Cracking in between the treads (long ways) - is it safe to drive?

[Hawthorn654]

Hi

 

A confession first...  While I drove a Skoda Fabia Mk1 my wife has recently inherited a Corsa and it's the tyres on these that I noticed the cracking on this morning.  It's in the long "in between section".  It runs around the whole tyre and is the same as in the photo for two of them.  A third has it but not so bad.  And the fourth is ok. 

 

Do they need replacing asap?  Are they dangerous?

 

Many thanks

 

 

[petrolcan]

I suspect you already know the answer to the question you are asking.

 

If it were me, I'd be happy to do some local running around on them as I shop for new tyres.

[nta16]

Personally, ASAP or straight away, I'd fit four new tyres of the same make, type, model and age (take it steady on the new set of tyres for the first 100 miles, 200 if wet, and check the wheel nuts for torque after the first 30 miles or so).   If the current fourth tyre is OK you could keep it in the boot as an emergency spare if it's not the same make, type, model and age as the other 3 or you'd need to keep checking its still OK.

 

Tyres go like that from any combination or permutation of - lack of use, age, being kept outside, being cheaply made.

 

Edited 21 June, 2022 by nta16
change of word

[Gaz]

Agree with PC and NTA - new tyre time IMO. I wonder what’s happening to those cracks when you load the tyre up at a corner/junction/roundabout.

 

Gaz

[KenONeill]

5 hours ago, Hawthorn654 said:

Do they need replacing asap?  Are they dangerous?

They need replacing, with a different make, soon.

[nta16]

Out of interest what make, model and age (manufactured date) are those cracked tyres?

 

[SurreyJohn]

@Hawthorn654 yes, get all 4 changed as soon as possible 

 

Can I suggest you get all season, rather than summer tyres, they are more suitable for UK climate, and will probably crack less as they are designed to work in winter.

 

Summer tyres are very hard when cold, and if used in cold weather, likely to start cracks which get bigger

 

 

[Hawthorn654]

Many thanks for all the replies, help and suggestions.  

 

I'll get them changed asap.  

 

On 21/06/2022 at 19:00, nta16 said:

Out of interest what make, model and age (manufactured date) are those cracked tyres?

 

 

The cracked tyres are Cooper Zeon CS8.  The two on the front are by far the worse.  There's one Cooper Zeon CS8 on the back, which just a small amount of cracking.  And there's a Runway Enduro HP on the back that is fine.  

 

Couldn't find dates on any of them.  Do all tyres have dates and if so is written in some kind of unusual format?

 

Thanks again

[softscoop]

Yes the date of manufacture is part of the DOT code:

 

It's in a 4 digit format 2 digits for the week, and 2 for the year.

 

https://www.kwik-fit.com/tyres/information/tyre-age#:~:text=The four-digit tyre age,represent the year of manufacture.

[J.R.]

On 22/06/2022 at 16:30, SurreyJohn said:

@Hawthorn654 yes, get all 4 changed as soon as possible 

 

Can I suggest you get all season, rather than summer tyres, they are more suitable for UK climate, and will probably crack less as they are designed to work in winter.

 

Summer tyres are very hard when cold, and if used in cold weather, likely to start cracks which get bigger

 

 

 

Do you really believe that?

 

The UK climate was not seen as unsuitable for "summer" tyres until the marketting people dreamt up the phrase to promote the sales of M&S (mud & snow) tyres henceforth known as "Winter tyres", now I know that some parts of the UK are much colder and have more snow than the South East where I was born but aside from Farmers and 4x4 offroaders nobody I knew changed to M&S or snow tyres during winter unless they were going to the Alpes to work the ski season.

 

I have been driving 45 years and only heard of winter tyres since moving to France where they are mandatory to drive on certain roads in certain departments during the winter months.

 

In those 45 years I have never until recently seen circumferential cracking between the treads, UV degraded sidewalls yes but the treads never really see daylight, the change has happened since the rubber compounds started being made from recycled dildos.

 

I would propose that there is no such thing as a summer tyre, aside from winter tyres and all season tyres all others are common or garden tyres exactly as they have been for a century until the tyre companies started manipulating the hard of thinking by coining the phrase "summer tyres", they will be having a wet dream to see how enthusiastically their work is being done for them on the internet.

[nta16]

5 hours ago, Hawthorn654 said:

Couldn't find dates on any of them.  Do all tyres have dates and if so is written in some kind of unusual format?

As per softscoop's link, but sometimes the manufacture date code is on the inside wall of the tyre.  You should also find on the tyre wall where the tyre is made, many are made in China and some of those can be good and some really not so good for general use.

 

 

5 hours ago, Hawthorn654 said:

There's one Cooper Zeon CS8 on the back, which just a small amount of cracking.  And there's a Runway Enduro HP on the back that is fine.

Personally I'd use the Runway as (only an emergency) spare and fit four new tyres otherwise you could have three different makes, models types and age of tyres on the car being used which might be fine but having a full set of new tyres will give more confidence and possible/probably (depending on what you buy) better performance.

 

Is your wife's Corsa a sporty type model or modified/souped-up to have those Yanky tires?

 

[SurreyJohn]

6 hours ago, J.R. said:

 

Do you really believe that?

 

The UK climate was not seen as unsuitable for "summer" tyres until the marketting people dreamt up the phrase to promote the sales of M&S (mud & snow) tyres henceforth known as "Winter tyres", now I know that some parts of the UK are much colder and have more snow than the South East where I was born but aside from Farmers and 4x4 offroaders nobody I knew changed to M&S or snow tyres during winter unless they were going to the Alpes to work the ski season.

I didn’t use to believe it, until someone I knew who works in a tyre factory told me they had changed the formulation.  
 

The way it was explained to me was that when all season tyres were introduced (generally about 4-8 years ago) the summer tyres were made more summer like.  It was even suggested they were optimised for WLTP test temperature (which from memory is +23c) although I have never seen anyone admit (or deny) this.

Basic physics and chemistry will tell you that rubber gets soft as it gets warm, and harder when cold, but of course tyres use a mixed compound (including silica etc), but even with those can barely get an ideal operating temperature range much wider than about 25-30c.   So if you optimise for nearer +23c, it will be poor below about +8c. 
 

So comparing a modern summer tyre (reformulated few years ago) with the more general summer tyre from last few decades doesn’t work, as effectively got a new different product (even if it still uses old style summer tyre name).

 

Probably better to assume a modern all season tyre is best suited to -5c to +25c and a modern summer tyre +8c to + 38c (although will work with diminishing results outside these ranges).  Sorry don’t know the temperature range for modern winter tyre (the normal European one, not the cold weather Nordic version) but must be about -17c to +13c (based on the 30c ideal range)

 

Many I have spoken too seem to think only tyres bought within about last 7 years have been prone to serious cracking (yes some cracking happened in past, but not commonly like now), which fits with the reformulation concept.

 

 

[nta16]

Getting rubber has been a problem for a while back and the tyres aren't just rubber, if you think back a few years and all the funky tyre model names and descriptions as new ingredients are tried out in formulations.

 

I've been buying car tyres for over 40 years but the last 5-10 I've noticed bigger differences.

 

With the weight of modern cars (overweight for most German marques) and the fashion for overwide wheels and tyres things are perhaps more noticeable, though they certainly are with a relatively very lightweight old car like mine on 145/80R13 or 155/80R13 tyres designed for city cars.

[J.R.]

6 hours ago, SurreyJohn said:

So comparing a modern summer tyre (reformulated few years ago) with the more general summer tyre from last few decades doesn’t work, as effectively got a new different product (even if it still uses old style summer tyre name).

I agree with everything else in your posting other than tyres of the past were never known or thought of as summer tyres, they were simply tyres, they may well have been reformulated and  renamed as summer tyres, I'm not even sure that it's the manufacturers using that nomenclature but the on-line sellers.

[SurreyJohn]

8 hours ago, J.R. said:

I agree with everything else in your posting other than tyres of the past were never known or thought of as summer tyres, they were simply tyres, they may well have been reformulated and  renamed as summer tyres, I'm not even sure that it's the manufacturers using that nomenclature but the on-line sellers.

Yes I accept that, tyres of old often used to have knobbly or zigzag or more random tread patterns, and were just called tyres.

 

I think summer tyres really came about when the multiple longitudinal grooves became the norm.

[nta16]

Summer tyres from the manufacturers. -

 

https://www.bridgestone.co.uk/our-products/car-tyres/summer-tyres-turanza

 

https://www.continental-tyres.co.uk/b2c/car/search-results.html?pogSegment1MappingDTacs=passenger_car&season=Summer

 

https://www.falkentyre.com/en/tyres/car-tyreshttps://www.barum-tyres.com/car/expert-advice/tyre-knowledge/difference-between-summer-allseason-and-winter-tyres

 

Too many 'brands' to look at but here's one list. -  https://www.tyrereviews.com/Tyre/

 

Edited 25 June, 2022 by nta16

[EnterName]

I was going to say cracks off the sidewall are fine. But that really is a bit of a canyon on yours.

Personally, I'd replace.

These are mine.

 

Edited 6 July, 2022 by EnterName

[EnterName]

On 24/06/2022 at 17:07, SurreyJohn said:

I didn’t use to believe it, until someone I knew who works in a tyre factory told me they had changed the formulation. 

Tyres are way more complicated than people think.

I used to buy tyres based on whether I liked the look of the trad patter and the rubber used. 😄

I have since realised I honestly haven't a clue how to choose between tyres if simply looking at them, and I rely entirely on reviews and my own previous experience.

I would say that cheap tyres are a false economy, they usually have a fatal flaw: Rapid wear or lousy performance in the wet/cold being the two main issues. Noise can be another.

Buy good tyres and check the date of manufacture. (In my post above it's week 37 of 2018.)