Tire Age? Anybody Change Them for Age?

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by Craig T

I just put some air in my front tires and noticed they're almost seven years old. Makes sense with a low mileage 9 year-old car. They still have at least half tread left.

Would you guys change seven year-old tires on a performance car, even though they have tread left?

I would, yes. You don't want this to happen at highway speeds. Notice it has plenty of tread left but they were several years old.

[Esel Mann]

7 year old Kumos, plenty of tread left, car sits in the garage so no sun rot. Two Christmases ago I was driving home on I-4 doing around 65-70 with traffic in the center lane. No hot dogging or lane weaving just simply puttin along. Driver side rear all of the sudden goes ba-boom-boom! This followed of course by the azz-end trying to immediately kick out from me. Took everything I had to get it under control, not collide with anyone else, or put myself in a position where someone then collides with me. Upon finally getting it to the shoulder I see the only thing left of the tire was the side walls. There will never be any procrastination ever again on my part, 5 years tops.

[tcar]

Two words: "Paul Walker".

Besides excessive speed, the very old, hard tires on the Carrera GT were at fault for the Rodas crash.
Heard that it still had the original factory tires on it.

Old tires get hard and slick, even with tread left.


I had an 8 y.o. tire with tons of tread left just fall apart like Esel's... was only going about 40, though.

[Craig T]

WOW! I feel a little stupid now. The car was pushing like a pig in corners, especially throttle on understeer. I read on the Rennlist Turbo forum that Porsche builds in understeer intentionally to make the car safer. I put in more negative camber and a GT2 adjustible rear sway bar before my last track event. That helped a little, but she still pushed. The fronts must have been heat cycled into stone. With the new front tires, she turns in like a go-kart. I can even get some over-steer.

The right rear had a plug/patch, so I ended up replacing them all. That was $1,500 I hadn't budgeted for

[speeder]

Good tires for that car are expensive. Which ones did you go for?

It is like putting the right shoes on a super athlete, though. Maximum effect.

[masraum]

I don't think I've ever had a set of tires last that long. If I did, then yes, I probably would.

[RKDinOKC]

5 years ago, 2011 had a 92 Range Rover. The tires on it when I got it were 92 Michelins by date code with good tread. That's 19 years old. The sidewalls dried out and started cracking. While driving down the highway the rubber finally started falling off the sidewalls. The steel belts kept us from crashing as they maintained the basic roundness as we slowed and stopped. It didn't blow out as much as started hissing.

The tires I replaced them with I also got with the Truck. They were Goodyear Wranglers with 1993 date codes. They still had the stickers on them and the previous owner told me they had been stored in a dark corner of a hanger. They did NOT look dried out and there were no visible cracks in the rubber. Still looked new rode like new when I sold the truck a year later. Mostly sat in my garage except for short trips to the store.

Tires do last longer stored in the dark as UV is the tire killing nemesis.

[Craig T]

Originally Posted by speeder

Good tires for that car are expensive. Which ones did you go for?

It is like putting the right shoes on a super athlete, though. Maximum effect.

Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 235/35ZR19 305/30/ZR19. Huge improvement in handling! Those fronts were seriously greasy.

This car was in Palm Beach FL from new (2008) until 2010. The first owner put 26,000 miles on it. Second owner was in Dallas from 2010 until I bought it in April 2015. I bought it with 28,200 miles, so the Dallas owner hardly drove it. My guess is the original owner put on new fronts right before he sold it.

[Tervuren]

I've got a set of really old tires on a set of Phone Dials.

The grip in wet from those tires is absolutely awful. The grip is figuratively like sliding two pieces of polished granite on each other with an oil film between.

[Craig T]

Originally Posted by Tervuren

I've got a set of really old tires on a set of Phone Dials.

The grip in wet from those tires is absolutely awful. The grip is figuratively like sliding two pieces of polished granite on each other with an oil film between.

Coming from a lightweight hot rod, I was very disappointed in the handling of this car. Now I'm just disappointed that I didn't realize the tires were 7 years old. It feels like I corner balanced it and slapped on some Hoosiers. Now I actually like the car

[onewhippedpuppy]

I never go more than 5 years on tires. I'm frequently amazed how much of a difference replacing "good" tires can make.

[WPOZZZ]

I change tires based on age. I don't drive much, maybe 9k a year, so the pull date comes up before the treads wear down. I try to change at 6 years max, but if there is dry rot, they are replaced sooner.

[Bill Douglas]

I'm concerned that old tires are good tires, but certainly not great tires, as I casually light a cigarette.

[john70t]

I once bought some brand new Kumos for a Honda Civic. A lightweight highway work vehicle.

But less than three years later the tires were out of balance, and almost shredded.
A major safety issue.

I will not purchase Kumos again.

[Charles Freeborn]

Originally Posted by Craig T

I just put some air in my front tires and noticed they're almost seven years old. Makes sense with a low mileage 9 year-old car. They still have at least half tread left.

Would you guys change seven year-old tires on a performance car, even though they have tread left?

Yes. The operative being "performance car". 5 years is the outside for anything you intend to push hard.

[WPOZZZ]

When I met my gf we would go out here and there. She was pretty meticulous about cleaning her car so I sent it to my detailer. When we picked it up she was happy, but that was when I noticed her tires were dry rotted. I told her don't drive it too much as I need to get new tires. I showed her the cracks and she said the car is only 5 years old and has 10k on it. I told her it was not very safe so she needed new tires. After I got her new tires, she told me no guy ever did that for her.

[Joe Bob]

Hell yes, especially trailer tires. Most trailers tend to be over loaded, old tires don't help. 5K pound car, you should have a trailer rated for 10K.....

Dry rot doesn't always show as cracks in the side walls. There is a reason tires are date stamped.

[Tobra]

I figure tires are about as important as anything on the car. It would sort of depend on a few things, with age being an important consideration. I drove on old tires, they looked worse than the date code suggested, but it was sitting outside. Drove the 914 from where it was, to a gas station on the way to my brother's house, put it up on stands, took the wheels in and got some tires, kept the speed down, inside of tire looked okay, but they were hard as a rock. Driving at much over what I would drive in a neighborhood is not something I would do on old tires.

Miata had these Chinese tires on it when I got it, they were about 4 years old. High performance tire, with the primary consideration apparently being long tread life. They had plenty of tread left on them when I replaced them. I hated those tires. Loud, feeble grip, very vocal when in the process of giving up said meager amount of traction. It was a revelation when I put decent tires on it.

Life is to short to drive on crappy tires.

[tcar]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

Tires do last longer stored in the dark as UV is the tire killing nemesis.

NO....

The thing that tires need is to be used. The flexing of the tire distributes the lubricant in the rubber making them last.

Just sitting, that does NOT happen. Whether stacked in the corner or on a garage queen.

The tires become failure points.

Even if they still have stickers on them, they are dangerous.

[livi]

18k miles in 12 years. Changed tires once.