Replacing Michelins before they're worn out

[Stewart Fan]

Just under 4 years ago Michelin warrantied the OEM set of tires on my wife's 2011 Camry Hybrid. We went with Primacy MXV4s as the replacement.

The MXV4s currently have 55,000 miles on them and are sitting at 6/32 of tread depth. They'll easily blow past the 60K mile warranty Michelin gives them.

While washing her car the other day I noticed some very fine cracking around the bead on all 4 tires. They've also gotten harder and aren't as quiet as they were when new. Wet weather traction is still great.

Is it foolish to replace them just in the name of comfort?

 

[skyactiv]

I found out rotating noisey tires in an X pattern helps make them less noisy for awhile. The reason being is that the sharp edges on the tread blocks are on the trailing side when you X rotate them.

 

[tomcat27]

foolish to replace? not at all. wet weather performance degrades well before the wearout limit anyway. the fine cracking around the bead may not bother me - but I am guilty of replacing tires well before their life is over.

 

[Andrew1972]

It is your money.

 

[Hollow]

I have a set of 225/60/16H on our Subaru. Date code on 3 of the 4 is November 2009. I currently have 65,000 plus miles on them (not bad for a 60K tire!) and still have about 6/32 on all 4. I'll be replacing them in the spring unless there is a black Friday/cyber Monday deal I can't pass up due to the amount of surface cracking I'm seeing, so most likely I'll have 70-75,000 on them by the time they are anywhere close to 4/32.

Wet performance is just starting to degrade, but I'd still drive across country tomorrow without much worry.

Probably replacing with Continental TrueContacts in the same size and rating.

 

[Wolf359]

I believe according to tirerack, wet performance starts to degrade once you go below 4/32's. Snow gets worse at 5/32's. So 6/32's shouldn't be that bad. Are they 6/32's all around or just in the center? I would just go the extra 1/32's and get new tires then or get a black friday deal.

 

[JOD]

I ran the same tires to about 90K on my Freestyle, and only replaced them when I tore the sidewall on a rock. The still were at 4-5mm. Insane wear from those tires. They also had some of those same small spider cracks. I kept an eye on them and they didn't get any worse. Wet performance didn't really seem to deteriorate, though I'm not exactly rallying the Freestyle.

I'd reduce PSI by 2 PSI for comfort reasons if it's bothering you and keep running them.

 

[440Magnum]

If it were me, I'd start scanning for sales right now and replace them as soon as the tire you want goes on-sale. Its not foolish to replace them if you've noticed performance starting to fall off.

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted By: Stewart Fan
The MXV4s currently have 55,000 miles on them and are sitting at 6/32 of tread depth. They'll easily blow past the 60K mile warranty Michelin gives them.

I was just in that place last year! I had 60K on my Corolla's MXV4's and over 5/32 depth. It seemed they would last forever but they were getting very noisy, and rain traction had definitely fallen way off.

I decided to wait for a deal, and started checking every day. The deal didn't come right away but Winter was coming, so I bought a set of 4 Winter tires with wheels and put off the All Season issue for a few months. This was something I was planning on doing anyway.

Then DTD had a $100 off $400 and up deal, and my size in Continental Pure Contacts (with EcoPlus!) was exactly $400, so I got them for $300 delivered. I shopped around for the best mount/balance deal locally and found one for under $75 including tax. They were ready just when the Winter tires came off, and I tossed the Michelin's with 64K on them (they are 60K rated tires).

So my advice... start shopping for deals, wait for a really good one.

 

[ryanschillinger]

If you replace tires with 6/32" remaining, bring the old tires home and throw them on Craigslist. You'll probably get $100 for a set of 4 from someone who isn't so worried about them. That would offset the expense of the replacements. Otherwise the tire guy that mounts your new tires is going to take them home and sell them.

 

[SilverC6]

You have to wonder if Michelin tires are just too good.

The mileage they deliver cannot be extracted by normal drivers before the rubber compounds start to degrade.

Is 55,000 miles the perfect tire design goal for folks that put 10,000 miles a year on a vehicle?

That's 6 months in storage before mounting and 5.5 years on the car?

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: ryanschillinger
If you replace tires with 6/32" remaining, bring the old tires home and throw them on Craigslist. You'll probably get $100 for a set of 4 from someone who isn't so worried about them. That would offset the expense of the replacements. Otherwise the tire guy that mounts your new tires is going to take them home and sell them.

Agree.

When I replaced my S2000 tires few years ago, I kept the 2 fronts 225/45-17 with 4-5/32" and sold on Craigslist for $50-60.

The buyer was looking to sell/trade in his Audi and he happened to have the same tire model with 2 tires had same tread depth and 2 bald. He was happy to get same time so he could easily get few $ more for his Audi.

 

[raytseng]

Originally Posted By: SilverC6
You have to wonder if Michelin tires are just too good.

The mileage they deliver cannot be extracted by normal drivers before the rubber compounds start to degrade.

Is 55,000 miles the perfect tire design goal for folks that put 10,000 miles a year on a vehicle?

That's 6 months in storage before mounting and 5.5 years on the car?


On the flipside, review the threads where people are crossing out the new michelin premiers because they only come with 10/32 depth instead of 12/32.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: SilverC6
You have to wonder if Michelin tires are just too good.

The mileage they deliver cannot be extracted by normal drivers before the rubber compounds start to degrade.

Is 55,000 miles the perfect tire design goal for folks that put 10,000 miles a year on a vehicle?

That's 6 months in storage before mounting and 5.5 years on the car?
Too good? Premature dry rotting is never too good. My grandmothers Trailblazer had 3 year old Michelins that Discount Tire replaced for the second time due to dry rotting. Pretty pathetic.

Needless to say, it doesn't have Michelins anymore.

 

[AZjeff]

During those last few thousands your tires are at their worst handling. One can squeeze every last nickel out of them or one can err on the side of safety and "lose" a few miles. Messing around with OCIs is one thing, seeing how thin you can go on tires before you find yourself hydroplaning into the ditch is another.

 

[4wheeldog]

Originally Posted By: SilverC6
You have to wonder if Michelin tires are just too good.

The mileage they deliver cannot be extracted by normal drivers before the rubber compounds start to degrade.

Is 55,000 miles the perfect tire design goal for folks that put 10,000 miles a year on a vehicle?

That's 6 months in storage before mounting and 5.5 years on the car?


That mimics my experience. I have come to the conclusion that I need to buy cheaper tires for my vehicle that doesn't get a lot of miles.

My main DD goes about 30 k a year, so it is still going to get Michelins. I only got 38k miles out of the original Continentals, the Michelins have 57k and are just about halfway done. I expect to replace them around 80k+.......We get a lot of snow, so probably in the fall of '16.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: raytseng
Originally Posted By: SilverC6
You have to wonder if Michelin tires are just too good.

The mileage they deliver cannot be extracted by normal drivers before the rubber compounds start to degrade.

Is 55,000 miles the perfect tire design goal for folks that put 10,000 miles a year on a vehicle?

That's 6 months in storage before mounting and 5.5 years on the car?


On the flipside, review the threads where people are crossing out the new michelin premiers because they only come with 10/32 depth instead of 12/32.


that's 8.5/32 actually if you are going to troll people at least get the basic facts right.

And I am one of the people questioning it.. However I did purchase some this year.

but back on topic. It's your money if they aren't performing its certainly ok to replace them.

As far as the whole tirerack 4/32 rain thing..
That mostly is refering to hydroplaning resistance.
Not actual wet traction loss from the tire compound hardening due to age.

As evidenced by the fact that they used shaved tires in that test.. not old tires.

 

[901Memphis]

I'm sure someone on Craigslist with low funds would be able to snag those used tires up in a hurry. Everytime I put tires on Craigslist they are gone within a week, usually faster

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Stewart Fan
While washing her car the other day I noticed some very fine cracking around the bead on all 4 tires. They've also gotten harder and aren't as quiet as they were when new. Wet weather traction is still great.

Is it foolish to replace them just in the name of comfort?


That depends, frankly, on if it is only comfort, or if there are any safety concerns, and if you are going to go into debt in the interest of "I deserve" philosophies that are so rampant in society.

The only salient discussion here is the first one, so let's go with that. You say faint cracking, which to me is not a big concern at four years. At six years Id say otherwise, but that is a decently long time from now.

If wet traction is still good, which I assume it would be with 6/32 tread, Id say the next thing to consider is the crystal ball on where you'll be in the winter. Im typically of the (relatively baseless) school of thought that if 2/32 is legal limit, 4/32 is good in terms most all conditions. So the question becomes if you think youll be at 4/32 or less through the end of the winter.

if you can be in the 4/32 window through the winter, and depending upon how wet your summers are, I personally would run through the winter and then play it by ear for the following year to see where I change out the tires (but probably before the following winter).

That's just me. Im cheap but I would find it wasteful to scrap these tires now regardless. If it were two years from now Id say the opposite though...

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: raytseng
Originally Posted By: SilverC6
You have to wonder if Michelin tires are just too good.

The mileage they deliver cannot be extracted by normal drivers before the rubber compounds start to degrade.

Is 55,000 miles the perfect tire design goal for folks that put 10,000 miles a year on a vehicle?

That's 6 months in storage before mounting and 5.5 years on the car?


On the flipside, review the threads where people are crossing out the new michelin premiers because they only come with 10/32 depth instead of 12/32.


that's 8.5/32 actually if you are going to troll people at least get the basic facts right.

And I am one of the people questioning it.. However I did purchase some this year.

but back on topic. It's your money if they aren't performing its certainly ok to replace them.

As far as the whole tirerack 4/32 rain thing..
That mostly is refering to hydroplaning resistance.
Not actual wet traction loss from the tire compound hardening due to age.

As evidenced by the fact that they used shaved tires in that test.. not old tires.


The Premier A/S are 8.5/32. The new LTX version is 10.