Tires: Tire Sidewall Cracks, vw vanagon, tire failure

Question
Hello,

I have a set of Michelins on my VW Vanagon, that are about 12 years old, pretty much garage kept, and maybe 25,000 miles on them. Lots of tread left, but last week while inspecting them prior to a weekend trip, I noticed some small splits/cracks in the sidewalls of several of the tires. Its a standard van, not the big heavy campers with all the gear and kitchen stuff.

They are the proper, reinforced sidewalls and load range for the van, but the cause, I am guessing, is their age.

The splits are horizontal to the wheels, about midway from the bead to the tread, and the largest, about 1/4 in length, the worst tire has  three of these in the sidewalls. I did slide under and look at the other side of each tire and found no splits.

If I drive with these tires, am I right on the edge of them failing catastophically, or might I get by for a few thousand more miles? (I know, its a judgement and opinion call)  The van gets parked in the winter, and spring is going to be a better time financially, but I don't really want to risk injury to me, or other drivers. Seems that local tire stores only want to sell me new tires, plus, the kids who run the places, aren't even as old as my van, <g> so I think their answers might be a bit skewed towards raw profit.

Should these tires be condemned right away? The longest I ever drive in a day trip is a a few hundred miles. I always check my tires at gas stations and other stops. Just wondering if you can venture an opinion, given this small amount of information.

Does the appearance of a split in a sidewall automatically indicate pending tire failure, and instant replacement?  What is the failure mode? The sidewall doesn't split out, right? Its  when the split tears open to the  bead, and the tire comes off the wheel? Just guessing, and wondering what you can offer :-)

Thanks a lot,

John

Answer
Rather than try to answer each and every one of your questions, let me cut to the chase.

Tires over 10 years old should be taken out of service.  The latest studies show that even if tires are unused, they degrade in performance and could fail long before they show signs of age – and yours are showing signs!