I was just told by a national chain tire company that my rear wheel tires needed to be replaced. He said the struts were leading to dry rot. He showed me the rot, and it was on the tread along the inner half of the tires. The cracks were evident, but they were not in the grooves and you couldn’t see into the cracks. I am about to drive about 1,000 miles on a trip. Do I really need to replace both the rear tires and struts, or is this a hussle (like my gut is telling me)?
Mileage on the tires and age of tires would be important to know in answering this question.
struts have nothing to do with dry rot…age and uv exposure …
Agreed, but wanted more info before making any determination.
sorry–that’s obviously important info. The car is a 2000 Toyota Solara with 103,000 miles. The tires are 2 1/2 years old. I’m not sure how many miles are on the tires, unfortunately. If I had to guess, I’d say around 30,000 miles. And I just completed a 1,000 mile trip from DC to Ft. Lauderdale two months ago. Getting ready to do the trip in reverse next week.
If it was me I would skip it all and take the trip, making sure I had a spare just in case. ( based on the assumption tire tread depth is good and no cupping or unusual wear patterns)
If he actually said “the struts were leading to dry rot” he lied. No possible connection, do not give him your money.
He did actually say that and gave me the hard sell, which turned on my BS alarm. Thanks everyone for the advice.
The tyres have a manufacture coded date of manufacture. Assuming they were not old when they were installed or if they were exposed to a lot of sun and ozone, they should be OK.
If those cracks were actually just small ripples, they might have been caused during manufacture and may not be anything to worry about. Cracks are usually only bad when they are in the sidewall of the tires. People are stealing a bit more these days and a tire dealer could do the same. Do that trip in drive, you can’t see as well in reverse.
Yeah, but reverse might be better since you can’t go quite as fast, and I think sight isn’t that big an issue if you can use your mirrors as opposed to looking over your shoulder, especially when your mirrors are set to ensure that you have no blind spots with the exception of directly behind you, the whole "looking over your shoulder is complete BS, you should only do that if you can’t reverse your eye-hand coordination for using the mirrors.