What is manufacturing defect?

There's a well-known anecdote: If you stripped the threads yourself, then your hands are not in the right place, but if your dad did it, then the threads are Chinese. Approximately the same logic often applies to the evaluation of tire quality by many car owners. Meanwhile, there is often no malicious intent to deceive or shift responsibility. Often, car owners simply do not notice the violation of operating rules, and when they encounter damage, they find only one reasonable explanation - it's a manufacturing defect. But this is not always the case. Even, it can be said, this is not the case in the vast majority of cases.

A pneumatic tire is imperfect, and most importantly, it is not a standalone element. Many of its characteristics depend on how it is properly mounted. What loads it is subjected to, whether the recommended internal pressure is maintained, and how it is stored. All this affects the type of damage the tire can sustain. Let's give some examples of when a tire was subjected to destructive effects, but the damage manifested itself a bit later.

1. Contact with GMS fluids
Contact with oils, gasoline, and other GMS is common. But how it can affect the tire depends on the composition of the GMS itself and the components of the tire, as well as how long the rubber mixture was exposed to it. At the same time, the part of the tire that came into contact with GMS does not visually change, but its physical and chemical properties are now different. During operation, the damaged area will have increased wear or a higher likelihood of cracking. One way or another, in most cases, the tire owner does not associate this with contact with GMS that occurred several months ago, if they even know about it.

2. Storage errors
A classic example of violating operating conditions. Insufficient air circulation, exposure to sunlight, excessive moisture. As strange as it may sound, all these factors have a devastating effect on tires if we are talking not about road operation, but about constant exposure to stationary tires. In such cases, a lot depends on the specific model and composition of the rubber mixture. Let's recall that some sports tires can become completely unusable even from minor deformations at low temperatures.

3. Non-compliance with recommended pressure.
Tire pressure is a separate world. That's why many operational damages are related to non-compliance with the recommended tire pressure. Any cracks, peeling, uneven wear, color change, can be associated with non-compliance with internal pressure standards in the tire. It is essential to follow the recommendations of the car manufacturer, as it is the car manufacturer who understands the loads to which the tire will be subjected during operation.

Manufacturing defects do occur. As a rule, these can be identified by experts during a more detailed examination with a full understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships.