Tires: Dry rot, tire dressings, natural degradation

Question
Hi Barry,

My tires are dry rotting.  I live in Pennsylvannia and in the 2years that the tires have been on the car I have driven the car about 26,000 milesl.  I do not use armor all on my tires.  Is this dry normal?

Answer
Jennifer,

Cracks are the natural degradation effects of rubber, so some cracking is to be expected as a tire ages.  There are 2 questions - 1)  Are the cracks large enough to indicate the tire should be removed?  and 2)  What is causing the cracks to appear early (if that is the case.)

The first question requires a bit of experience to judge, so a good tire guy is important.

But for the second question, here are some things that will cause cracks to appear early:  Insufficient inflation pressure, storage near sources of ozone (electric motors), or sources of heat (furnaces), or sources of ultraviolet light (welding), use of tire dressings, tire age (they may not be old to you, but they might be old), excessive speed (generates heat).

Hope this helps.