The funny thing about not changing tires, as Craig found out, is that old tires will make your $60k super car handle like a ragged out $10k econobox. I don't think there's another single factor that more greatly influences how a car drives than the tires.

Change tires due to age? Absolutely!!

Oh, yes.

Have a set of 12-year-old Blizzaks on spare wheels for my SE-R and they're great snow tires, but I didn't do more than drive around town a bit on them earlier this winter when we had snow. Just put a new set of regular tires on the OE wheels, as I'm not about to trust anything that old at high speed or for long trips, even if they don't look dry-rotted.

When I was 18 I did my first track event at Road Atlanta in my BMW 320iS. I had an unknown-to-me patch in the LF tire turn into a bad leak on Sunday morning, and pulled that tire and rotated them to run the full-size spare on the right rear. It was the original P3 from 1983 (this was in 1993.) Tire came apart in the Esses in my first session that morning. Pretty exciting when you're 18. That was all the firsthand learning I needed when it came to tire quality.

two quick stories
1. When I got the SC, it had a set of tires on the front that looked great, but had poor traction. They had been embalmed in amor-all or whatever. They were absolutely dreadful in wet weather and handled worse than plastic tires that come on those kid's pedal/ electric cars you buy in wal-mart. When I finally got to looking up the date code, they were over 12 years old and the rubber (while it looked good) was hard as a rock. I don't think wolverine's adamantium claws could cut those suckers.

2. I had an original spare tire from a 1976 (77?) 924 blow out on the interstate on me in the mid 1990's. I was a college student and completely unaware of dry rotting issues. After several hours on the road, I heard a "thump thump thump" behind me. Over time the thumping got worse. In my usual manner, I ignored it. Suddenly, the tire exploded. Kapow! The majestic martini 924 :D suddenly went from 60-30 mph but was still controllable. It threw the tread off like a retread, but somehow kept pressure, and I was able to drive it to a gas station to fix the newer tire that had a flat. It was a five turd "brown my shorts" experience. It damaged the wheel well and that immaculate martini livery on the side. Oh well.

Just an FYI -

From 2000 on, the tire manufacture date is a 4 digit code. First two numbers are the week of the year, second two numbers are the year. So 4705 will be the 47th week in 2005. Usually only on one side of the sidewall.

Prior to 2000 most tires (if they were marked), most people used a three digit code and ran under the assumption that tires would be discarded before the end of the decade. So the number 408 would be the 40th week of the 8th year of the decade. You pick the decade... ;)

I have seen runs of tires made overseas (trailer tires) that are new enough they should have been marked, but are definitely missing the marking. I think that's illegal, but guess they can't check everything coming in from overseas.

angela

Exactly. My fronts were 0510...meaning last week of January or first week in February 2010.

My fronts are about 6 months newer than yours. The rears are yet another 3 months younger. It's about time for me to pull the trigger on a new set of tires.

Hate the one side date thing... the date always seems to be on the inside of the tire.
Crawl under with a flashlight.

You will notice the change in grip and handling.