 years out of them as they are only used from Nov to March. The tyre centre said it'll be fine for a couple more years but I'm thinking it should be replaced. I'd appreciate any advice.

DUTR

I thought tyres naturally perished after a couple of years, it's not just about tread depth.

scotsbob

Strong sunlight and salt cause tyres to perish, especially those that are used infrequently.


The perishing and cracking obviously weakens the tyre.


At 70mph on a wet road, do you want to take a chance?


Personally I would change it.

Joe_Horner

And here's the big flaw in the common claim that "your tyres will last longer if you change to winters in the winter". Doesn't stop them perishing, and can actually make it happen faster!

Incidentally, personally I wouldn't be too concerned about that level of cracking (as the tyre centre has said to you) but people who swap to winters in the first place are unlikely to be comfortable using those - after all, what price do you put on safety?

AdrianC

Joe_Horner wrote: »

And here's the big flaw in the common claim that "your tyres will last longer if you change to winters in the winter". Doesn't stop them perishing, and can actually make it happen faster!

Four and a bit years is a very short time to be showing cracking like that, and I can't believe that's storage related in any way.

I'd be sending those photos to the tyre manufacturer for their comment, and I'd certainly be looking to replace them. Whether I'd go for the same brand would depend entirely on how reasonable they were in their response.

How much tread left?

Spicy_McHaggis

Advice is contrary to what most thought here.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5205185

AdrianC

One thought... RipplyUK - did you say "Had the tyres removed"...? Are you removing them FROM THE RIMS each year, or swapping tyres and rims together?

missile

This is the second post I have seen this week regarding perished tyres.


I would not use that tyre on my car.

ripplyuk

They've always been stored off the rims as I don't have a spare set of rims. Is that the wrong thing to do? They've also been kept out of daylight. I've done about 5500-6000 miles in them but only this one looks bad.

They all have loads of tread left.

missile

IMHO, on or off the rim would make no difference. I had a problem with Bridgestone summer tyres cracking after only three years. What make are yours?

AdrianC

ripplyuk wrote: »

They've always been stored off the rims as I don't have a spare set of rims. Is that the wrong thing to do?

Fitting and removing tyres to rims involves a LOT of carcass distortion - it's not something you want to be doing repeatedly.

Apart from that, a second set of used standard rims is cheaper than repeatedly getting them fitted and removed, and storage takes up no extra space.