Mercho82

Today I dismounted one of my wheels to fix some scratch on the rim and noticed these cracks on the sidewall of the tire. These are the OEM ContiProContacts that came with the car. They have 30,000 miles on them and 5/32 tread depth left.

Does anyone know what causes this? Has this happened to anyone of you?

Sportstick

I have not seen that, but those are now scrap rubber. Go to this link and fill out the Online Form.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm


Michelin PS2 or Pilot Sport A/S Plus await you!

C300Sport

That looks really bad, especially for the age and mileage of the tire. Makes me wonder what would make the rubber seperate like that.
Did you ever note this tire having a slow leak?

noka

I would immediately check the others and consider mounting the spare until you can replace the tires. IMO, that looks to be a high risk of a blowout at any time.

ShoremNJ

Micheline are much better, I put 65,000 miles before I changed them due to cupping, mostly highway by the way.

jctevere

Wow, thats looks terrible. Have you done any burnouts for an extended amount of time or high heat on that tire? I can't tell if its a front or rear...

This is exactly why I had my sister refuse pickup on her 2011 c300 until they put the michelins on her car. The ride quality was NOTICEABLY better on the michellins than on the Conti's, and so was the noise. I am not too sure about handling though as we never got a chance to test the contis besides light highway driving.

Mercho82

Not really, I check the pressure each 2 or 3 months and haven't really found any major leak. They lose about 2 or 3 psi which I think is pretty normal for any tire.


That's the passenger front tire. No burnouts I take really good care of my car and would never abused it like that.

I wonder what the warranty is on those tires and if It would cover that defect?

noka

Tire warranty is not covered under the new vehicle warranty but is warranty from the tire manufacturer pro-rated for mileage. With 30K mi you would probably get nothing or close to it.

Spec_Davis

replace it asap! I don't want to hear that you got into an accident.

Mercho82

Found this info at http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=30

"Tire manufacturers' warranties typically cover cracking for a period of 4 years from the date the tire was purchased (receipt for the new tires or in-service date of the vehicle required) or four years from the date the tire was manufactured"

Mercho82

Called Continental Customer Relationship and described the issue. They took all my info and told me that I could take my car to an authorized Continental Dealer which they provided me with the address.

I took my car to the Tire Dealer and they checked the tires. They said front tires were bad they had cracks as you can see in the pics; However, the rear ones where fine no cracks at all but the tread was gone. So since the tread left on the front ones where 4/32, Continental agreed to pay 25% of the cost to replace them (mounting and balancing I paid out of my pocket).

I asked the tire technician why tires would get such a big cracks and he said that most likely was because I kept them at manufacturer specs which is 29psi (no wonder why they always looked underinflated and people kept telling me to put air to them) He said that to avoid uneven tread wear and cracks it’s better to keep them at 35 psi.

I've got to say that Continental Customer Relationship is great, the lady I spoke with was really helpful and very polite . By the way I replace the four of them with Contis ExtremeContact DWS.

GateKeeper

I have the same issue with my front drivers tire, same type of cracks, and just in the one tire...

I was told it was due to not enough pressure in the tire, however all 4 tires were the same pressure, and the TPMS never went off to warn of a low pressure scenario

I will be going back to the Dealership and hope to have them warranty this

I know my car does not have TPMS in each individual tire, but the system does not seem to be working, and the pressure went from recommended to a low of 29 for each tire, that if I am not mistaken is 5 psi lower than what they were to begin with

the worst part is the car goes back in October......I really don't want to spend the cash on tires at this time, and they have less than 32 thousand Km on them, I use separate winter tires and rims for part of the year usually from November to end of March

Scott C300

I had a similar issue with my tires......2 rears to be exact...in both cases I had broken a belt on the outside of the tire when I hit a pothole.

Until I read this post, I had thought that the tech at the shop had done this with a knife or a tool to make me buy a replacement there....they gouged me on the 1st replacement tire....and took care of me on the second....so it evened out.

I guess I was wrong about those guys.....but this is an odd issue.

mingo

I too had similar issues on all 4 tires. one of my rear tires completely shredded. prior to that it was losing pressure.

The tire store told me that is common for that tire on our car.

My tire pressure are almost always in spec as i check them on a weekly basis with a analog tire pressure gauge. I have since switched to bridgestone R050a and are very happy with them.

JimPap

Sorry, but my Michelins have 65,000 miles on them and I run them at 27.5.

They look nothing like yours. Tread wear is fairly even too.

Given your experience with Continentals, I wouldn't have bought them at any price.

Glyn M Ruck

Typical Conti nonesense

Mercho82

I guess everyone has his own opinion about tires; however, if you check tirerack the Contis ExtremeContact DWS are rated # 1 by customers.

Sportstick

These opinions are not necessarily inconsistent. Continental produces a lot of very low performing tires, such as the spec found as original equipment on many of our cars. However, under the category of even a stopped clock being correct twice a day, they also produce some very good tires, such as the DWS. I have two sets on order, one going on my daughter's car tomorrow, and a backordered size for our E350, but there is little else I would consider buying from them. They just hit upon something quite excellent with DWS.

Glyn M Ruck

+1

Peabody

I just replaced the rears of mine at about 20,000 miles on the tire. The fronts have rubber chunking off the tire treads but my SA at Mercedes said it was normal on an A/S tire. Cracking sidewalls on the other hand are definitely a replace it now thing.

JimPap

Mercho82

Already replaced them with Contis Extreme Contact DWS and they're super quiet I love these tires, the ride feels smoother too.