Hey guys, looking for a bit of advice. When my GTI had it's 1st MOT back in May this year, whilst it passed and had no official advisories, the tester did make a comment that 3 of the 4 tyres were showing signs of cracking on the outer tread blocks, and he said if it got any worse, it
could be an MOT failure next year. Now to be honest, I sort of forgot, but when I was cleaning the car the other day, remembered and had a good look, and sure enough 3 tyres display some quite heavy cracking.
The tyres are all the factory original Pirelli P-Zero's (225x35x19) and all all date stamped 01/18 (car was built in April 18, and 1st registered in May 18). Now I know they are over 3 years old, and have 20k miles on them, and most folk I'm sure would just say replace them, but the trouble is all 3 affected tyres still have nearly 5mm on them (lowest has 4.5mm) so no where near worn out yet and still give decent grip. The reason why 3 have gone and not 4, is that the nearside front tyre was replaced early 2019 following a puncture so that has a different build date. Despite this tyre having done over 13,000 miles itself, it's displaying no cracking at all.
Do you guys think this is a manufacturing defect or just the way the car's geometry is set up (although wouldn't explain why the new tyre isn't affected) ? BTW, it's literally just the outer tread block. The remaining 75% of the tread is perfect and none of the 3 main tread grooves display and signs of cracking around the circumference of the tyre ? I'm fairly certain it's not damage due to chemicals as my tyre shine is water based and I don't cover the inside tread block - just the walls. What do you guys think ?
Pictures below:
