Hey Guys,

Tires have a SHELF LIFE. I'm a pharmaceutical Chemist - the drugs that you take have expiration dates, that is because the active ingredient decays over time and most companies don't do stability data for more than 5 years. Apparently, the rubber itself decays over time. Tires that sit on the shelf for more than 6 years are causing lots of issues when they are finally sold. Watch the 10 minute video and give me your feedback!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDgSk5xWkrI


"FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS DRIVE STOCK"

Yea. The rubber drys out, cracks, and hardens. This isn't new information. I have to replaced the tires on my DD because they are dry rotted and one wont hold air.

Ya, that's happened to all of us (trust me I know - my tires are never without tire shine - silicon based products dry the hell out of the tires in time). The fact that you buy a new tire that has been on the shelf for 6 years, and you've had it 2 months and this happens. That's what is interesting to me. An unused tire still goes bad!


"FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS DRIVE STOCK"

I am getting ready to replace tire's on my mother in laws 2008 Honda civic not due to wear/mileage but cracking like a #$^&&*^ and these tires only have 32k but original.When I start seeing hairline cracking in the side wall of a low mile tire that raise's my concern for sure.Btw I do drive a tractor trailer and do not even get me started on the recapping of tires.Nice share of the information.In short I have just last year replaced tires on my 87 mazda while good tread,dry rot and I take NO chances and replaced them with a new version of tire that just came out.My tires had good tread but dry rot and cracking I trust not the tire,but my piece of mind and safety.

I agree Ron! Not worth the risk. I think from now on, I will find out how long the tire has been sitting on the shelf (may not tell me the truth but I'll ask regardless). Based on this video, it seems as the the US government is working toward implementing rules that wont allow tires more than 6 years old to be sold, but recycled!




"FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS DRIVE STOCK"

Yeah....

Because I had low miles on my Cav, I left the OE Goodyear Conquests (You read that right) on the car for NINE years. Tires actually held up fine ( last five years it has been covered), but when I drove it around a corner, I felt the tire actually flex.....so- not more than six years max to be safe.


I now have 2 years on my General Altimax RTs.....doing quite well


http://www.autorentalandsales.com/images/2004Cavalier005.JPG

The last 4 numbers of the DOT code on the tire will tell you the week number and year of manufacture. Required by law in the US.

DOT tire numbers...




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Thanks Roofy - didn't know about that!


"FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS DRIVE STOCK"

Your safe as long as your don't do any performance driving. I know people who drive around cars from the 1960's with the ORIGINAL tires.

Pete Bednarski wrote:Your safe as long as your don't do any performance driving. I know people who drive around cars from the 1960's with the ORIGINAL tires.

I'd move it from the garage to the driveway, but wouldn't drive it on the road under any circumstances.
I got a really nice set of LS Sport chrome wheels off a junker. One of the tires had blown apart (thankfully, for me, the wheel didn't touch the ground) and the other 3 tires were dry rotted with cracks all around the side walls. Tread looked great on them though. Those tires were quickly removed from the wheels after I bought them. Tires are not something to ignore or to take dumb chances with. Tires, like most everything else will deteriorate due to nothing more than age alone.

OK so there are lots of studies done on tires and age. And for the record I have had as much good luck with older tires as with newer. I ran a set of old Uniroyal Tigerpaw 70s, older bias plys and they worked fine. Even in heavy snow.
The fact is that it really depends on how tires are stored as much as by age. Older tires can run safely if properly stored.
BUT BUT BUT, you if you have no idea on how they are stored or even maintained on the car any tire over 6yrs old should be retired(no pun intended) and up to 5 yrs in service plan on replacement soon.
Now the big reason for all these tire age stories all come from when Ford contracted with Firestone to build the FR480/Wildeness line of OE tires then Firestone started selling them. Two things about these tires, one is they were produced from pelletized rubber and Firestone found that the rubber chemistry let thes tires run as long or longer than a Michelin. Yeah then Ford also had an engineer boo boo, they rated a bunch of the older Rangers/Exploders/Fseries and such with too low a door placard tire pressures.
NOW that said the fact is that the tire placard is THE LOWEST you should ever run not the max. The max is what the tire is marked at.
And if your stupid enough to run an Exploder with 1000lbs of luggage, 4 or 5 people and a big ol trailer/boat behind it you need more than 26PSI in a tire for Gods sake.
I know that out of approx. 10-12 million tires there were 144 injury/fatality related accidents and of those over 80 had tire that were found to be under inflated, severely worn , overloaded or even at extreme mileage limits. turns out the ol Fr480/wilderness tires would run 60-70kmiles unless the frontend got loose and wore them out.
For a performance car, change tires every 3-4 yrs, and keep them aired up.
I have found that you can buy 195/70/14 in anywhere from 35psi,36psi,44psi,51psi and now tell me where you should set each pressure for these max pressure.
So let me give you some advice I learned from an old tire guy(he even used to retread tires).
His recommendation he gave me is UNLESS you know what the stock type/pressure tire was on car so as to coincide with door placard use the 80% rule as your minimum pressure and as you load up the vehicle, add more air. So 35x.80=28, 36x.8=28.8(so 29), 44x.8=35.2(I have found 38 works well on these type tires), 51x.8=40.8(so 41).
I for load range C 50PSI x .8=40, load range D 65PSIx.8=52, load range E 80PSIx.8=64( I like round numbers like 65PSI).
But for the most part ANYWHERE AT OR OVER 80% YOUR GOOD TO GO TILL YOU START LOADING THE VEHICLE.
It like when I have customers coming to me about first gen Prius wiping out tires in less than 20,000 miles.
So after a quick scaling, rereading the alignment specs, the fact was they were using a 50psi 14 in tire(only made by 3 makers) and recommending only 35PSI.
So I also saw that the preferred camber spec was -.47 degrees, = or - .75 degrees. SO I cranked up the camber to -.10 to -.20 camber and used the reduce tolerance on the alignment machine(Trust this I have had dozens of Prius techs tell me I was gonna set codes etc) and I cranked the front air pressure up to the 50 PSI max on tire. And then I raised the rear tire pressure to 35 from 33.
Now what happens after I did this, well first three customers had my store(Firestone) put new Potenza RE92 extra loads on, raised tire pressures and the family had 3 and did dads first then moms then daughters. And the fact was he was getting at or over 50k miles out of 40k mile warranty tires.
I fixed issue and added to what Ihave observed over years. when I worked for a local Indiana/Illinois tire chain/supplier we sold a Kelly Springfield built dual channel tire that was to compete with Goodyear AquaTreads.
Great tires sold under Multimile/Sigma brand and had a customer HATE them after we had installed them and the district guy was harping on setting tires at door sticker specs.
Anyway he told me why he thought they were junk, door on car said set them at 30 psi, max was 44PSI. Had him pump tires up and he then loved them.

Interesting topic. Still puzzles me why some of those original tires from 60's and 70's still works. They might had some good chemical compounds on them that lasts.

The same depends on the quality of wheels as well