How old are your tyres?

[flappist]

Now as most of us are car enthusiasts (note I said most, some appear to be care haters) we would tend to chew through tyres on a fairly regular basis with two years being a LONG time.

On the weekend I drove my mum down to the sunny coast and as her 7 year old car had less than 10,000km and could do with a decent run we took it.

Distance travelled 400km
Max speed attained 110km/h

Interesting events:

One tyre (on the rear fortunately) exploded.
One tyre (on the front) had a major belt shift causing "interesting" vibrations and steering.
One tyre had a bubble on the inside.

The car had been serviced three days before and the tyres rotated with no sign of any problems.

So if you have a car that does not get driven much or friends/relations in the same situation it migh be a good idea to check out how old their tyres are as they seem to fall apart after six years.

[Rodge]

Hey Flappist. Interesting and little known fact is that the rubber in tyres dries up, hardens and becomes inflexible.

Extract from my M Benz manual. I am paraphrasing....All tyres including the spare should be replaced every six years regardless of distance driven.

[mik]

i had a similar experience Flappist, years ago i bought some old valiant wheels from a wreckers to put on while a was painting up and modding the engine in my v8 ute , they had very good tread and looked very good nick all round, also there where no signs while driving, just as i pulled out to overtake at 100 kph ish the tread on the rh front delaminated and about 3 feet of steel belt was whipping around, it tore out the headlight wiring destroyed the gaurd, supports etc in seconds, i really had to hang onto it to keep it straight, my offsider in the car thought the engine blew it made so much noise, clean undies and lesson learned for me.

[kypez]

Originally Posted by Rodge

Extract from my M Benz manual. I am paraphrasing....All tyres including the spare should be replaced every six years regardless of distance driven.

Interesting cause the rear tyre on our E Class blew its side wall and the tyres were 5 years old with 25,000kms on them. Replaced all 4 shortly after.

[Rodge]

That's not many km's for 5 years ownership. Does anyone else see the link withe the Op's post which is quite "an event" all at once. Perhaps lack of driving exascerbates the inflexability problem ?...he thinks wondering out loud if 33,000 km's and four years old in my S Class is absolutly 100% safe ?

For some strange reason I don't think I'll have a longevity issue with my other car

[ebxr8240]

Yes but it seems some damage to the tyres caused issues as well..

[Turboconvert]

agree with rodge. You can drive your car a 1000k a year for 6 years, have not done a single burnout or skid on the tyres in that time and you still have to replace them. About a year ago I was staying over at my brother in laws for my holidays and while he was at work he asked me to replace the tyres on his verada. The tread was still over 50% but because they were about 6 years old the walls of the tyres had started to crack. Now they were only small cracks and you had to look hard for them they were still there because the type of rubber that wheels are made of and the manufactoring process, they have a litterall life span of 6 years, regardless of useage and distance travelled.

People dont really consider this or even know of a tyres lifespan normally because they wear out from useage long before the age starts to show.

[aussie muscle]

i saw a thing on TV where they were complaining that many tires were almost at their used by date before they were even sold. i think it may have been posted on this forum.

[DJR-351]

So do you think the original era tyres on the unrestored 1928 Harley Davison we have might be a bit iffy..?? there a bit flat but still have heaps of tread on em, a bit of air and some tyre black and they will be like new......

[EFFalcon]

picked up my pop's AU I Forte a few years ago from Sydney, had 25,000km's on it.

original tyres.

drove from sydney to melbourne
no worries

nail the throttle, those hard bastards ripped up easy.

boring story, but true.

sold the car shortly after, was full of rust :(

[Jim Goose]

A few yrs ago there was a story on old tyres, 6 to 8 yrs seems to be the general consensus that tyres should be replaced no matter what.
There is a 4 didgit number on the sidewall of all tyres which give you the date they were made... first two is the month, last two is the year.

[vztrt]

Never had tyres on a car long enough to worry about time.

[84xespac]

Originally Posted by DJR-351

So do you think the original era tyres on the unrestored 1928 Harley Davison we have might be a bit iffy..?? there a bit flat but still have heaps of tread on em, a bit of air and some tyre black and they will be like new......

Nah they'll be crap so ya better just give me the bike for the sake of ya own safety

[XW 393]

A question, but no poll?

[ILLaViTaR]

I had some rears with the wires showing for months which was very very dangerous. Eventually they split along with my radiator as I got stuck down a steep gravel rd and basically had to do a 40 second burnout to get back up.

I'll be putting a new set on my new car I just bought

[Franco Cozzo]

Boss's mother in law has a 1996 Festiva with less than 30,000km on it and factory original tyres. I keep telling them to replace them, "But they're fine, waste of money"....

Not good.

[Jim Goose]

In keeping with the tyre theme.... several years ago (2008) two of our trucks in our section (RAAF) had front tyre blowouts in a quick succession.
The tyres were both the same brand and the manfacturure of the tyres was notified.
The manufacturer sent a rep to see of all our trucks (Mack R series) and then also recommended more reps to see a few more defence vehicles.
They found a few startling things....

A lot of the tyres on our Macks were considered "old".... 5yrs and older.
A lot of the tyres were also dangerously under inflated.
And to top it off, a lot of our vehicles sat idle for too long.
They concluded that the blow outs were caused by a number of factors, not a manufacturing fault.
Tyres which sit under inflated for too long causes damage to the tyre sidewalls and the tyre then becomes "out of round".
Eventually the sidewall gives way.
Having old tyres sit for too long (as someone stated in this thread) dries them up and they become brittle etc...

Defence then directed all of our truck tyres on ever vehicle and in our warehouse be audited. Anything over 6yrs old (from memory) was to be removed and disposed off.

[svo supporter]

This sort of info has been posted on the forum over the last 12 months. There have even been members that have claimed there's nothing wrong with using old tyres. They have also claimed that tyres sitting can't cause any problems, yet we have a member here saying that tyres can go out of round from sitting.

What do you believe?????

Just for the record. Yep, 5 years is the limit for tyres and yep tyres sitting can end up with flat spots and cause vibration issues.

[Sam_Boss260]

I had that happen to me last year. Tyres were less than a year old with around 11,000 kays travelled. I noticed that the fronts had all these tiny cracks on them. Story ends with me driving from Toowoomba doing 100 kms per hour and the front left tyre disintegrates.

Went back to the tyre shop with receipt and they called the rep. Got two new tyres for $80 each. Considering they are over $250 a tyre I was happy. The rep said there was something wrong with that batch. Maybe they were just old....

[jaydee]

You can tell how old your tyres are by reading the date stamp on the side wall.
As an example 2310 means 23rd week of 2010.
Not all tyres have this stamp, but most do.
After 6 years you should be cautious of the integrity of the rubber which diminishes over time like anything else does.

[Jimmyd]

10 year old tyres, overtaking manouvre = this.....









had only done a few kays too.. replaced all tyres imeadiately - seriously not worth the risk

[Revolver]

I never had a problem with tyre age. The maximum amount of time I've had tyres on a car is only 16months max. Which on that brand & model of tyre was weird. They were Bridgestone Potenza GIII's the most I had ever gotten out of them was just over 12 months. The last set before they went out of production went for 19 months. I was shocked, with an increase in millage per week.

My current bridgie's have been on since april last year. Looks like they will be due for a change in sept/oct. Maybe later at 900/1000k per week.

[TheZHLANE]

Few months old

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by TheZHLANE

Few months old

Without sounding smart... but a few months from purchase?
or have you checked the actual date of manufature?

Last time i bought tyres they were 6 months old already, prior to that the last lot of tyres were already 2yrs old...but sold as "new".

[Ryan]

Mine are about a year old. The tyres before were about 5 years old, but the car wasn't being used a great deal.

Unsure how many Ks these ones have done though.

[Riksta]

Originally Posted by svo supporter

This sort of info has been posted on the forum over the last 12 months. There have even been members that have claimed there's nothing wrong with using old tyres. They have also claimed that tyres sitting can't cause any problems, yet we have a member here saying that tyres can go out of round from sitting.

What do you believe?????

Just for the record. Yep, 5 years is the limit for tyres and yep tyres sitting can end up with flat spots and cause vibration issues.

I'd rather be safe than sorry and replace them even if the tread is quite good.

That being said, my cars seem to get used often enough that they wear down before five years is up anyway. Although the LTD may sit for a while yet...

[monte.b]

i just replaced the original dunlop tyres on my ute ,got 80,000kms out of them in nearly 3.5 yrs ,bloody good tyre ,i run them on about 26psi ,unless i have a load in the back ,most tyre places reckon 36pi is the go but i disagree ,radials are built to move around a bit in the walls if you have too much pressure in them they ride hard and corner terrible ,thats my theory anyway ,and the proof is in the result ,they all still had tread when replaced

[marlin351]

dont do many km so dont change tyres often. Just replaced last year a set of 20 year old all terrains on my 4wd and on my boat trailer which carries over two ton just replaced the original tyres which were made in 1993. Both these old sets of tyres carried me to my annual holliday destination which is 1500km away. Have seen new tyres fail on other vehicles.correct inflation is of the most importance.

[Spudz27]

I may have to check mine after this thread. I am still on the set of tyres that came on the camry 2yrs ago when I purchased it. The Fairmont should be o.k, they were pretty much brand new when I got the car. The Fairmont has Goodyear Excellence tyres all round (not sure on cost to replace those) and the camry has Firehawk Wide ovals. I just checked and neither car have dates on them and the camry is almost on the marker anyway.

[svo supporter]

Originally Posted by jaydee

Not all tyres have this stamp, but most do.
.

All tyres are date stamped. Even 40 year old ones