Cracks between tread blocks, ok to drive on for now?

[VinnAY]

They're not brand new, as I stated in the first post... They are take offs with a couple of miles on them. I also went on a short test drive after mounting them to check if they were balanced, before I noticed the cracks.


Today the internet sales guy said his manager was back in the office and he would let me know how they will handle this. He said most likely they'll give me a return shipping label to send it back in and send me another. Hopefully his manager isn't a dick lol

so what they've got a 100 miles on them now...come on dude stop playing semantics here...they're brand new, that yellow stripe hasn't even budged. And they're overinflated, but I bet you know that, too.

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[Evil Minion]

so what they've got a 100 miles on them now...come on dude stop playing semantics here...they're brand new, that yellow stripe hasn't even budged. And they're overinflated, but I bet you know that, too.

is there a point you're trying to make? And 32psi cold is over-inflated now?

Check the tire build date on the sidewall, should be a four digit code, it will be something like 4314, meaning 43rd week of 2014. We don't mount any tires over 12 months old at my work.

Hope this helps.

Yeah, I meant to last night after I took them off, then promptly forgot lol

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I think there is a warning about these tires cracking in extreme cold. I didn't pay attention living in AZ. Any chance of that?

 

[Evil Minion]

I think there is a warning about these tires cracking in extreme cold. I didn't pay attention living in AZ. Any chance of that?

From all I've read, it's definitely the most likely explanation.

As I've said, no idea what their history is beyond me getting them this week. I just know they came out of a dealership in Athens Georgia. Also slightly odd that only one was affected.

 

[Evil Minion]

OK, so I finally was able to speak to the parts manager about how to resolve this.

Managers first offer was to just refund me some of the money back so I could just buy my own tire and mount it. Sounded good, then I asked how much of a refund they're giving me... answer was a whopping $50! :lol:
K, so obviously that wasn't going to work. Then we moved on to them issuing a pre-paid UPS return label, and I just send the old one back, and they send me another take-off rear. They were even kind enough to ship the new rear out today to arrive June 1st.


As for how they think it cracked, the guy was thinking most likely it was stored outside for a bit in the winter, or just in a very cold part of the warehouse. And since it wasn't driven on, it just dried out and cracked from the cold.

 

[jasonstang]

I would say they were probably stored outside all summer or something. UV light does horrible things to rubber.

 

[MSMStannyl]

As for how they think it cracked, the guy was thinking most likely it was stored outside for a bit in the winter, or just in a very cold part of the warehouse. And since it wasn't driven on, it just dried out and cracked from the cold.

That's pretty interesting. Assuming they were taken off the same car, one would assume they were handled/stored in the same manner, so it's strange that only 1 was affected.

That being said, as someone pointed out, this is a known issue for summer tires in cold temps. I have the Foundry 20's but they come with the same Pirelli P-Zero's as the PP (but in a square 265/35/20 setup). There was an insert in my owners manual documentation for these tires and I believe it does say not to use them under 40 or 45 degrees F or else cracks and other damage can occur.

Personally, I've driven on my factory P-Zero's through this past winter and the end of the previous one (when I bought the car), in Baltimore. Haven't had any noticeable problems other than pretty obvious traction loss in cold temps (never actually drove it in snow, only cold dry days). I just kept the car in rain/snow mode and had no issues.

I'm just about to replace the factory summer tires next week at about 23,000 miles. Ordered a set of Continental Extemecontact DWS All-Season tires to put on (in 275/35/20 squared). I'll take a closer look at the Pirelli's when they come off to see how they look. Regardless, I would think Baltimore's winters are worse than Atlanta's but that could also be them just sitting for an extended period of time (especially on a car).

EDIT: Full disclosure, when I wasn't actually driving the car to work or whatever, it was sitting in my garage. However, my garage isn't heated or anything.

 

[Need4SpeedMotors]

Oldest tire we ever mounted was 2 yrs old because the client requested that specific tire.

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