Michelin Tire Sidewall Cracking

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Pistolero

Pistolero

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Chama, NM-Our little piece of Heaven.
My 2010 F-150 Super Crew came equipped with a set of Michelin LTX A/T2 P265/70R17 tires that have since developed small fine cracks all around the sidewalls. The tires only have only 21,000 miles on them and I keep them covered with RV tire covers. I don't use petroleum based tire treatments, but wash the tires occasionally with mild soap and water. Has anyone out there experienced similar issues with Michelins? I plan on replacing them with LT 265/70R17 all season tires and would appreciate any recommendations.

Thank you kindly,
 
4MUL8R said:
Very very common with Michelin. I have experienced this with all my truck tires. I have switched to Nitto TerraGrapplers.
Click to expand...

That is too bad, Michelin used to make a great tire. The service manager at my Ford dealer tells me that that the small cracks are "normal" for Michelin! I do worry and I plan on getting rid of them. Thank you for the feedback.
 
This is not uncommon with Michelin. Furthermore, Michelin does not warranty truck tires.

One of my Semi Freightliners was delivered with 10 new Michelin mounted at delivery by the Denver Dealer. Over the first 4 months seven of the tires failed (blowouts along the seam of sidewall).

As a result of my claims to the Freightliner dealer Freightliner did replace all ten of the tires with Goodyear tires at Freightliner expense after informing me that Michelin does not have any warranty for truck tires. I was also reimbursed by the truck dealer for the cost of the seven tires that my driver purchased when each of the seven tires failed on the road.

I personally contacted the Michelin distributor in Denver and he confirmed that Michelin does not warranty truck tires.
 
I wouldn't listen to the Ford dealer, first thing I would do is contact Michelin and see if they will do anything to help out with replacements, one thing to bear in mind is tires that come stock on a new truck or car are usually low dollar low quality tires I have had Good Years on a few new trucks and they were bald at 20,000.

I recommend BF Goodrich, I have been running their all terrain KO tires on different trucks for over thirty years now they are great tires, long tread life, never had any cracked side walls or dry rot ever.
 
I have a very similar Michelin on my '12 F150 but it's M/S2 instead of your A/T2. Maybe check to see if they had a re-call?

http://www.michelin.ca/safety-recalls.page
 
I have Michelins on my 2011 Honda Ridgeline - 40,000 miles and they still have a lot of tread left. I plan to eventually replace them with identical Michelins if they are still available.
 
I just had to replace some 1 ton- chassis RV tires at 32,000 miles, had 75% tread, yet developed the worst case of rim check cracks I've ever seen. It was scary seeing how bad they were, as the worst were turned to the inside of the inner dually, not visible from a walk-around inspection. Alas, they were on a 10 -year old rig, that was simply not a high mileage vehicle.

My local dealer had lots to say about the "new" DOT requirements on Mfg. code that is cast into each tire, which IDs WHEN it was made. Independent of mileage, I was told even a new tire that is past a certain date, they can NOT even mount it let alone sell or service it.
 
Just put new set of 265-70-17's Cooper Discover AT/P. These are on my 07 chevy 1500HD drove 2200 miles to my deer hunt in Ontario, Canada ride was great had no snow so I did not find out how they worked. This is the 4th set of Coopers Counting 3 sets of Coopers on our 03 Yukon XL. Good tire IMHO
 
Interesting. We've never had an issue with a Michelin tire. Had them on two Cherokees, and a Subaru. The Sub came with 'Geolanders'. Positively greasy in snow. The car was near undriveable in the snow esp compared to the Jeeps. The Sub, with limited slip dif and transfer case should have bee n superior. With Michelins (and not snow tires) it is now boringly competent in the snow.
 
When I bought my ALfa back in 1970, it came equipped with Pirelli tires; when I replaced them I went to Michelins which gave me great service. With my later Autos, I went to Bridgestones and got great service from them also. The Only tires I had a real problem with were from Sears. Right now, my Volvo has B.F. Goodrich 80K mile tires (don't remember the model name). So far good service and no cracking.
 
Pistolero said:
My 2010 F-150 Super Crew came equipped with a set of Michelin LTX A/T2 P265/70R17 tires that have since developed small fine cracks all around the sidewalls. The tires only have only 21,000 miles on them and I keep them covered with RV tire covers. I don't use petroleum based tire treatments, but wash the tires occasionally with mild soap and water. Has anyone out there experienced similar issues with Michelins? I plan on replacing them with LT 265/70R17 all season tires and would appreciate any recommendations.

Thank you kindly,
Click to expand...

I have used a number of Michelin's and have never had an issue. My 2006 Suburban has a set with 40k on them. Around 30k burned when we lived in Calgary and the remaining as it sits for months on end unused in our north Idaho garage.
 
I've had 4 Michelins fail within the last 6 months. Three were capped carcasses and the 4th an "original". It wasn't the caps that failed but the belts of the carcass separated/broke causing catastrophic failure. All the Michelin capped carcasses have sidewall cracks but that's not the failing point.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend Michelin to anyone.
 
This is an interesting discussion, and I'm not sure there is yet an answer.

In the old days...I know not everybody likes to hear a discussion started that way...All tires were prone to side wall cracking, and the tires didn't have to be old to have this cracking. We lived with it and conventional thinking was it was superficial and didn't hurt anything.

Fast forward 40+ years. It is now conventional wisdom from the tire stores that tires do have a service life regardless of their mileage or use. Beyond that service life tires are prone to get the superficial cracking that used to not be an issue.

So the discussion here is tires that begin to crack (or dry out) long before the now established service life. Is there any real investigation and proof that the drying and cracking of the exposed layer of sidewall causes tire failures, or is this a ploy of the rubber companies to sell more tires?

WAYNO.
 
I put the same michelin tires on my work truck. After around 35,000 miles I also noticed same small line cracks. I'm now replacing them soon and have 100,000 miles on them. These "cracks" never affected anything,but was a little concerning at the time considering the money spent on them. But not many tires would last me 100,000 miles. My wife's truck came with continental tires and loved them,they went 75,000 miles . Just put on another pair of continental on her truck and so far just as good as the first. They are now going to be my go to tire's on all my trucks.
 
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