Hello,

I replaced my the tires in my '03 TL in March 2009 and got replacement tires, since I was pretty happy with the original MXV4's I decided to stick with Michelin.

I hadn't really noticed this, but a buddy of mine pointed out the sidewalls are cracking. I still have a fair amount of tread left.

I was just wondering if anyone else had similar problems with Michelin MXV4's. In some of the forums I have read that Michelin's tire quality has gone down and that they have "redesigned their sidewall construction to have more of a shock absorber effect on the ride to be smoother."

I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced similar problems. Also do you think it's a safety issue with small sidewall cracking?

Thanks,

Jeff

P.S. Got my tires at Costco, anyone had any luck with pro-rated warranty coverage on tires?

 

Found a good picture of a sidewall cracking chart..

http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=13769

 

what was the date they were built?
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=11

Cracking info
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=30

 

Have you ever applied any tire shine stuff (such as Armor All) to the tires ?

 

Yes! I'm a bodyshop estimator and have seen these exact tires do it more often than most any other I can remember. Others do it too, don't get me wrong. Its weird though that you would ask about these tires specifically. I can not answer WHY though. I've just noticied it A LOT.

 

It couldn't hurt to ask a michelin dealer to try and warranty them. We've had somewhat less prestigious companies than michelin warranty purely cosmetic cracking at my shop. Just for customer satisfaction.