Tire sidewall splitting causes?

[Freedom]

My friends car has his sidewall splitting pretty bad. Any idea the cause? It was driven with 38psi so Im betting tire defect. It did have 30K miles on it so it was pretty much done anyway. It shouldnt be rubbing since theres a ton of clearance (its a suv).

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[Shifting_Gears]

Maybe the weight of the SUV exceeded the specs of the tire? That pretty drastic and quite scary that he drove on that. Defect wouldn’t shock me either.

 

[Freedom]

Maybe the weight of the SUV exceeded the specs of the tire? That pretty drastic and quite scary that he drove on that. Defect wouldn’t shock me either.

The tire set is capable of 6500 pounds. The car is like 3300 pounds. He does have a box on top of the car at times but I doubt the car is getting that heavy.

 

[scrubber3]

Over inflation, age, defect, under inflation... that brand tire is known to put out some garbage as we all know here on this forum.

 

[NoVaGT]

I'd go with age.

I think there's manufacturing date codes on tires. I'd check for that.

 

[Zathras]

Yeah, that tire looks ancient. Even the PIRELLI font and style doesn't look like any recent Pirelli tire. (The sidewall says "P Zero Nero", but the P Zero Neros that came on my 2011 Mustang looked way different than that.)

 

[Freedom]

Just checked with my friend. The pirelli text on the outside sidewall is has a different style and the manufacture date was within 5 years.

 

[jasonstang]

I am gonna say under inflation.

 

[ugstang17]

Without seeing the face (not just the rear) or tread wear pattern it is more difficult to discern, but the signs indicate to me the tires have been improperly inflated, the tires have been driven very hard, and/or there is a major alignment issue with the vehicle. There is no tread on the inside edge of the tire. It is rounded like it has been under inflated and/or has had a massive camber andor toe issues causing the tire to wear on the outer edges. The little bit of tread visible appears to only be in the center of the tire face. Again hard to tell without a photo of the tire's face (tread cross section). No defect in that tire however. 30K on poorly maintained, overdriven, or misaligned tires is a blessing.

I had a toe issue on a car I purchased many years ago. I was not aware of it. Drove it 2300 miles from California to Indiana the day after I bought it. Tires were almost new when I bought the car and left SD. The toe on the car was way out I later found and completely ate the tires into the wear bars in 2300 miles. Camber was fine as was caster and thrust. They were Bridgestones.

 

[Freedom]

Without seeing the face (not just the rear) or tread wear pattern it is more difficult to discern, but the signs indicate to me the tires have been improperly inflated, the tires have been driven very hard, and/or there is a major alignment issue with the vehicle. There is no tread on the inside edge of the tire. It is rounded like it has been under inflated and/or has had a massive camber andor toe issues causing the tire to wear on the outer edges. The little bit of tread visible appears to only be in the center of the tire face. Again hard to tell without a photo of the tire's face (tread cross section). No defect in that tire however. 30K on poorly maintained, overdriven, or misaligned tires is a blessing.

I had a toe issue on a car I purchased many years ago. I was not aware of it. Drove it 2300 miles from California to Indiana the day after I bought it. Tires were almost new when I bought the car and left SD. The toe on the car was way out I later found and completely ate the tires into the wear bars in 2300 miles. Camber was fine as was caster and thrust. They were Bridgestones.

Tires were driven decently hard, as hard as you could imagine for public road on a 200 horsepower suv though. It did have tiny bit of camber but not that much. He said the tires were inflated to 38 pounds and it does have TPMS but it didn't light up ever. Definitely going to recommend him to get an alignment just in case.

 

[ugstang17]

I figured it was driven hard. High center of gravity, temps in the 80's to 90's in the summer months, questionable alignment, all adds up to premature wear. I drove a set of 30K rated performance tires bald on an '84 Escort GT when I was younger. Had about half the power of that SUV and about half again as heavy. Those Michelin TRX wheels would stick, but pushed hard even with an Escort they were killed in 15K. They weren't cheap AND being a 365mm diameter tire (one of Fords stupidest ideas) they were the ONLY tire available without buying a set of 13" rims which is what I ended up doing down the road. The same TRX Michelin series was on the Turbo Coupe T-bird and Mustang GT that year in a 390mm diameter.

 

[TicTocTach]

I'm going to bet under-inflation as well. Those tires say extra load, so I bet the max inflation pressure is like 50psi. 38psi is just fine with those tires. If the pressure was very low for very long at all, I bet the inside of the tire is full of rubber pieces that were worn off while driving. That will kill a tire really quickly from the inside out.

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