Replaced my tires today and found something that I have never seen before with any tire in my life.


Three of the four tires had 3 - 4 cracks on the inside side wall shown in the picture below. I had thought to keep the rear tires as they only had 14000 miles on them but the side wall cracking obviously makes the tires useless. Cracks were all the way thru to the inside fabric layer on the tire, i.e. all the way thru all rubber.


The front tires were about a year old and the rear tires 9 months. From the second picture the tread wear shows a little more in the middle but this is due to the cameras angle. Wear was actually very even across the tread.


What is weird is that the outside side wall of all tires was perfectly fine. All cracking was on the inside side wall. Could this be because the outside rubber gets some sort of conditioning when I drive the car thru the car wash, which the inside of the tire does not get?


Tires were Firestone Fire Hawk Wide Oval Indy 500.
245/40-R18 front, 275/35-R18 rear.


Any of you guys have these on your car please check the side walls especially the inside side walls of them.

 

This is an extreme safety issue. You should report this, this should be investigated further.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/...ues?prodType=T

 

That is downright scary. I would be talking to your tire supplier and getting some money back.

 

My tire supplier is a small gas station shop that ordered the tires for me. I don't think there is any chance to get anything going for money return thru them. The front tires were pretty much worn out anyway.

But, it might make sense to alarm NHTSA to this as someone could have a tire blow out at fast speed. I could have been in an accident myself.

I'm not worried about the money for the tires, I'm worried about the safety.

 

That's incredible .This reminded me of Ford Explorers' tire punctures by same supplier Firestone . I can't intend to bash the brand though .
I am glad you noticed that otherwise it could have been worse

 

the guys that sold you the tires, small or not, should help you at least get a pro rated replacement set.......
you mentioned the autowash.......do you dress your tires often? with that tire crap?
reason I ask is because the petrol products (I heard) can dry out tires and cause them to age faster....


hope it works out

 

Hyperion667, you are absolutely correct. I've dealt with the same tire guys for 25 years and they tell me the same thing. Don't use any form of tire shine products because they are all petroleum based and will prematurely breakdown the sidewall rubber. To keep my tires clean and bright I use Westley's Bleche-White and a brush. Works great and looks good.

 

I'm not after compensation for the tires but could go and mention this to them anyway.


What comes to tire dressing I don't use anything else but what the automatic car wash puts on and if you read my post again you can see I wonder if this car was treatment actually kept the rubber good as all the damage was on the inside tire wall. On every tire outside tire wall, which gets the treatment, was perfectly fine.


The mechanic who changed my tires said it looks like dry rot. If this is the case after 9 months Firestone has some work to do with their rubber as the tires should not dry rot in such short time weather they are treated or not and as I said the damage was on the inside tire wall, which has never seen any treatment.

 

What was the DOT code on those tires? Incorrect storage - temp, humidity, etc could leads to premature failure. You might want to read up the articles on The Tirerack site.

 

What would I know about the tire storage conditions before the tires are installed on my car? In my use the tires see only the environment. There is no way for me to control that. It can be from +100F to 25F and all car tires should be able to take that without any problem.

 

1) Nobody is accusing you of anything. No need to get defensive.
2) Knowing the DOT code numbers could lead one to some info.
3) Thats why the reference to read articles on The Tirerack site.

Afterall you did ask questions because of having concerns.

 

Definitely report to the authorities....very very unsafe.....and clearly not anything you did...just faulty build quality.

My guess is that if you report this to the manufacturer directly, their legal department will gladly replace the tires....warranty or no warranty. Note...I said legal...the warranty folks will of course reject any claim...

 

1. I'm not getting defensive.


2. DOT codes will not tell me anything. It could tell something to the tire manufacturer.


3. I don't see a point reading some Tire Rack article about DOT codes. Plain and simple, the tires on my car had a serious side wall failure that should not have happened.


My read on this whole issue is that Firestone rubber compound used to make these tires is flawed and it dry rots very quickly. Reason for this thinking is that all three tires failed on the inside tire wall.


Tire could fail like this if run with inadequate air pressure but this is ruled out by two facts: 1-The tires failed only on the inside wall. If under inflation causes excess side wall strain when running over pot holes etc. on the road this punishment is seen by both side walls so the damage should also show on both sides of the tire. 2-Wear on the rear tires was very even and on front tires slightly more in the middle, i.e. fronts could have had slightly higher pressure than needed so neither tires were run under inflated.


Thinking of manufacturing that the tire would be made differently on the vulcanization process between sides could be possible but not very likely as again they all failed on the inside wall. There is very small change that all tires would have installed the same side in the inside though there is a very small possibility for this.


My only wonder about the whole issue is if the car wash tire treatment actually helped the tires outside wall and kept them from dry rot. As I said the mechanics opinion was that the tires had dry rotted.


In any case, no tire should dry rot in well less than a year whether they are treated or not. This should be an issue only for people who drive very little mileage and can actually have years old tires on their cars.


And I did not know I was asking any questions, just stating the facts what happened.

 

Let's just hope they aren't running the real Indy 500 on those tires

 

Spot on! The manufacture & components used in tire production these days, has changed considerably over the last 5 - 7 years. "Some" brands are just not "cutting" it! You need to report this as the Manufacturer needs a kick up the ***. I would suspect you are not an "orphan" here either, how many other people are driving around with a ticking time bomb??? I would suggest the problem is caused by "weathering" conditions ie U.V. and changes in temperature freeze / thaw, the flexural modulus of the sidewalls has failed.

 

how the hell were you being 'defensive'? LOL

 

....some people take themselves too seriously

 

If your tires were produced in 2000 or later, the last four (4) digits of the serial code identify the week and year of production. For example, a tire with a serial code ending in “2406” was produced in the 24th week of 2006. If your tires were produced prior to 2000, the last three (3) digits of the serial code identify the week and year of production. For example, a tire with a code ending in “329” was produced in the 32nd week of a year ending with a nine (9).

 

Westleys Bleche-white is also solvent based, contains ethanol & some caustic / corrosive ingredients.

Taken from their MSDS;
ngredients from MSDS/Label ChemicalCAS No / Unique IDPercent Isopropanol000067-63-0
2-Butoxyethanol000111-76-2
Sodium metasilicate006834-92-0
Water007732-18-5
Sodium silicates013472-30-5
Sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate025155-30-0

 

damn, great info from Mercedes4ever

 

You bought directional tires in two different sizes. They can't be rotated, and the camber on our vehicles is aggressive. This doesn't happen over night, a tire depth guage would have given you a heads up that the tires were not wearing evenly. I'd encourage you to monitor them more closely in the future or have the camber changed.

 

Could be a manufacture defect. That is definitely not normal. Lucky those tires did not blow up in a highway. That would cause a potential disaster in the highway. Good thing you caught this early.

 

I would agree with mercedes4ever. They maybe new old tires. Was there any problems or cracks on the inside of the tires? If so a tire guy may say they where ran with low pressure.

 

I don't know what you mean by aggressive camber but in my Airmatic equipped car I really cannot see hardly any of it.

For tire wear the rear tires wore very evenly. I actually went back today and got the damaged rear tire back from the tire shop and measured the tread depth. It measures the same 5.15 - 5.35 mm all across the tire.

As I said in my earlier post the front tires looked just slightly more worn in the middle but those too looked worn symmetrically so I don't think camber is a culprit here.

Also, the Pirelli P-Zero Nero ties that the car came with did not experience any sign of side wall problem and those tires got very much exactly the same treatment as these scrappy Firestones in my car.

These will be absolutely the last set of Firestone tires I ever buy.

 

I believe it is a rubber compound issue. And yes, 70% of my driving is on fast interstate highways. Tire blowing in speed like that can really be disastrous.