On Mon 22 Jul 1996, Jbrucebmw_at_aol.com wrote:

>As I was scrubing the inside of the wheels I noticed some small cracks on the
>inside of the tires where the sidewall ruber meets the meets the tread. On
>three of the tires the cracks ran all the way around. Upon closer inspection

Only after 6 months and cracks only on the inside? All I can deduce are either a wee-bit more +camber coupled with off-optimum tire pressure for the speed and nature of driving on hard corners, especially so with low profile tires <IMHO>. On the other hand, have you check the production batch of those cracked tires? It would be interesting to see if all production numbers fall into a same production batch. There is such a thing as *flawed curing process* during production.

        For Michelin, production info may show something like this...
                WK 309 06-2656-01.... as an example, embossed on the sidewall.

I had an experience - not with Michelin but another - wherein also around 6 mths of use... I detected a *spot ballooning* - where it bulges out along the inner sidewall. It occured on 3 tires - and it checked out they were from same batch and different to the one that hasn't the defect!!! I was lucky - the main distributor sent a rep - and had them replaced for free <grin>

>It's going to cost me $785 . Now lets just hope they can get the tires on
>with out chewing up the rims. (I have already had 9 rims chewed up just from
>mounting tires. I am still looking for 3 replacement rims because the last
>tire shop refused to replace the wheels they ruined.)

It shouldn't get the rims all chewed up, if the proper procedures carried out! For composite alloy wheels, the air-assisted tire extractor/mount machine must be used - especially so when working on low profile tires from 65 Series and below. On top of that, a special lubricant - don't know the industry name - must be applied to assist the extraction/mount. It has a *soapy* feel to it. No water/oil/grease must be used during the mount. And... never allow the good old method of *crow-bar lever* and brute leg-works ever get near an expensive set of alloy wheels! :-) These are mine humble opinions only - advised by my good friend who runs a very techically qualified team in his tire service outlet. Cheers!

>Juan Bruce

• -- chL00I via DeskTopPC West Malaysia. '84 E23 728i '71 Opel Manta SR