Today, I removed my snow tires and reinstalled my Summer tires. When I was putting the fronts on, I spotted what appears to be the start of a split around the circumference of the tire. I'm not absolutely sure, because in the grooves of the tire, there also appear to be three lines of molding flash from when the tires were made. What looks like a split is right along these lines.
They are Michelin Pilots with less than 15k miles on them.
What do you think?
Its quite a bit early to dry rot. My guess is the tire company may be at fault for that one. Just had them off over the winter?
As for your question, who knows until they blow?
How old are the tires (Build date)?
I have to check. I suspect that they're about 5 years old.
Daily driver? Are you racing on them?
Semi-daily driver. No racing.
I have a set of Michelin MX4 somethings that came with my last daily driver. It was starting to dry rot a little at just shy of 3 years when I got the car and are being replaced at less than 4 years because they are starting to chunk due to dry rot. I am not impressed, they have lots of tread left, but appear to be ready to go at any time. It looked like your tires do now when I first got them. Spread fast for me.
Date code is 0806, which should be the last week of Feb, 2006.
Well, they could be rotting/splitting. Keep a full size spare and don't be surprised if it blows out. Or you could get new tires.
In order to really assess the tire condition I highly recommend doing a long smoky burnout and see if the splitting has worsened. If condition has worsened, buy new tires. If they stay the same, buy new tires because now there's likely no tread left. 
Woody wrote: Date code is 0806, which should be the last week of Feb, 2006.
6 years for a summer tire is an eternity. How are they stored in the winter? Do they see anything below freezing? Cold temps + age = dry rot.
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