Check your tires if they are older!!

[Custer55]

Just an FYI for anyone with older tires on your car regardless of the mileage. These pictures are of my right rear tire

100_2011.jpg 100_2012.jpg 100_2013.jpg

This tire only has about 20,000 miles on it, but is about 26 to 28 years old. If I remember right they were purchased in 1986 to 1987. I only noticed the defect when the car was up on jack stands. The defective part of the tire is only on 1/4 of the circumference of the tire, and was still holding air. I hadn't driven my 55 yet this year, but by the looks of it I would assume I had been last fall with it like this, although I never felt anything weird the last time I drove the car. Maybe being a back tire just made it less noticeable. These are BF Goodrich Radial TA which many probably have on their cars.
Hope nobody else has the same issue.
Brian

[chevynut]

Why are they worn so badly on the outside versus the inside? That doesn't seem to have anything to do with age.

[Custer55]

That's a good question. Maybe just a defective tire or something, I have no idea. Being a back tire (Plenty of clearance in the wheelwell) you wouldn't think it would be an alignment issue. And the affected area doesn't go all the way around the tire, just about 1/4 of the way around.

[Custer55]

PS This is just the right side tire. The left side tire looked just fine yet although I did replace them both. I did replace the front tires a few years ago because one of them was worn funny on the outside edge. I figured that was just and alignment issue, but maybe it wasn't.
Brian

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

good tip to check out our tires on any of our vehicles, thanks.

[rockytopper R.I.P 5-13-2017]

That looks localized to me like a flat spot from locking up the brakes. Any chance that could have happened while driving in the past 30 years? I'm asking because my daily driver almost got hit head on a few years back and I had to make a maneuver that put me in a backwards skid down the shoulder of the road to avoid it. Lucky I didn't hit any thing but a few months latter I went out to get in car after work and it was flat. Looked just like your picture. This was on a right front tire.

[Rick_L]

Looks to me like a broken belt, resulting in a "tire aneurism".

Michelins used to be notorious for this, may still be, but I wouldn't know since I fired them as a supplier about 25 years ago.

Usually by the time you feel a vibration from it being badly out of balance, it only has 10-20 miles left before a blowout.

[567chevys]

Rick hit the nail on the head

Broken Belt

Sid

[Custer55]

A broken belt sounds like a likely cause to me. That makes sense as to why it's just on one side of the tire. I have never had to lock up the brakes with those tires on the car so I know that would not be the cause. Is belt breakage from a defect in the tire? Poor quality? Does the age of the tires have anything to do with it?
Thanks for the info.

Brian

[Rick_L]

Belts break from a combination of fatigue (mileage) and aging. If they break too soon, then yes it's a quality issue. Those old Michelins I was bad mouthing would have a belt break before the tread wore out - not a good design for me.