Drive Accord Honda Forums banner

What Caused This? (Unexpected Tire Cracking)

2K views 20 replies 11 participants last post by  2Accordz 
#1 ·
Hi guys, newbie here (first post actually). I was rotating my tires today when I noticed these cracks on my tires. The cracks are mostly covered by the hubcaps normally and I failed to notice them on my weekly checks. The cracks are only observed on the two tires on the left side of the car. The cracks are on both sides of the tires at the same spots. I was hoping someone can shed some light on what caused these cracks.

A little history of the tires:
They're Goodyear Eagle Sports.
They have about 21k miles on them.
All four tires were replaced at the same time. Bought and mounted by Goodyear.
DOT built date of the tires are 3213, 3113, 3113, 3113.
Bought and mounted in September of 2015.
Pressure checked bi-weekly and maintained at 30-32 psi regardless of outside temperature.
I rotate them every 3000-4000 miles.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the first picture actually shows the tire bead bundle being exposed.
 

Attachments

See less See more
5
#3 · (Edited by Moderator)
I don't understand why the inside face of the tire would be like that too.


Thank you, the car is parked outside year round, but always in the east-west orientation (front of the car pointing directly west and tail of the car pointing directly east). I don't understand why the inside face of the tire would be like that too though.
 
#4 ·
They look sun baked and too old. In which case they are providing less than optimal traction. They might be getting hard.
Although 2013 is not that old. :dunno:

I would try armor all on the sidewalls, but NOT the tread. See if that helps. Start planning on new tires.
 
#7 · (Edited by Moderator)
Thank you, I'll give ArmorAll a try tomorrow. Hopefully it will help the tire last until new tires arrive or something is worked out with Goodyear.

Sure looks like bad batch of rubber compound prematurely deteriorating to the point of failure, I would definitely take it to Goodyear right away, the longer you wait the weaker your case will be, Goodyear needs to replace these tires as a minimum on pro-rated basis.

DON'T put any stuff on the rubber which will prevent Goodyear from doing proper analysis or worse yet pass blame on you.
Thank you, I'll hold back on any tire treatments. My biggest fear is that I did most of the tire rotations myself, and Goodyear may use that against me in any claim.
 
#6 ·
Sure looks like bad batch of rubber compound prematurely deteriorating to the point of failure, I would definitely take it to Goodyear right away, the longer you wait the weaker your case will be, Goodyear needs to replace these tires as a minimum on pro-rated basis.

DON'T put any stuff on the rubber which will prevent Goodyear from doing proper analysis or worse yet pass blame on you.
 
#10 ·
What Aviography said.
Do not put anything on the tires...
Have them checked by whoever put them on and tell them you'd like to file a claim with Goodyear ASAP. Get documentation of everything.

If it were me, I'd would also get them the hell off my car, ASAP.
 
#11 ·
I'd talk to Goodyear.Although prorated number may not be much or anything if GY decides to honor any warranty.
I'd also get a new set of tires one way or another to be on the safe side and not Goodyear.
 
#12 ·
I am going to sound a little nuts here- but the newly manufactured tires sat for 2 years before you bought and had them mounted.

In those two years, they could have been in direct sunlight from a window in a warehouse. I saw this once in Washington, DC at a NTB. They had windows near the top of the roofline to provide light- and they had tires stored up there. I just happened to be there when whatever that tire's size was brought down for a customer- and they were coated in dust. 2 year old tires, and they were hard as a rock, facing sunlight for 2 years.

I never buy tires more than 6 months old, and never buy a battery older than 3 months. The only thing I could add is that the tires may nave been wildly over-inflated at one point. I helped a friend's mother with her car- all four of her tires were set at 60 psi. All had cracks. I went with her back to the "garage" she bought them from and all started verbally attacking me like the way monkeys attack the odd monkey that wandered into their turf. I was the odd monkey that day- I lost.

Excellent analysis by Miker- even though Akron, OH is not on the equator. Direct sunlight will kill your tires.

OP: Did you choose Goodyears because of their history being HQ'd in Akron?
 
This post has been deleted
#14 ·
I brought the car in to Goodyear today. An appointment for it to be put on the stand was made for tomorrow (when customer service is actually open). I got the manager to come out to look at some of cracks that are most visible. He agreed that it is unlikely to be weathering but continued on to suggest vandalism was at play here. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.
I'm calling it "cough" bulls---"cough"

Those are not slices and how in the heck does that explain inboard sidewall cracks?
 
#18 ·
Took the car to Goodyear yesterday. Goodyear honored their warranty and prorated the two cracked tires at $46 each (these tires MSRP for $122 each). Bargained with customer service real hard and managed to get the two other tires prorated at $46 each as well. The reasons here is that it didn't make sense to run the car with brand new tires on one side and worn tires on the other. In addition, just to stay on the safe side, I wanted to replace all four tires (came out of the same factory at the same time, probably came from the same warehouse, I didn't want to take any chances). Since Goodyear online store also has a memorial day sale (along with their regular rebates), the cost of a brand new set ordered online would actually be quite a bit less than the cost of replacing all four based prorating only two tires (I don't benefit from the warranty what so ever here).

New tires has been ordered, just waiting for installation in the next day or so.
 
#21 ·
Took the car to Goodyear yesterday. Goodyear honored their warranty and prorated the two cracked tires at $46 each (these tires MSRP for $122 each). Bargained with customer service real hard and managed to get the two other tires prorated at $46 each as well.
Glad you were able to work it out, and $46 each sounds like a fair deal, because you probably had gone through 1/3 of the tire's life anyway.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top