The pictures show the outside  edge of both my front tyres, Bridgestones, as fitted when the car was bought new in November 2017. They have covered 22000 miles and are more than 70% worn.

 

As I will be replacing them soon should I worry about the cause of the cracks indicated or is it to be expected?

 

There are fewer but similar cracks on the rear tyres.

 

Would the car benefit from having the tracking adjusted?

 

Is 4 wheel tracking possible on an SEL with torsion bar rear suspension?

 

 

That just looks like tyre degradation to be honest. They look old and weathered. The rears may look slightly better because they won't have had the same amount of stresses put through them as the fronts.

Normal with age, nothing to worry about unless the reinforcing is exposed or there are any deformities.

 

It is not a tracking issue just a rubber compound that includes a percentage of recycled diddlydidos.

Bridgestone are well known for this to happen. My wife's car has Bridgestone Turanza fitted and they are all cracking. Her car has only done 17000 miles in 2 years from new.

Mine is a 2015 Octy which was fitted at factory with Hankook tyres. My car is still below 30k miles and I had the same appear on my back  original tyres 6 months back. Apparently wouldn't have happened if I was doing more miles... The rubber dries out like this and cracks when it's flexed less (not driven as much), according to the tyre fitter. Nothing to worry about really.

 

Tracking/alignment... Be mindful of the fact you probably have radar based front assist which may need special treatment? Perhaps others can shed some light on this just for knowledge even though YMe may not need it right now?

Tyre fitters are full of theories and advice. 

Some of it is always going to be correct and some just utter nonsense.  It is like any job or profession where you learn on the job and who it is that you work with. 

1 hour ago, RB79 said:

Mine is a 2015 Octy which was fitted at factory with Hankook tyres.

 

 

That got my attention, mine is a 2005 Yeti bought 2 years ago without any history other than it has been an unrecorded write off, probably a Local Authority or Forestry Commission vehicle, that is by the by, it had good but not new Hankook tyres on it, all identical and all with equal wear, I assumed that they were not the original tyres and all 4 had been replaced at the same time.

 

However having done another 22000 miles with very little additional wear on the tyres I am now wondering if they could have actually been the originals?

 

Could you possibly let me know the exact model of your tyres? I would go out and check mine but its dark & peeing down with rain and my vision is not so good especially with wet glasses.

 

I might perhaps hold the record for tyre longevity and they still have many more miles left in them yet, I have only just swopped them front to rear, I reckon at least another 40K miles judging by the wear during the last 22K.

Mine are Hankook Ventus S1 Evo²

On 07/01/2022 at 16:07, J.R. said:

However having done another 22000 miles with very little additional wear on the tyres I am now wondering if they could have actually been the originals?

You should be able to check the year of manufacture as there should be a Yr/wk stamp on the tyre

I am no expert on the subject but the continuous fault on the wall of the tyre looks like it has been run under inflated at some point.

 

They do not look great, personally I would be looking at replacing within six months.

 

The exposed old but never used spares on some AWD vehicles have some terrible cracking on them from continuous exposure to the Australian sun. I would hate to them actually used.

Having said that the mini spare tyre in my 2003 Toyota Echo is original and does not seem to have aged at all when I check the pressure every couple of months.

 

I have a bicycle with 30 year old Dunlop tyres that I ride regularly for local stuff. They still look ok but I bet replacements will not last as long.

 

I have just discovered cracking between the tread on Pirelli tyres, this happened on my previous car too. Still good tread, but have to change as cracking again. Both times it has been the original Pirelli tyres that were fitted from new!

I wouldn't drive a car with cracked tyres, the cracking happens with age & tyres only last for 5 years & they would normally need to be changed within that time anyway.

Yeh I think they'd be an MOT failure. 

Mine came with Hankok whatevers they are pretty much shot after 20k miles. Tiptoed through the winter 🙄

Just my opinion, no better or worse than anyone elses, but...I would not be driving my car with tyres looking like that on it. I'd be changing those immediately.

 

Funny how some people treat tyre expenditure - for the sake of 400 quid, you're putting yours, your families and other road users' lives at risk. You're also risking writing off 10 or 15 grand's worth of car, for the sake of a few hundred quid.

 

But as I said, that's just my opinion.

 

I wouldn’t be driving on tyres older than 5 years anyway. Replace at that age regardless of wear. In practice I wouldn’t expect tyres in my hands to last longer than 2 years, as little as 3k miles sometimes!