Tyres cracking and MOT

Adly812

Hi everyone,
I have my MOT due this week and I have about 4mm of tread left on my tyres. However they are cracking around the outside edges. I’m told it is because I have not done much mileage, which is true, I only do about 2000 miles a year. Car is 2016 reg and it’s only done about 17k total miles.

will my tyres fail the MOT because of this ? I’m looking at getting four new tyres, but it’s a huge expense considering I barely use my car and if it can pass the MOt as is, then I’m not sure if it’s worth it ? 

Nobbie1967

Adly812 said:

Hi everyone,
I have my MOT due this week and I have about 4mm of tread left on my tyres. However they are cracking around the outside edges. I’m told it is because I have not done much mileage, which is true, I only do about 2000 miles a year. Car is 2016 reg and it’s only done about 17k total miles.

will my tyres fail the MOT because of this ? I’m looking at getting four new tyres, but it’s a huge expense considering I barely use my car and if it can pass the MOt as is, then I’m not sure if it’s worth it ? 

No, but you may get an advisory or whatever they call them now.

Grumpy_chap

Adly812 said:

Hi everyone,
I have my MOT due this week and I have about 4mm of tread left on my tyres. However they are cracking around the outside edges. I’m told it is because I have not done much mileage, which is true, I only do about 2000 miles a year. Car is 2016 reg and it’s only done about 17k total miles.

will my tyres fail the MOT because of this ? I’m looking at getting four new tyres, but it’s a huge expense considering I barely use my car and if it can pass the MOt as is, then I’m not sure if it’s worth it ? 

It really depends on how bad the cracking is.  My car failed the MOT in January with cracking in the tyres (which were from 2014).

Tyres degrade with age and that element is not impacted by mileage massively.  If you do very low mileage and allow the tyres to become underinflated that can cause more rapid deterioration of the side walls.  Similarly leaving the car standing without turning the wheels for long term.

Bigwheels1111

Same issue here last year, 2016 with 13k on the clock.
I just got new tyres as not wort the risk.

Adly812

I think my rear two are a lot worse than the front two, it’s on the side walls the cracks. But if I am to get them changed I ought to just do all four. I generally use the car four times a week, just to get around town, so mileage is extremely low. 

Try and check on tyre inflation every 6 weeks. Perhaps that’s not frequent enough 

jimjames

Adly812 said:

will my tyres fail the MOT because of this ? I’m looking at getting four new tyres, but it’s a huge expense considering I barely use my car and if it can pass the MOt as is, then I’m not sure if it’s worth it ? 

The tyres on my car passed MOT fine, it doesn't get used much and tyres had plenty of tread but were 15 years old with cracking. I replaced them shortly after for my benefit but it wasn't an MOT issue.

Shakin_Steve

I got an advisory for exactly the same thing. The MOT tester told me that most tyres do this now, due to the new, environmentally friendly compound the manufacturers are being told to use. I do around 17,000 miles a year, so low usage doesn't come into it.

sevenhills

Adly812 said:

will my tyres fail the MOT because of this ? I’m looking at getting four new tyres, but it’s a huge expense considering I barely use my car and if it can pass the MOt as is, then I’m not sure if it’s worth it ?

Don't have it MOTed at somewhere like Kwikfit or Halfords, where they sell tyres.

Ectophile

It really depends on the cracks. Small hairline ones are fine.  Big gaps you can see the plies of the tyres in are a failure.

Adly812

Ectophile said:

It really depends on the cracks. Small hairline ones are fine.  Big gaps you can see the plies of the tyres in are a failure.

Thank you, the front two are hairline and tbh the rear two aren’t a failure in my option but definitely an advisory, after the reading I have been doing on it. 

It’s probably better I think I just change all four. Hopefully I won’t need to change the tpms or anything else that is costly. As I honestly don’t warrant using my car that much for such a big expense.

but 4mm of tread on 17k mileage with cracks seem to confirm that the tyres are not exactly great quality (Continental)

Bigwheels1111

It’s all this eco friendly pressure.
My mechanic has found that on newer cars the wires to abs sensors and fog lights etc are covered by 
an eco friendly plastic.
It made from nut oil, the foxes like the taste and chew through it.

Thres only used to start cracking after 12 year or so.