Now here is one that surprised the heck out of me! When I was detailing two of my wheels yesterday I noticed that the inside sidewall, from the rim to about an inch up is showing fine cracking. You know like the kind that you see on old trailer tires because they sit.

Any idea what caused this, or if this will affect the tires? The cracks are pretty small, but they are there.

The tires are Yokohama V4S's that are about 2 years old, maybe 15k on them. Purchased from Tirerack.com and mounted by them on my wheels. I stored them in a dry basement over the past two winters. The inside wall is doing this, but it never really gets any sun. The outside wall still has a nice coating of 303 on it and looks like new.

I never used any wheel cleaners or anything like that, just Meguairs Gold Class car wash, and wax on the wheels. I don't think the inside wall has ever been coated with anything, since it's inside the wheel wells you can't see it.


Any ideas? I really don't want to spend $500 on tires this year.

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2005 Chevy Silverado, white on black.

"Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it."
— John Adams

I am having the same thing happen to me, on my 3 year old Pirellis, the exact same way! Small cracks near the wheel rim on all 4 tires. They are 205-70x14s. Never had it happen before. I have 5000 miles on the tires in the 3 years, from new. Going to see the tire dealer, Discount Tire, and see what they say about it. If there is anything to report, I'll post on it.

My American Cars with American Made Tires, don't do this. I may put Goodyears on it if they need to be replaced. That is if I can find 205-70x14 H rated tires. They are getting hard to find with a speed rating of H or V.

Were the tires next to any electric motors (washing machine, blower fan, etc)?

No they were about 10ft away from the furnace. Gas furnace though, doesn't through any heat out really.

__________________
2005 Chevy Silverado, white on black.

"Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it."
— John Adams

It is cracking typically from the heat from the brake system (rotors&pads) over a course of time from hot to cold hot to cold the rubber starts to dry rot. It is only an issue if the cracks are about 2mm. in width. Don't worry until then.