Got this today in my email, very interesting that tires should have an expiry date.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897 (http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897)

You need to let the commercial play, then the news clip starts.


Is there truth to this or is it fear mongering and extra tires sales?

I look forward to your opinions that are not politcal tirades. :D

Got this today in my email, very interesting that tires should have an expiry date.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897 (http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897)

You need to let the commercial play, then the news clip starts.


Is there truth to this or is it fear mongering and extra tires sales?

I look forward to your opinions that are not politcal tirades. :D


I saw something about tires getting old as well a while back on the news. It seems to me to make sense, although I am no scientist. Anything rubber eventually dries out if it isn't stored properly.

Jeff

You can be sure that tire manufacturers will love this. Many years ago I had two tires less than two years old and the sidewalls blew out. The rubber was such poor quality that you could bend the side wall and see the chord through the cracks, and that was on the ones that hadn't blown out yet. When Ford was having their troubles with Goodyear tires a few years ago a TV show, perhaps W5, did a blow out test to see what would happen. They had a device that dumped the tire's air all at once. I think they tried all four corners. Nothing happened. The guy just slowed down and pulled over. Makes me wonder how this video shows the vehicle swerving when it just lost its tread. Tires do get old for sure, and some a lot quicker than others due to the quality of materials used in the construction. I just replaced the original Goodyears on the back of our '97 Olds LSS. They had about 93K miles on them and the rubber seemed as fresh as new with no cracking even when flexed. I'm not about to panic.

I have a spare from a set of BFG T/A's I put on in '95, it is fine as far as I can tell and I had them on untill two years ago, no problems.

My Pirrelli's on my 66 Vette are 20 years old. I guess I'm playing wih fire.

I have a buddy's 67 Firebird E70 spare.... little chalky looking, still holds air,no cracks, but I wouldn't/didn't go over 10mph with it.

I am not panicking either. My motorhome has 17.5 rubber. I was lucky to get any type of tires for it. I didn't check the date on the tires but even if they are old, I am not scared of driving in it. There are too many factors involved in tire failures to say the tire failed due to age. The man that lost his son said he had the van serviced before the trip. I wonder if they were driving on a soft tire for a long time before the trip. Under inflation does a lot of hidden damage to the cords in a tire. The type of tread separation shown in the news clip could be due to under inflation.

Paul

I put the BF Goodrich Radial TAs on my '69 in 1991. 17 years later they are still there- no cracks, lots of tread, still look great.

i recently had a situation, my tires look new, very low miles and very deep tread, anyway the car started shaking violenty on the freeway, pulled over, couldn't find anything. pulled back into traffiic and sure enough starts shaking all over the road, i pull off the freeway, get out, start pulling on the wheels to see if i'd lost a bearing or axle, nothing....

i have the car towed to a tire shop, and he pulls the tires after finding nothing else wrong, he showed me a date mark on the tires, then shows me the inside, they were disintegrating from the inside out, chunks of belt and rubber floating all over the interior.

needless to say, i bought a set right there. i didn't want to take the chance of my wife losing it somewhere. i've heard for years about tire age, in fact lance-w pointed it out to me and how important it was. most things have a shelf life, and tires are not one of those things i want to find out about too late....

I had a 5 year old set of BFG radials with very low milage that had one get a huge knot on the side and visable cracking on another. I live in the South though and summer road temps will kill a tire.

I've only ever replaced tires because they wore out or got a sidewall puncture. I guess they are getting the public ready for Chinese tires in the near future.

yep dealer told me tire should only be used on car for 5 years. I had a front tire seprate at around 35 mph. The first sign of trouble was when i pulled off from a stop sign the car made a funny side ways movement. I was thinking it was the rough roads here in SC. About five miles later the tire seperated (but never went flat) and beat up in underside of the front fender and ripped out the turn signal wiring on the wifes 66 mustang. We were on the way home from a show that day. The outside of the tire looked fine. But it and one other tire on the car were bad dry rotted which could only be seen between the face treads not on the side walls. good thing we were not up to 55 mph for the road when this happened. I check thing a little more closely now but as some have said I have ten year old tires???? maybe that look like new with only 24,000 miles on them. HUMMMM will have to check all my tires closer now that this is out. proper inflation and use (not overloading or abuseing) may be the key for long tire life

Front tires are 3 years old, and i go thru a set of rear tires once a year:D

I see people driving with one tire low on pressure pretty regular. We are talking obviously low.

On the way to CB-08 I wound up buying FOUR new tires for my Haulmark.
My trailer is always inside, Maintained to perfection.
Its a 1999 Haulmark, Tires look like new, WELL.......
Went from Pittsburgh to Florance Ky. and BOOM. Find a goodyear store and buy a new tire, Get to Louisville Ky. BOOM Find a goodyear store and buy THREE more. The goodyear man said..... After 3-5 years the inside of the tire casing starts to dry out or lose the Petrolem Distilates, This will cause the rubber and the steel cords to seperate.
When the steel and rubber seperate " BOOM "
He said after 5-6 years THROW them away and " RETIRE "
If you are driving on the((( HIGHWAY))) With tires that are over 6-7 years old, You may want to think about the tires you are driving on!!!!!
NOTE: Trailed cars and show cars, This does not apply !!
Bob

Tires didn't used to be this bad not all that long ago.

My tire's don't last too long.:D:yes:

http://media.putfile.com/My-Burnout-24

I always check the label on the tires when I buy them. Especially the tires for our 15" wheels, they are getting more uncommon meaning more old stock.

When I first got my chevelle in 2004 I got new tires. They rolled out the tires and I checked the label, one was dated 1996!! I told them to take it back and get a newer one. They didn't argue and said they usually rotate them but this one must have gotten by, yea right:yes:

One of my 5 year old BFG T/A's had severe tread separation and was about ready to blow when I noticed it and replaced all four tires with Firestone redlines.

It will be 8 years this September for my BF Goodrich Radial T/A's. :)

Here in the desert, I have had several tires blow apart at rest. BFG Radial TA's seemed really good when new , but after about 4 years the traction was not all that great. So, I am thinking that when buying tires I will ignore the tread life rating and replace them at 3 or 4 years. I never had these tire problems when I lived near the Great Lakes; it seems that tires and valve stems lasted a really long time.
There have been some articles about how tire stores really do not want the legislation to control the "freshness" of tires they sell.

All tires have a manufacture date, that's a DOT requirement.

Basic rule: Maximum life expectancyfor rubber is 5 years. Less than in high heat cycles. More than if kept in cool dry garage. I just pulled a set of tires out of dehumidified barn dated 1973. No cracks or dry wrought. Go figure.

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/uploads/740/Parts.jpg

Now, I wouldn't drive on them either.

Just a tid bit. I have an 03 Suburban. Tires were Michelins, which had lots of tread left, but were a little rotted and cracked. Date was 9/04. I didn't trust them any more after a flat.

I shop around at WalMart & Pep Boys, cheapest tires were $600 and ALL made in China. I can't handle the idea of putting my life in the hands of Chinese technology.

Instead of puuling the trigger on something like that, I went to the Chevy house in town and bought some 17" take offs from an 08. Tires are made in Canada, just two months old. I mounted them up for < $500 and sold the old wheels & tires on Craigslist (with full disclosure) for $175. So for $375 I upgraded from 16" to 17", got brand new made in America tires, and nice lookin set of wheels to boot.

I had a set of Road Handler 45s on my 72 that were installed on it in 89. In 2001 I was driving it and every tire separated its belts. I drove very slowly home. The tires had no more than 6000 miles on them. I guess I need to start thinking about the Goodriches I have on it with 3000 miles. Wait a minute, I bought them at WalMart and bought their tire protection warranty against defects and road hazards. Humm, I wonder if separated belts are covered? :D

I watched the video and this I think is worth mentioning. When looking at the date code the narrator said the last number was the year. I was just give an original (FR78-15) spare tire from a 1985 Caprice and the date code ends in "4" signifying 1984. There is no way of knowing what decade the tires were manufactured. Maybe some of these tire are a LOT older than we thought!

Paul

Mine are old enough to have an excuse to do as many burnouts as I want without hesitation....hehe

I was at cruise night last night talking to a guy about the show in Syracuse last week. He has owned his '67 supersport for thirty years (his dad bought the car new). When returning from the show he said the car developed a vibration. He found a tread separation on one of the tires and took his car to a shop to have the tires replaced. The tire dealer told him his tires were manufactured in 1988! He remembers putting the tires on the car but didn't realize how much time had passed! Just something to think about.

Paul

Old and tire don't usually come up in the same sentence. :noway:

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g30/maroond/pics/DSCF0080.jpg



Those were slicks at the track on the first 383 build for the car. FYI That was June of 2003. Boy has this been fun.

Mike

I am in the process of buying my fifth set of tires for my Classic since owning it. The tread has NEVER be the issue, but rather age.