Unsafe at any speed....

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
Here is the picture of my infamous Michelin tire. Sorry about the quality. I was fighting dead batteries in the camera.


{Deleted images to save space}

This is typical for these tires. No cuts, no damage; just junk tires that blow in the driveway.......

So here is what I see in those photos. The flap of sidewall rubber is likely separated off the ply cords at the junction between the ply cords and the sidewall rubber. It doesn't penetrate the cords - it is off the cords.

Yes, it is not a cut - it is torn.

But if you were to peel the flap of sidewall rubber back, you would find it cleanly detached from the ply cords - reflecting the fact that these would be different layers in the building process.

It is also likely that the separation extends to and around the belt edges - which would be revealed when that flap of sidewall rubber is peeled back.

This is the result of a belt edge separation that has worked its way down the sidewall and the centrifugal forces eventually caused the sidewall rubber to fail. Since it doesn't have ply cords attached, the tear is not constrained to follow the ply cords - that is, in the radial direction.

Sorry, but that is not at all like the earlier photo - where there doesn't appear to be any separation UNDER either edge of the split.

Needless to say, there is only so much that can be determined from photos - especially photos taken by folks who are not aware of what to look for - what photos would be helpful. Please note, this is not a criticism, just a comment. If I didn't know what to look for, I would just take some random photos and they may or may not reveal the important stuff.

I hope this helps. Just be aware that this is the sort of thing that both the tire manufacturers and NHTSA would look at. The fact that those sets of photos show something different is as revealing as the fact that they are failures.