Replace two tires or four?
 

My 2008 FEH has 85,000 miles and is up for its annual safety inspection. I bought the vehicle over five years ago.

It has the OEM Continental EcoPlus tires, and only one of the front tires is showing a slight exposure of the wear indicators. The rear tires look only half-worn at most, and I would not ordinarily consider replacing them. This is a FWD model.

All four tires are showing small cracks (about 1/2" long) among the treads.

What would you do? Replace just the front two, or all four?

Re: Replace two tires or four?
 

You have to replace all four tires due to the cracks developing. This is a safety issue that your life may depend upon.

Re: Replace two tires or four?
 

Thanks BillyK, Now I have to decide what to buy for replacements since the oem tires are no longer available. Guess I'll be doing some reading of the existing threads here.

Re: Replace two tires or four?
 

Took the FEH to the local Ford dealer today for an oil change and the VA state inspection.

The service manager told me that the tires were OK. I questioned him about that, and he believed that the wear indicators were not exposed, and that the tires had a lot of thread left, which they do. He didn't think that the cracks were significant.

Boy, he sure threw away an easy sale, as I was prepared to buy new tires. Seeing as I put almost 20K miles on the vehicle every year, I think that I will re-assess the issue in another six months.

Can the oem tires really last for 100,000 miles?

Re: Replace two tires or four?
 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=30

Article on TireRack.com about cracks. May or may not be serious.

If I had tires that old with, that many miles starting to crack, I'd replace them. I've been completely satisfied with the Michelin Latitude Tours I replaced the Contis with.

Re: Replace two tires or four?
 

I have over 93,000 miles on my Conti's on my '08 FEH. I expect them to make 100,000 miles before I replace them. That said, if I lived in a colder climate with ice/snow, I would have changed them earlier for added traction in those situations.

No signs of cracking and I'm not down to the wear bars yet. I also haven't had a problem with tire noise that some report with the Conti's. Guess I got a good batch.

I do rotate the tires every 10,000 miles. Wear is uniform across the tread on all 4 tires. I have had to have a few patches put in for road debris punctures but that's not the tire's fault.

Re: Replace two tires or four?
 

Remember Chris, you have the newer body and frame style than the '05 - '07 FEH. The alignment in the older models was adjusted to prevent rollovers with inside tread wear problems. Our model has a changed suspension and is more improved and the alignment has been corrected. I recall GPSman1 said his Latitude Tours didn't last very long and that may be because of his '05 FEH had this same alignment issue. My '05 FEH drove me crazy with tire noise with the Contis after 50,000 miles.

The manager at Goodyear told me back in '05 that all Escapes had this same wear problem on the inside of the tires. I had my '05 FEH aligned at Goodyear and had them check it again when I notice the inside wear problem. Since that time, I've read many post about this same issue. After raising my tire pressure to 50psi, the Contis started wearing better.

GaryG