5 year old Michelins, with only 15k miles on them. Decreased traction?
 

Hey, guys, I just purchased a 94 C280 with only 41,000 miles. At 26k miles she replaced the oem tires with Michelin MXVs, so they only have about 15k on them. This was in early 2000, though.

I don't see any cracks, webbing, or other signs of dry rot -- however, the wet traction on these tires is absolutely horrible. Not just poor, but really bad. The tread looks like new.

Question: After a period of time, can the rubber "harden" and not grip as well, especially in the wet?

I had already decided to go to the Bridgestone T/A one size larger 205/60 when I replaced them. I believe that time is now.

I used to like Michelins but have stopped buying them because I found them to be lacking in both traction and wear (life). I don't remember if the MXVs are all weather or not but I recall they might be a "summer tread" which has even poorer traction that the M&S models. You might check the tire inflation though as overinflated tires can cause loss of traction.

Personally I have been pleased with Pirellis lately. I have bought P6 for the summer and snows for the winter and have no complaints so far. I was lucky to get 20K out of the Michelins that came with our MBs which is very poor life IMHO. The Pirellis seem to last much longer.

Yes, tread compounds do harden and loose grip as they age. The process is accelerated with exposure to UV light and heat cycles.

The best wet traction is usually available with summer high performance tires, but their traction rapidly degrades as temperatures approach freezing. All season tires have compounds that have a lower "glass transition temperature" so they have better grip at low temperatures, but they are not as good in high summer temperatures.

All season tires also have "sipes" (small slits) to provide more biting edges in snow. The Michelin MXV4 is an all-season tire as the name and tread design implies. Summer high performance tires have large grooves to dissipate water and large tread blocks for stabililty under high loading, but they lack sipes, and this plus the 30-40 degree glass transition temperature yields poor snow traction.

Duke

Just my opinion but I don't think those MXV tires were ever any good. Had them on my 92 300E and I can only decribe them as very dangerous. They were only 3 years old with 20K miles on them and lots of tread left when I decided they were just to dangerous to use so I replaced them with much less expensive Dunlops that are much better overall and work fine in the wet.

That MXV is the only Michelin I ever had that was horrible. I'm a huge fan of Michelin tires, I just think they got it wrong with the MXV.

As far as old tires lacking traction one factor would be the tire being heat cycled many times leaving the rubber much harder with a corresponding decrease in traction. You can tell when you tire was made if you look on the sidewall and read the 4 digit number. For example 3802 would mean the tire was made the 38th week of the year 2002.

Did I make a bad decision when I bought my Michelin Energy™ MXV4® S8 a couple of weeks ago?

Check out post #15:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-benz-performance-paddock/123365-michelin-tire-choices-my-w124-coupe.html?highlight=michelin