Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
First, I think Michelin tires are more prone to cracking than other brands. I think that is because they use harder rubber compounds in certain areas of their tires.
But I also think those cracks aren't as critical as for other brands because of WHERE the cracks on the Michelin's show up and how superficial they are. Tread cracking and lower sidewall cracking - which is where the Michelin's crack - is NOT a critical area.
This is very interesting. I've posted before about the cracking I've experienced with previous Michelin car tires before (more on that in a second). The cracking has always been circumferentially down near the bead area, and indeed, it appears to be superficial in nature. Is this the lower sidewall cracking to which you refer?
I've had that occur twice on me, both with Michelin car tires. Incidentally, both were OES tires: Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus and Michelin Energy MXV4 S8. I've never had the lower sidewall cracking to occur on truck/SUV tires. I had a set of LTX M/S on a Nissan truck once, and they were at least 8 years old by the date code, but they looked great. The Cross Terrains on our Acura and the Latitude Tours on our CR-V look fantastic still. The Cross Terrains are about 3 years old with about 45,000 miles on them and the Latitude Tours are about 2 years old with about 20,000 miles on them.
Next up will be a set of tires for the Acura, likely a set of Latitude Tours.