Are My Michelin Tires Dry-Rotting?

MPI_Mallard wrote:
....snip.. They keep falling back on the tread depth to find their responsibility and I keep telling them it's not a tread issue but a side-wall/defective tire issue and they should replace the six tires outright!....snip...

I'm no Michelin fan, thinking them a bit on the overhyped side, but:
Crediting according to remaining tread depth is SOP for tires no matter the brand, and your Michelin warranty probably says so. No reason you should be paid for tread you've already used up, right?

Look on the bright side:
They're not denying your claim, although there are mixed opinions as to whether that checking is truly a sign of imminent tire "failure". You don't mention having had the tires inspected internally, which is really the only way such weaknesses can be detected.

The other thing is, Michelin claims "not to make trailer tires" and its LT/whatever tires mounted on trailers aren't always covered by the standard warranty at all...so things could be worse!

These tires aren't under a recall unfortunately, well I just got a call back from Michelin's customer service and they upped the offer to 60% coverage to which I said nutz! They keep falling back on the tread depth to find their responsibility and I keep telling them it's not a tread issue but a side-wall/defective tire issue and they should replace the six tires outright! This really is opening my eyes to the crummy way Michelin stands behind their product! I've had Michelin's on every vehicle I've owned and never had a problem and now that I have I can't believe there stone-walling me like this and I'm not going to take it lying down,,this ain't over!!

Red Green:
A friend will bail you out of jail, but a good
friend will be sitting beside you saying "Man,
that was fun!

I change hundreds of tires a month. I see this on Michelin tires all the time. Bridgestone will do the same thing. You would think that 2 of the most expensive brands out there would be made a little better.

When I replaced my Michelin tires, I went to Hankook.
They're good tires.

I won't buy Michelin. JMO

I bought my truck used and it had 22k on the odometer. It was two years old. One day I noticed this same type of cracking on my Michelins and googled it. There was a recall for this situation!! I then contacted my local dealer NTB and was told to bring it in for inspection. After looking at my tires and then calling the distributor they told me they would be replaced but with a slight cost to me. I think it was slightly over $100 for a four tire replacement or about $25 per tire. I let them do it and so far I have not had any problems with cracking on this set of Michelins. This was almost 5 years ago and 40K miles.

Lots of opinions about Michelin tires over on the Tow Vehicle section. Seems like someone posts this same question a least once a month. Might try the search feature on that sections forum.
50% ain't to bad though, better than nothing.

bobsallyh wrote:
What is the date code on the tires?

It's right there in the first pic! (1112) 11th week of 2012.

What is the date code on the tires?

OK, I just got back from the dealer who (of course) passed me along to Michelin's customer service and after finding someone who I could understand (why these companies us foreign speaking agents just eludes me)was told that they accept that the tires are defective, they call it "ozone damage" to which I called B.S. pointing out that the several other cars around me with various different makes of tires weren't "ozone damaged" including the bloody tires on my golf cart!! They claimed under-inflation(I have the Tire-Minder System that monitors my tire pressures constantly), lack of use(she's our daily driver), Canadian winter(baby's NEVER SEEN a Canadian winter), long and short is they will cover 50% of the cost of the tire and I'm out around a $1000.00! their explanation is that according to tread depth I used up 50% of the tire(so apparently their saying these LT235-80R17 tires only last some 60.000KLM's since there are less than 30.000KLM's on them now and their half used!!) again,,B.S.

I'm going to have a cold beer and grill up some ribs and consider my next move!

Red Green:
Some people are like slinkies....they serve no
function in life; but they still bring a smile to your
face when you push them down a flight of stairs!

I wouldn't worry about it at this point, just keep an eye on it. This is cosmetic and does not necessarily indicate a problem. However, if the cracks deepen/enlarge, take them to a Michelin dealer to get them checked out.

The Michelin tires that came on my 2011 tow vehicle looked like yours after 18 months in the south Texas sun. They are now 3 1/2 years old, have 36,000 miles on them and look the same - the 'crazing' on the sidewalls has not worsened over time. If you look closely, the cracking is only on the very surface of the tires, not the ugly, deep and very dangerous "dry rot" cracking show in the photo on the link in TucsonJim's post above.