Was washing my other car and noticed the right front sidewall had two cracks.
I've never had this happen before. The tires are Nitto NT555s - 235/35/19.
Any ideas why this happened? Is it safe?

 

do you use armor all on your sidewalls?

 

I'm not a fan of Armor All -- won't use it. I only use Meguiar's or Tire Black on a weekly basis.

 

This thread needs some photos.

 

^^will try and post them later. Until then, one is a hairline crack about 3" long.

 

Not good at all.

 

How old are tires [DOT date of manufacture code on sidewall]?

Some tires spend more than half their useable life in warehouses, on boats, and then back in wholesaler and retailers .

 

Nitto tires are garbage, so it doesn't suprise me..... Once you start using Armor All these are some of the reasons why you can't stop using it. Same thing with your dashboard overtime, the heat and cold will expand and contract the rubber. If proper lubrication (armor all) isn't applied during this process cracks can form. Just watch out for bubbles starting to form close to or on top of the crack. if this starts to happen you will need a replacement tire, preferrably not Nitto. (good dry traction tire, but poor quality design)

 

those tire dressings probably ruined your tire prematurely.

 

my friend rode with something similar for a few k miles... crazy ***

 

Thanks for the responses. Here's the pic, but you can barely see it. The tires have been on the car for about 15k ; I bought them new with the wheels about two years ago. I thought it was only a myth that dressing caused rubber to crack. Anyway, isn't the crack considered a manufacturer's defect?

 

Difficult to tell from the photo, but the defect may be superficial. Plenty of road debris that will have similar results.

Keep an eye on the crack. See if it get larger.
Keep your speed below 100 MPH.

 

It could have also happened due to mounting/dismounting the tire, or driving on it while under-inflated. Time to replace it. Don't risk it...

 

Went to Discount Tire this morning and had the manager check it out. He said it was a cosmetic crack and nothing to worry about. The tires were manufactured in 03 (bought them in 11/03) and have almost 30,000 miles on them. Indicated tires tend to crack with age. He was surprised I still had decent tread. I guess I'll swap them out when they hit the wear bar.