2013 Ford Fiesta Tire Dry Rot

Maintenance/Repairs
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21

Hankook makes a wide variety of tires. Years ago when my tire supplier started handling them I was hesitant, but unless I used their lower level products, I was always happy with the wear and handling they provided for the price.

20 years ago I was selling Goodyear tires and they introduced a new “lifetime treadwear” tire called the Infinitred. It was a replacement tire, aimed at those people looking to replace the Goodyears that came as original equipment on their cars. They were supposed to last the lifetime of the car, meaning only as long as the original owner kept the car. I think they figured that by the time a car needed another set of $$$ tires the owner would just trade the car in.

They promised treadwear of up to 100,000 miles, and they just might have lasted that long. They were hard as rocks and made a car ride like something out of The Flintstones.

1 Like
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Just so everyone understands:

Rubber deteriorates over time. In other words, the cracking is inevitable - the only question is how fast will the cracks turn into bad ones. That’s why there is a 4 year warranty limit on this type of condition.

The ones in the video aren’t too bad, and it is good the Ford dealer caught them. The OP now has time to decide what to do.

Plus, this type of cracking is more an indicator of condition of the rubber inside the tire. The cracks themselves do not result in a failure - the cracks indicate how badly deteriorated (or not) the rubber near the belts is - which is likely where the failure will occur.

And the warranty would only cover the tires on a pro-rated basis - not free replacement. This is a wear item with a limited life span.

So I think the 25% offer is more than fair - all things considered.

3 Likes
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@CapriRacer is THE expert here on tires. I, as well as others agree, buy a new set of tires.

I have had a few sets of Korean made Khumos and have found them decent enough tires although our Saab tended to wear them funny. Never owned a set long enough to dry rot. A set of Cooper tires that rotted, but no others. I have owned a couple of sets of Korean made Hankooks that absolutely rocked but I bought them for dry weather traction, not for wear.

I’m surprised I didn’t see the obligatory “Go to Tire Rack’s website” comment, so I will say it. Go to tirerack.com and put in your car and search for new tires. You don’t have to buy from them, just read the reviews and the ratings to find the best brand and model for you. Quiet, long lasting, good riding tires, I’d guess would be your choice.

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You missed it, but it’s worth repeating. And I look at their tire tests first, peoples’ comments second.

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We have a guy at work that has a tundra. Keep in mind I think his payment on that beast is something like 500+ a month. Well he needed tires on it and ended up going with the cheapest tires he could possibly find, I think they were called Desperados. They were made in china which I found suspect, but he bragged about his deal he got.

Turns out he was always having balancing issues with them, they would balance fine on the balancer, but it seems they figured out that at highway speeds the tires would not keep their shape and developed alot of runout.

We heard his complaints on the junk tires for the 30,000 miles or so he had them. Next time he got coopers.

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Also, some tires are quieter than others. So if road noise is a concern be warned.

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Like I said before, I needed tires on my Rivera but needed white walls and didn’t plan to keep the car much longer. The tire shop fixed me up with some no name tires. I assume they were from China but was really never able to tell who made them. At any rate they were very good tires. Quiet and had good wet and snow traction. I had no problem for the 30 or 40K I put on them. I’d always used Goodyear on the car but was happy with the no names. I think they were around $50. Still I’m very wary of any of the non US tires but rely on the tire shop. Just saying you don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money to get reasonably good tires if you have a good dealer.

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[quote=“CapriRacer, post:22, topic:94377, full:true”]
Just so everyone understands:

Rubber deteriorates over time.[/quote]This is a better way to describe the situation. “Dry rot” more properly refers to deterioration of wood caused by a fungus (which, ironically, requires moisture), or the fungus itself.

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I had a set of Continentals on my brand new Camry do the same thing. IMO 25% off junk is no bargain. I replaced them with a set of Yokohama Avids and never looked back. Why throw good money into a situation that may repeat itself?

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I also had a bad experience with OEM Continentals on my Toyota.
According to CapriRacer the OEM tires are made specifically for the carmakers and are unlike any aftermarket model.
So I’ve recently taken another chance with a set of Conti’s that are highly rated on TireRack.
If the OP can replace his OEMs with some better Kuhmos at 25% off that would be decent.

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I’ve had terrible luck with Continentals. I put a set of four on my ol’ pickup once and could not get them to roll smooth no matter what I did. I ended up making the tire store (they recommended them) replace the two worst ones with BF Goodys and ultimately replaced the other two with BF Goodys too, giving me my nice smooth ride back. I had that truck for 11 years and that was the only time I ever had a vibration problem with it. I wouldn’t put Contis on a vehicle again if you gave them to me for free… and included the mounting and balancing. :expressionless:

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Conti does make excellent bicycle tires. Been using them for 20+ years biking to work.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed with these car tires.
I looked at the consumeraffairs website, there were:
110 complaints about Kuhmo
418 complaints about Continental
151 complaints about Yokohama (my last set)
335 complaints about Michelin
313 complaints about Goodyear

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You have to adjust those numbers by the total number of customers or tires per brand in order to compare them.

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Interesting. I guess my problems with Contis weren’t unique.
Hope yours work well for you.

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I can echo that sentiment!
The OEM tires that came on my 2011 Outback were Continentals. I don’t recall the exact model name, but it was… something or other…“Contact”
Right from the beginning, I had a problem with severe high-speed vibration that was obviously a tire-related problem.
The dealership would balance the tires, and there would be an improvement , but the problem was still there.

Finally, after speaking with the dealership’s owner, he mentioned that the technical folks at Subaru Corporate had advised all of their dealerships to buy and install the new Hunter GSP9700 Road Force balancing equipment, because they were experiencing so many complaints similar to mine–and all from folks with those damned Contis on their new cars! So, I brought the car in as soon as they got the new equipment, and it was like magic.

Problem eliminated…or so it seemed.
For reasons that I cannot fathom, those Conti’s wouldn’t “hold” their balance for more than a few thousand miles, and then they would have to be put back on the GSP9700 for another temporary cure.

Finally, when the tread got down to ~6/32, I just decided to dump the Contis, even though I could have gotten–maybe–10k more miles out of them.
Costco was having a sale on Michelins, so I had them install a set of Michelin Defenders, and…what a difference!
Besides eliminating the high-speed vibration problem, the Defenders have superior dry road handling, superior resistance to hydroplaning, a much better ride, are somewhat quieter, have less “steering effort”, and yielded a slight improvement in gas mileage.

I am not exaggerating when I say that the car feels like a vastly improved machine by simply switching from Contis to Michelins.

A few months later, my friend wanted to replace his Goodyears because they had become so incredibly noisy.
Like me, he could have gotten a lot more use out of those Goodyears, but the road noise was making it very uncomfortable to ride in his car.
I took him to a tire shop that had a good price for Michelin Defenders, and as we were driving away from the shop, he immediately noticed the reduction in steering effort with the Michelin Defenders.
Once we got up to speed, he was astounded at how quiet they were and how smoothly they rode, and as time went on he also noticed the improvement in handling.

I am a “convert” to Michelins, and I believe that my friend is also.

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I’m sensing the opportunity for preferred tire cage matches…in this corner…representing Michelins…the venerable Veeee DEEEE Ceeeeeee! His opponent, in the opposite corner… representing Kumho… the original, the only, OHHHH Peeeeeee! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

ended up going with the cheapest tires he could possibly find, I think they were called Desperados.

Ironic name. Is that Spanish for- need something I can’t afford?

2 Likes
37

I have to point out that the Michelins I bought for my current car are not the first Michelins that I have owned.
My '74 Volvo had OEM Michelins, and when I finally got rid of that POS car, the original Michelins were still on the car, and with 76K on the odometer, I estimated that they had at least 15k more safe miles left in them. Truthfully, the seats and the Michelins were the only good things about that Volvo.

Years later, my first Outback came with OEM Michelins, and–similarly–those tires lasted for ~90k miles, while still retaining excellent performance.
I have also used Michelin winter tires on two cars, and was extremely happy with them.

Over the years, I have used Goodyears (decent), Yokohamas (very good), Firestones (meh!), BF Goodrich (an excellent compromise between price and performance), Bridgestones (fair–at best), Continentals (never again!), and–of course–Michelins. With the exception of OEM tires over which I have no choice, from now on I will stick with Michelins.

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I have Continental PureContact with EcoPlus Technology tires, and I am quite satisfied with them. IIRC, @VDCdriver had some variation of ProContact tires. I would buy my tires again, but will read tests of grand touring all seasons at Tire Rack and any other reputable source that runs a comparison as Tire Rack does before buying tires.

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That’s what I have (keeping those fingers crossed!).
My '75 Civic came with Michelin XZX tires.
At 70+K miles (!) they had plenty of tread, but the rubber was hard and cracking and they were getting slippery in the rain.
A spin-out convinced me it was time for new shoes.

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I always used Goodyears on my diesel but once decided to save some money and put a set of something from the farm store. I think they were Continentals but just can’t remember. 60-70,000 miles later though when I needed to replace them, the cost per mile for the cheap tires was actually more than the cost per mile for the more expensive Goodyear tires. So it was back to Goodyear again. I got anywhere from 90-110,000 miles on a set of Goodyear tires with the 15" wheels and never had a sidewall issue or failure.