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just noticed this today, now that the snow is practically all melted..
How does this happen?...don't remembr hitting anything...just went thru a period of alot of snow.
Tire pressure is fine... these are Kumho Ecsta AST's... the tires and wheels will be 2 years old this April. I have the repair/replace certificates on all 4 tires from Discount Tire.

Will be taking in this week, but what will they tell me?.. I know they usually repair any problem, as long as it's not on the sidewall... but will they just replace 1 tire?...won't this put my wear and handling out of wack with just 1 new tire?.... or will they tell me I need to buy new tires?

i bet a piece of ice did it. They will replace the tire; as long as the tread on all the other tires is still decent it wont make that much difference on handling. i would put the two rear tires on the front though.

i had 1 tire that they couldn't fix and they replaced it no problem but make sure you tell them to put the shorty valves in (mine looks funny with three shorties and one regular valve stem)

stopped in and had the tires rotated...had 2 different guys look at the cut, and both said it is just cosmetic damage... not affecting anything... was gonna make some kind of deal about it, but they also pointed out that all tire are getting worn anyway... can start to see the wear bar...so I'm just gonna go thru the Spring and Summer and get something a little more expensive in the Fall

Guess you get what you pay for... these were one of the cheapest tires at the time I bought my rims. Don't know, not real impressed with these Kumho's... counted it up and it's 2 years and 18k miles and they are pretty worn

There is no such thing as cosmetic sidewall damage, imo.

From the look of your pic the tread doesn't look too bad, guess it's a little different across the whole tread.

Isn't cosmetic damage a fancy word for tire failure in wich you could call the company of the tires and tell them what happened and they can most likely send you a new tire..


And your tire tread does look good from that little piece that I can see.

Cosmetic damage would mean that the "looks" of a piece are damaged. They are saying that it isn't dangerous and won't reduce performance. But honestly A crack in a tire would worry me no matter what.

I havnt seen any ASTs do this so I dont think its a manufacturing defect (i.e. Sidewall crack or torque crack as its called, Old BFG A/Ts had an issue bach in the day). Chances are you hit something in the road that cut the sidewall up a bit. As long as the crack (so slice in your example) doesnt go down to the reinforcement cords in the sidewall then its fine. If you can open the crack and see white cords then it needs to get replaced. Otherwise it wont cause any harm and isnt structural.

To me it looks pretty shallow and will be ok. If it causes any issues down the road get it replaced via the cert program at DTC. However they do have a point. What are you going to do with one new tire and three worn tires. If you are due for replacements then get all four at the same time. It there is some tread left they may give you some credit for them.

IMO The Kuhmo ASX is far better then the AST.

I agree with Frank. Anything wrong with the sidewall of a tire would seem like more than just cosmetic. In fact ANY damage to a tire would be more, since a tire failure can lead to some very bad things. Weird.