Recommendations about cracks in my tires

Hi,
I was told by my shop that I should look into getting new tires because it's showing cracks. The cracks are in the tread and between the tread but not the sidewall. I attached a pic below. Tires were put on in '09 (4 years ago), manufacture date says 35th week of 2008 and it's driven 3-5 days a week, so doesn't sit for long periods of time unused. They are ltx a/t 2 michelin tires. Any opinions about how much of an emergency this is? On the pic you can see the wear bar just left of top center and there's plenty left.

Thanks in advance!

 

You definitely need to start thinking about getting new tires. While it's not bad enough that you need to park it til you get new shoes, those cracks are the visible signs of the oils in the tire starting to break down. That can lead to more issues down the road. The cracks usually start around 5-6 years in, which would correlate with when your tires were manufactured.

Michelins seem to have a really bad issue with weather/UV cracking early on for some reason.

 

Alright, good info. I'm contemplating taking advantage of a labor day tire sale this weekend but working on my brakes are another priority. I should probably do both but that's not very budget friendly.

 

I bought a set of michelins off of an rv that cracked hell of lot worse than that. $400 for all six with rims if I remember correctly. They were 7 years old and cracked down the sidewalls, the lasted 4 more years on my dads dually. I wouldn't be too worried, but when you can afford to replace, I would. The last set of michelins ltx at2'sI bought lasted 80,000 miles, and they were showing cracks like yours, but not as much tread.

 

If I'm seeing right from your picture is that showing a lot more wear on the edge than in the center?

Have you been running low tire pressures?

 

Update: My wife took it to discount tire to get new tires but first asked if they thought the cracks were unsafe. He said it looked cosmetic at this point and could go a bit longer- 9 months to a year. I wasn't expecting that from a tire company. So, I ordered brake parts from advanced auto parts which should get here this week. Also on the list is the timing belt, but I won't be doing that on my own!

Thanks for your opinions.

BTW, when I checked the air pressure they were either spot-on or 1 lb low, so not bad.