Tire side wall cracks?

[craigwieck]

I have a question for any tire experts out there. I put a new set a Michelin tires on my excursion last June. I have only put about 5000 miles on them since I have had them. I noticed cracks around the bead this spring. I called Michelin to complain and the lady told me that cracks are not covered under warranty. She said I could file a claim and they would try to gets some assistance on a new set of tires. I just spent $2000 on tires last year and there is no way in heck I'm spending any money on another set of tires. My question is are these cracks normal? They don't look that deep but I always thought any cracks where bad. I have been a mechanic for 16 years but I never paid that much attention to the side wall of the tires over the years.

[Racerchaser27]

I have Michelin LTX II tires on my Dodge 3/4 ton. I have had Michelin XDN2 drive tires and XZA1 steer tires on all of my tractor trailers. Although the outer casings do show slight cracking at the bead line, (Its a Michelin thing), I know it is only the very outer rubber that is cracking and absolutely not structural. The mileage and ride I get out of Michelin tires, no matter what the size or tread design is great. I prefer Michelins to any other brand. I tried Goodyears once in both the big trucks, and my wifes Expedition. (Wranglers on the Exped.) The ride was horrible on both. They hit every crack in the road and jarred the h*** out of you.

[maxwell11]

I had the china made valve stem problem

one day had a flat on my 2500 chevy, Michelin tires.
problem was the valve stem was rotten, they were all installed new when the tires were installed less than 4 years old.

got tire fixed and gently drove to tire shop and had the other 3 replaced.

had one go bad on my travel trailer, got trailer to my site, had to take tire off and it was the valve stem, rotten as could be.

so I took two tires at a time to local tire dealer and had new valve stems installed.

tire dealer told me china had got a bad lot of valve stem into the system, but most had been replaced by then.

that kind of stuff only happens to me.

so now I always option for the heavy duty higher pressure truck type valve stem, may not be any better, but it makes me feel better.

[craigwieck]

These tires are made in the USA to.

[craigwieck]

I just checked the build date and the tires where built on August in 2011. I bought them in June 2012. I have used tire dressing on them but probably two or three times. I am going camping tomorrow and won't be back until Monday. I plan on going up to discount tire and having them look at them. If they tell me they are not safe and should be replaced than I will see what I can do to get my money back. I am not going to buy another set of tires from discount ever again. The people they have selling you tires have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to cars.

[CKNEK]

I would be interested to know if the OP ever used Armorall specifically or any other tire dressing on the tires.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

CKNSLS wrote:
I did imply some Chinese tires MAY be suspect. But you as many others on this board believe all Chinese tires regardless of the AMERICAN COMPANY NAME on the sidewall are junk or well be junk.
There are somethings are this old boy forum that will never change...

You might want to quote me on that one because I don't believe I ever said that; but who knows?

Anyway, you do bring up a good point. Can you think of one product that has been made in China that was better than ours? Because I sure can't. I don't know of a single person that say's: "Man I wish I could get ahold of some Chinese made tools because those Starrett's tools made in the USA are junk."

Tools? Nope. I'm thinking of Craftsman. 50's, 60's, 70's, made in the USA and good tools. Made in China now days and junk.

Toys? Nope, least you want lead paint on your toys.

Motorcycles? Nope, Honda 50's were made like a Swiss watch when made 40 years ago in Japan. Todays Honda 50 knockoffs are junk and made in China.

I can go on and on but I can't think of a single thing that when we shipped the job over to China to do the product got better.

So no, if history is my teacher, I don't think tires will fair any better.

[CKNSLS]

I did imply some Chinese tires MAY be suspect. But you as many others on this board believe all Chinese tires regardless of the AMERICAN COMPANY NAME on the sidewall are junk or well be junk.
There are somethings are this old boy forum that will never change...

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

I did-this is what it said-
"Michelin is very persnickety,” he said. “At the Chinese plant you couldn’t tell if you were in China or in South Carolina. The plant has the same controls, the same machines and the same uniforms on the
workers.”
And this paragraph-
“We have same global quality standards around the world,” said Keith Price, a spokesman for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. “The standards are the same whether we make it in Oklahoma, Germany, Brazil, Indonesia, or China, the product standards are the same.”


Seems to reinforce my post. We are not talking Chinese branded tires, however even some of those are good tires that are run on big rigs, such as Double Coin.

Yep they did say that; but you left off the last part (for some reason :S) and they also said this:

Nevertheless, there have been some safety blips in Chinese-made tires.

Last year the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into defective tire valve stems produced by a subsidiary of Shanghai Baolong Automotive Corp. The company sold 300 million valve stems which were susceptible to cracking, potentially causing the tire to deflate, a problem which led to one fatality, according to NHTSA.

Two fatalities were attributed to defective tires made by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. because of tread separation. The tire importer issued a recall for the 450,000 tires it had sold.

Couple that with China's stellar baby food safety record and pet food safety record and one can be very suspicious of how their tire record is going to be.

After all, melamine is cheap, they put it in their baby food so why not their tire formula?

I can see the manufacture add now: As the camera pans back it shows a baby sitting in a tire and they say: "Melamine; good enough for our babies, good enough for our tires." :B LOL

Hey wait a second, I see where Michelin is going!! They will just reuse this commercial!

[garry_owen]

CKNSLS wrote:
Qutoe-

AND just about 99.5% are unsubstantiated claims since the tire was never sent in to be evaluated to the manufacturer or third party.

Most blow outs and tread separation are due to speeding, road hazards, and under inflation.

I have towed 6,500 miles in the past 7 months and have witnessed the "speeding situation" first hand.

just got back form a 4 week trip with the toy hauler. covered just under 1000 miles. most all in western wyo and north west co

it is travel season and may peeps on the road with campers of all sorts. saw a lot of drivers pull short and curb hop trailer as well as hitting avoidable pot holes and running off the rt side of the road, and back into large rocks ect. have come to the conclusion that 50% of peeps pulling trailers have no idea of where there trailer will track or how put there tow vehicle in position to avoid these hard on tires events.

my point is, brand bashing aside, trailer tires get a lot of abuse that people that abuse them don't take responsibility for

after a insulation that one brand of tires are now crap, i looked on the same sight a poster used for reference.

looked like to me you could find just about the same comments on any brand you pulled .up.

i don't know what the answer. not sure what brand you can run if you go by the negative comments on the web.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Well Bill, that's a hellofa good question. I wish I had an answer for you but I don't.

The problem is tire manufactures can play games with their tires. Case in point. I had a set of Generals on my old diesel. They went 65K and were cheap tires.

I thought hellya, I'm going to buy these forever. GREAT tire. So I bought another set, except they weren't so cheap anymore and after only 20K they are looking pretty sad. Maybe only 10K left in them. :M

It was pretty obvious to me that they changed to formula to a softer compound and now they are pretty much a junk tire IMHO. :M How is a person to know? By the time you get a good recommendation from a friend they go and change the formula on a person and the tires are junk.

So on my Duramax I bought some Bridgestones. They are a commercial highway type of tire. They said 100K no problem. Well I got around 30K on them and I don't think they will make another 30K. :M So far short of their 100K goal. :M On a good note the sidewalls don't have that wimpy look to them and I don't think they will crack in a 100 years. (Could be wrong about that though?) They also weigh like lead. They are SUPER heavy so they must have a lot of steel in them. I might even cap them I like the casing so much.

All in all I might give Toyo a try next time I need tires for my truck. I hear good things about them........but you know how that goes. :R

Anyway, I don't have an answer for you. If you find one let me know. :B

[CKNSLS]

Qutoe-

"Suspect Chinese made tires has some issue with their manufacturing
process. Am seeing so many separations from that country and must
say have from other country sourced too, but the lions share 'today'
are from China"

Correct. And just about 100% are Chinese branded tire (Because they have OEM and the largest market share). AND just about 99.5% are unsubstantiated claims since the tire was never sent in to be evaluated to the manufacturer or third party.

Most blow outs and tread separation are due to speeding, road hazards, and under inflation.

I have towed 6,500 miles in the past 7 months and have witnessed the "speeding situation" first hand.

[CKNSLS]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

CKNSLS wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
Oh good-eeee, Michelin is building a 1.5 Billion dollar factory in China.

High performance tires to be built in China.

High performance tires to be built in China??????? What the.....???? :h

That's like saying you have a great 5.7 diesel. :S

Or you have a super fast high performance Yugo. :R

There are already major companies whose names you would recognize that are building products in China for export. These factories export quality product the same as products produced elsewhere by these companies. They follow the EXACT SAME QUALITY CONTROLS already put in place elsewhere in the world.

I know there are those on this forum who would find this hard to believe.

Very true. But read this, it may change your mind.
This is what the experts are seeing and saying.

I did-this is what it said-
"Michelin is very persnickety,” he said. “At the Chinese plant you couldn’t tell if you were in China or in South Carolina. The plant has the same controls, the same machines and the same uniforms on the
workers.”
And this paragraph-
“We have same global quality standards around the world,” said Keith Price, a spokesman for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. “The standards are the same whether we make it in Oklahoma, Germany, Brazil, Indonesia, or China, the product standards are the same.”


Seems to reinforce my post. We are not talking Chinese branded tires, however even some of those are good tires that are run on big rigs, such as Double Coin.

[BenK]

Oh, not to say all Michelin tires are made in China...think there is fundamental
issue with either their engineering or process (manufacturing)

OBTW, Michelin's have been my fav since my first VR tire for my 240Z back in the 70's

Till about 10-15 years ago when noticed their sidewall cracks

[BenK]

One of my hobbies is 'Cultural Anthropology' and one aspect of how
the world has been moving 'West' as societies come and go...

Currently the 'next' westward area of growth in the world is Asia...

China will become the #1 world economy soon if not already...but...there
is a potential (I think for sure) crash and burn coming

Massive the pure size of the open land in China...just like when it was
America's turn to become the 'new' #1 economy...but...the speed of change
is mind boggling and that is where the issue maybe...

Americans poisoned their land as are the Chinese are dittoing...but...
the levels of and concentrations of are orders of magnitude in comparison

There is such a similar metric in that growth to the industrialization
of the world.

Things like the why of the markings on graded fasteners...they could
not read nor write. So the supervisor said assemble this part with
'three' fingers, which is a grade five. Holy-molly....this one needs
all 'five' fingers, which is a grade eight

Tire construction is very sensitive to fastidiousness in the manufacturing
process. Cleanliness is NOT an attribute of burgeoning industries
in 3rd world countries

We see this, still, in the America's and mainly with pure bean counter
management only managing to their bottom line and NOT managing their
product.

When on exec staff of a $17Billion/year corporation...argued against
outsourcing since the beginning, circa early 90's. Again when they
also moved engineering along with source IP. Lost as the bottom line
said the only way to satiate the consumers desire for the cheapest at
any cost...and...that cost is our own livelihood whereby 'we' paid
'them' to build up their infrastructure with 'our' money and IP to
become competitive peers using our money and IP

Am also a controls and system (automation and process controls) back
ground. One was paper mills and just a bit of oil at the wrong time at
the wrong place would spoil a tank of pulp so that the fibers will NOT
bind to become 'good' paper. Why recycling plants hate pizza boxes
in the recycling bins of homes

Suspect Chinese made tires has some issue with their manufacturing
process. Am seeing so many separations from that country and must
say have from other country sourced too, but the lions share 'today'
are from China

That crash and burn is from my work setting up the team that negotiated
a campus in China. Budgeted $600/million (approx 7x in local money)
to find our inspectors going crazy at the level of consideration for
their environment. Both internal to the buildings during construction,
after opening and the way all of the manufacturing waste dumped 'over
there'...