Tires

[joecrna]

And no one mentioned, you shouldn't be running tires over 6 years old. Tsk, Tsk, Tsk!

 

[cobrasvt]

Am I the only one on here who has there new tires turning brown?

So the Michelin website says that the browning is "The color possibly has resulted from the surface migration of the anti-ozone agents, which are added to the rubber to slow down the effects of ozone exposure. Call Michelin Consumer Care at (800) 847-3435 so they can review all options for assisting you." So I call them and they tell me to bring it back to bjs for them to handle. I go to bjs they say that the browning has nothing to do with there warranty and its not there responsibility. So I call Mich again and they say bring it to one of there authorized service dealers. I go to Sears. They look at them and seem confused by this and tell me to just use a tire cleaner. But i insist that I have cleaned them ans spent all this money and this should not be happening. They call Mich and the woman on the phone speaks to me and says its a oil coming out of the tire and to put 1,000 miles on them and keep cleaning with soap and water only and problem should go away if not call back.
So here I am with tires that look like garbage and my pockets out of a lot more money. Im not liking the answers and handling of this by mich. I thought they were a good company. Lets see after 1,000 what they do bc i don't see this problem just going away.

 

[Lube]

Because the "All Terrain" tires have an extra layer in composition. Lack of that layer, combined with poor quality control at Decatur, Il plant lead to the whole Firestorne-Ford fiasco. That layer helps with the recomended lower pressure (it was 28 initially in 1990, now is 30PSI). That low pressure is driven by roll-over safety considerents.
That's why tire manufactures strongly recomend to use All Terain tires. If you install anyting else and you have a problem, they might be not liable since they advised agains them.

Not quite...the Firestone fiasco was caused by a wear issue in the tire mold hinge. Plant maintenance personnel were using the wrong kind of grease on the hinges, allowing the hinges to develope some play (a matter of a few thousandths of an inch) which led to incomplete vulcanizing of the tires. When the tires were in use, this led to the unexplained tread separations. I work for the oil company that found the root cause of the problem.

 

[jevchance]

So the Michelin website says that the browning is "The color possibly has resulted from the surface migration of the anti-ozone agents, which are added to the rubber to slow down the effects of ozone exposure. Call Michelin Consumer Care at (800) 847-3435 so they can review all options for assisting you." So I call them and they tell me to bring it back to bjs for them to handle. I go to bjs they say that the browning has nothing to do with there warranty and its not there responsibility. So I call Mich again and they say bring it to one of there authorized service dealers. I go to Sears. They look at them and seem confused by this and tell me to just use a tire cleaner. But i insist that I have cleaned them ans spent all this money and this should not be happening. They call Mich and the woman on the phone speaks to me and says its a oil coming out of the tire and to put 1,000 miles on them and keep cleaning with soap and water only and problem should go away if not call back.
So here I am with tires that look like garbage and my pockets out of a lot more money. Im not liking the answers and handling of this by mich. I thought they were a good company. Lets see after 1,000 what they do bc i don't see this problem just going away.

Did you try Westley's Bleach White? I used to get browning on my '66 tires (Michelins) and Bleach White took care of it.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Michelin is right- it is called "Blooming" and it is indeed the anti-ozonants leaching out of the tire. Keep cleaning them with Westley's and dressing after. Aerosol based tire dressings can make it worse, as the propellants can exacerbate the look when they combine with the anti-ozonants.

They're also right that it isn't a warranty issue. Tires will vary in look by manufacturer depending on their composition and chemicals in the anti-ozonants. It's just a matter of you needing to clean the tires more often, unfortunately.

 

[jevchance]

FWIW mine did stop browning after a while, but it took a year or two. But my '66 didn't see much road time.