Tyresome problem?

[Kennyp]

Just come home from having second service on my 2021 Karoq sel. All fine except both front tyres had an advisory stating minor cracking on the curve between sidewall and main tread area.

setvice rep said no problem at moment especially as 5mm tread depth on both (just under 15000 miles from new).

My concern is that my previous car Kodiaq developed the same cracking in the same place resulting in me having to change all four tyres but this was after 3 years and 25000 miles.

Never experienced anything like this before these two cars (Had an Octavia vrs before the Kodiaq which was fine and had that 8 yrs without any cracking).

Tyres on Karoq are Michelin and on Kodiaq were Bridgestone (I think). 
Anyone had similar and if so what was the cause/solution?

[Gaz]

If you use the search function for crack, cracks and/or cracking, you can find a plethora of threads on early cracking, e.g.:

 

 

Gaz

 

[SurreyJohn]

Seems to have been common problem for those who used summer tyres during last Decembers extremely cold weather when temperatures of -8c or below were common.

 

Modern summer tyre compounds are quite hard to give good Eco performance, and at those cold temperatures tyres go hard and will crack under load, you might not notice the tiny cracks at first, but once they have started, the surface cracks will grow.

 

Some might waffle about sun and UV damaging the tyres, but myself and others I know who swap to winter tyres have summer tyres that are upto 6 years old without any cracks, but others who didn't swap are seeing cracks on summer spec tyres under 2 years old, rather suggests the damage is mainly done by leaving summer tyres on in cold weather, then using the car.  If our summer tyres only used in months of strong sun don't crack, then clearly the sun isn't main cause of cracking.

 

All season and winter tyres have series of slit like grooves to avoid the surface being stressed to cracking point when cold.

 

You won't have experienced it few years ago, because the compound was more mixed season, but now manufacturers have all season ranges, they have made summer tyres more summer like (because Eco fuel economy is prime requirement nowadays).   Simple solution, buy all season tyres next time.

[BTandSid]

Ironically I’ve had Michelin CrossClimates, which are all seasons, on my past three cars and recently fitted them to my Karoq and have never experienced sidewall cracking (ooh er missus 😏) 

[DBSurrey]

I have Michelin Primacy 3 (fitted to new car) and at 4yrs Mot advisory on tyre cracking after only 10k miles.  MOT tester said it was very common even with more expensive tyres.

Many experiences described online.  Some associate it with low mileage stopping good mixing of anti-aging components in the tyre.  Possibly but not convinced.  I believe it’s due to the use of micro plastics as a filler in the tyre replacing some of the carbon black used.  Micro plastics have been found to be the #1 polluter of londons roads - not exhaust emissions.

[PetrolDave]

5 minutes ago, DBSurrey said:

 Micro plastics have been found to be the #1 polluter of londons roads - not exhaust emissions.

Which surely makes the ULEZ zone and expansion fairly pointless as it won't be tackling the biggest source of pollution from vehicles?

[Ootohere]

Maybe common for those to see that commonly.

Mechanics, techs, tyre fitters, MOT examiners, police / traffic examiners. Drivers or passengers or street sweepers

 

So is that 1 in every 10 cars or in 20?

 

Plenty members here have cars and either have cracked tyres now or have in the past, or maybe never been aware of cracking of their vehicles tyres.