Tyre defect, any idea of the cause?

[Gingerbread Man]

A friend noticed this defect on my front tyre today. What might have caused this to happen; Sabotage? Tyre defect?

It's the front wheel on a rear wheel drive car if that makes any difference. No sign of similar on the other side.

[Jonny_693]

It looks to me like you have run over something sharp. I cant think of any other way that would have happened?

[Gingerbread Man]

Yeah, that was a thought. Don't know what it could have been though! Just wondering whether to change it or not. It's only realy in the thread blocks, so I'm not too bothered there, but it is also slightly on the outside edge. That brings a bit of worry.

[cheadle hulme]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Eh?

[Gingerbread Man]

cheadle hulme said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Eh?

Caterham 7, you can see most of the wheel/ tyre.

[Gingerbread Man]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Another idea I thought. The cut isn't a straight line, so maybe two attempts? If I ran over something, you'd think it might be one straight line?


If it is, what a lovely thing to do.

[cheadle hulme]

Gingerbread Man said:

cheadle hulme said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Eh?

Caterham 7, you can see most of the wheel/ tyre.

Ahh thanks. Looks like a stanley knife. As above, non continuous line, thicker than the twerps thought.

[EDLT]

Gingerbread Man said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Another idea I thought. The cut isn't a straight line, so maybe two attempts? If I ran over something, you'd think it might be one straight line?


If it is, what a lovely thing to do.

Unless the thing you ran over wasn't straight. I've seen it on a few cars, none of them open-wheeled.

[Gingerbread Man]

cheadle hulme said:

Gingerbread Man said:

cheadle hulme said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Eh?

Caterham 7, you can see most of the wheel/ tyre.

Ahh thanks. Looks like a stanley knife. As above, non continuous line, thicker than the twerps thought.

Wish they'd cut through it and it's gone bang at them.

Cut in the thread blocks seems not too bad. The slight nick in the top of tyre/ side wall (bottom of photo) is what slight;y worries me.

Think I'll take it down a garage for a second opinion. Annoying as there's plenty of life left in the tyre.

[kambites]

I've seen it happen on cars that couldn't possibly have been slashed. I think it's either a tyre defect or some kind of impact damage or perhaps more likely a combination of the two.

If people are going to slash tyres, they tend to slash the side-walls in my (thankfully limited) experience.

[tyranical]

Gingerbread Man said:

Wish they'd cut through it and it's gone bang at them.

Cut in the thread blocks seems not too bad. The slight nick in the top of tyre/ side wall (bottom of photo) is what slight;y worries me.

Think I'll take it down a garage for a second opinion. Annoying as there's plenty of life left in the tyre.

Choose your garage wisely as 90% of them will say you need a new tyre regardless of if you do or not.

[liquidken]

That looks to be an open tread splice.

The tread is layed onto the tyre as a slab of rubber which which obviously join at some point. This is the lack of adhesion at this point.
The join is typically at an angle which stops the tread lifting off the tyre. Depending on why it's lost adhesion (foreign matter whilst curing etc) you may find that it will wear out after a few hundred miles. It may stay that way until it's worn out.

What tyre is it out of interest?

Edited by liquidken on Saturday 21st May 22:51

[liquidken]

Depends on the tyre to be fair. I don't recognise the tread pattern so am unsure of the manufacturer.

They can normally be returned under warranty for examination. It's a tyre issue so a concession would be applicable. If it's an import tyre (typically cheap chinese tat) then it's back to the tyre shop that supplied it and complain to them. They normally get subsidised to cover warranty costs in lieu of sending back to the manufacturer.

[Gingerbread Man]

Hi again chaps.

It's a Yokohama 21r. Quite a good tyre. I nearly sent an email to Yokohama, but wasn't 100% sure on the cause, so didn't want to accuse.
Shall I pop an email off to them?

[eldar]

I had similar on a tyre, caused by running over a length of binding (the metal stuff, about 1/2 wide) that was kind of knotted and slightly flattened. The tyre was more worn that the OPs, and got punctured.

[LukeBird]

I would do chap.
Just as an interest note, there were some guys on the MX-5 forum who reported of problems with Federal 595RSs with very similar 'markings', check out this pic-



There was no real reason for the 'failures', I think people just put it down to manufacturing defect.

[liquidken]

Thats a textbook example ^^^

I believe they have a UK service centre. If not, they'll have a specifif distributor who will deal with it.
Email they to say you wish to return it under warranty. They can advise how to do it.

[Gingerbread Man]

I'll send off an email.

Cheers folks. Let see what comes of it.