I have a set of perfect at least half the tread left michelins on my 66 98. The DOT Code reads DOT M3DB D9UX 1200.

I think this means I bought them in around 2000.

Are 14 year old tires a safety risk?

They show absolutely no exterior cracking or even much wear...

Thanks in advance for your views,

Cf

 

I usually replace tires after 6-7 years (if they ever live that long): Even if they do not show any cracks and stuff they harden out, get smeary on wet roads and loose all their grip.

Replaced dad's "still good" 8 year old Michelins after he did a 360° twist on a higway exit ramp in rain...

 

Replace them.
They are your first line of defense in road safety.
Just because they look fine that doesn't mean much. Rubber degrades over time no matter how well you look after it,
You might liken it to shiny paint on a rusty chassis.


Roger.

 

If you don't drive on the highway and are just cruising around town I'd run them a while longer. However if you take long trips at highway speeds, I'd replace them.

 

The tires on one of my cars are 15 years old.. have never leaked, and are in good shape... but I wouldn't drive it on a long highway trip. Around town they work great.

 

I agree. I wouldn't worry about them for local driving, but I'd be wary of high speeds or long trips.

- Eric

 

I did see an article in JWO a couple of years ago about a 12 year old BFG blowing up on the highway, no load/condition data was provided! IIRC I think it tore his quarter panel when it let go!

Your call! I replaced my 14 year old Uniroyal Tiger Paws they were in perfect condition with 80% tread. IMO throw new ones on, worth the time, money and peoples safety.

Pat

 

Tires degrade just from exposure to air, and no amount of care will stop this unless you store them in an oxygen-free environment. Even if they don't show any visible signs of deterioration, they are deteriorating. If they were made in 2000, they are now 14 years old and well old enough to be replaced regardless of how good they look or how much tread is left.

 

I had a perfect looking but old steel belted radial come apart on my 62 on the way back from GMs at Carlisle one year. I'll never again push the limits of tire age.

Oh, and I drove from Gettysburg to Northern VA on the near-50 year old C78-13 bias ply spare, at speeds approaching 70 MPH.

Fortunately, that tire had never been out of the spare tire well, so no sunlight exposure. I don't plan to do that again, however.

 

That sounds absolutely terrifying.

 

Just goes to show that while there is definitely a chance of tire failure at high speeds / prolonged driving (read: high-heat conditions), there is also a chance you'll be fine.

It's not all black and white. Use your own risk-assessment skills.

- Eric

 

Actually, it was completely uneventful (unlike having the original tire come apart at speed).

 

Bias ply tires are much more durable and long lasting than radials

Henry

 

Huh? Today's radial tires last much longer than bias ply. 50,000 miles and up is not uncommon.

Of course, I never get that kind of tire mileage, especially on the rear...

 

Joe I'm talking about longevity not 40,000 miles of tread life. I have cars 40-50 years old with old, old bias plies that will air up and still move around. Not that their safe or reliable but still good for around the yard.

Henry

 

I beg to differ. Any tire will do that, there's a difference between rolling them around in a shop and driving at highway speed. There's a reason why they won't repair or mount tires here in Texas when they are too old.

 

There might be some truth to that, if only because the walls of a bias ply tire carcass are thicker than those of a radial.

 

Tires more than 8 years old are good for STORAGE only. If you think otherwise you are in denial because you are dreading having to spend money to replace tires that did not see a lot of miles. The distance driven is irrelevant. Tires have a shelf life & need to be replaced. Most tire experts suggest anywhere from 7-8 years on most tires. You can not tell which tires have deteriorated just by looking at them. Play safe & replace your long overdue tires. Running old tires is nothing more than Russian Roulette.

 

I don't disagree with that, but since I have far more NON-operating vehicles than ones I drive (), I do need "shop tires". The fact that tire stores today won't touch older tires, even for non-operational vehicles (yeah, I know, they have no way of knowing), coupled with the whole "you have 4WD, or ABS, or some other reason that only lets us sell you four tires at once" is why I bought my own mounting and balancing machines.

 

All,
Many thanks for your views. Safety trumps perfect looking but aged tires.

I'll stay away from the bias ply vs radial discussion.

I'm looking for 235/70R15 or 235/75R15. I think the two choices in narrrow whitewalls (not those ugh 3") are Diamondback and Coker.

Coker vs. Diamondback views? Or is there a manufacturer other than Cooper who is still doing narrow (1") whitewalls for my ancient car?

 

I see a lot Hankook tires for the big cars the optimo H724 with narrow WW
about $76.00 plus the other garbage. Don't like the name but had a set on my G6 pretty good tire all around.

Pat

 

BF Goodrich recommends their tires be replaced after 10 years

http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/help.page

A quick check of sites not affiliated with tire manufacturers yields the 10 year number as well as long as the tires are in good condition with no visible signs of defects

 

I'm not positive but pretty sure that the newer tires don't have the same compound or whatever it's called to prevent cracking and weather checking that the older ones did. I think the trailer specific tire will last a lot longer, but are much more expensive and aren't made for cars/trucks. I had a Shasta trailer with 10 yr. old tires and no weather checking at all. They were ST205/75 R14's. I believe the T meant trailer whereas the P in car tires means passenger. I took some tires off my driver car and put them on my utility trailer and one of them blew out and the other was on the verge- all separated and steel was coming out the tread. I think in this day and age with everyone driving so much the average Joe puts 50-70,000 mile on in 3 yrs. and weather checking isn't a issue.

 

I've been reading this thread with great interest as my Goodyear Eagle STs are 21 years old and although they still do not show any sidewall deterioration, there is weather checking/ minor cracking between the treads. I have been limiting my highway driving to just a few miles at a time to avoid heat buildup and resulting separation issues that may occur, especially at any significant speed. I think the biggest factor for my taking a chance is that I just don't like the look of any of the choices available today. It is too bad Goodyear gave up the muscle car market, but I suppose the numbers don't justify otherwise. I do plan on buying this Spring, BF Goodrich tires, although in my opinion while not as attractive as the Eagle STs, at least Goodrich was a factory installed tire in the day.

 

Hi,


On tire advice... I once managed a fleet of some 1200 cars and trucks. Best Practice and advice (from our motor insurers) in the industry advised we changed tires, even on unused vehicles every 10 years regardless of mileage or condition/appearance. That was on trailers, cherry pickers...everything.


One concern is always going to be if you are involved in an accident. You may have to prove to your insurer and others that your vehicle was in road worthy/fit condition. Ten years was considered the maximum age limit for replacing tires.


On what brand to buy...?


I bought some Hankook 225/75R/15 white walls and had vibration from the moment I drove out of the shop. The 10 year old Goodyear Regattas had been smooth and shake free.

No amount of balancing fixed the issue and the shop (of course) blamed the car, the rims etc. etc. It was really unpleasant to drive my wagon at anything more that 60 or over 85. Hard to stay legal when your on a road trip.

I solved the problem by buying some Maxxis white walls

http://www.maxxis.com/catalog/tire-134-ma-1

and have been very happy with them. They are another Chinese brand (Taiwanese?) as the U.S. companies don't seem to be interested in making white walls now. The only alternative is truck or 4x4 tires with white writing on the walls which looks out of character on a wagon to me.


Good luck.

 

Knowing the facts I find it foolish that you would put appearance ahead of safety. Do you not have any concern for yourself or your passengers?. Driving on 21 year old tires is stupidity personified. Change those tires out.

 

When I bought my Cutlass, it had beautiful BFG's that looked brand new, and I assumed they were. Then, while driving at 55 on Rt.441 toward Miami, one tire came apart. I just missed a head on and skidded to the left shoulder. I had no warning, no time to react. That is when I checked the DOT date and found they were 10+ years old with only 5000 miles on them. I replaced them the next day. And now the replacement BFG's are approaching 7 years old.

 

DING DING DING!!!!


This is EXCACTLY what happens. No warning & ka-boom!


I parted out a beautiful 1972 Cutlass S 10 years ago that was destroyed in a roll over crash. This car was a daily driver & the 10 plus year old radial TAs looked fine but one of them exploded on an on ramp @ 60 mph. End of car and mercifully that driver was not seriously hurt.

 

When buying tires I always ask to check the date codes, I've seen 2 year old tires on the rack..especially 14 &'15".

 

Let's run the numbers:


Firestone Destination LE 2 $95 ea. = $380 for a set
Mounting and balancing $14 ea. = $ 56 for a set


Cost of replacing one 1966 Oldsmobile 98 ??? I don't know, what's it worth to you.... Feel lucky do we !!!!!

 

TRUE STORY! A father wanted to make sure his Son's car was OK for road trip he and friends were taking. He purchased four NEW tires,(still had tape on treads and blue ink on white wall) His Son was killed along with his friends when the front tire exploded!
A witness to the crash said he saw tire come apart in large pieces. As the young man was trying to control the skid another tour from the rim.
An accident investigation showed the tire was 12 years old and had been rec'd at the tire shop from the manufacture warehouse only one month before they were installed on the young mans car. Bottom line classic cars can't handle the stress of a blow out . I hit something with my 2008 chevy and the tire went flat instantly at
HW speeds and I had very little steering pull and breaking control was fine.
I know my 64 88 would have slowly self destructed with a blow out at HW speeds.
Change the tire and be around for years to come. Don't want to read about your unexpected demise.

 

There you go bfgs,not a fan only got 20k miles out of a set of comp TA'S they were worn out.if they are not dry rot cracked i will run e'm,most of the time you can feel a problem,not always tho,drive at you own risk.Look at what happened to Firestone-Ford mid 90s ,now we have Federally mandated tire pressure monitoring systems because people can't check there tire pressures.They blamed that on Ford for setting the tire pressure to low on the Explorers,yet Firestone replaced the tires.

 

Clearly with you ignorance is bliss. You can NOT NOT NOT "feel" the problem before it happens. You are an accident waiting to happen. No respect for yourself or your passengers. Hopefully your ignorance hurts no one but YOU.

 

I have 40K on my BFG T/As and they aren't anywhere near the tread wear indicators. I did buy 5 new tires and rotate the spare out every 3000 miles, so my 40K is really only 32K on each tire, but they have worn well.

 

Couple of clarifications here.

First, the main events in this controversy happened in 2000, not the mid-90s. Second, it was never clearly established whether Ford, Firestone, or the two in combination were responsible for the problems the Explorer had. Firestone claimed, as you mention, that Ford's recommended tire pressures were too low. Ford claims that Goodyear tires on Explorers inflated to the same pressure did not have problems, so it was the tires, not the vehicle. But the Goodyear tires were a little different in design. And on and on.

Also, in spite of who thought who was to blame, I don't think Firestone bore the full cost of replacing any tires that were replaced as a result of this. Both Ford and Firestone were accused of knowing about and covering up problems with the Explorer/Firestone tire combination. Also, while it may have been due to Firestone tires, it was Ford Explorers that were rolling over, and Ford did not need that kind of publicity regardless of the cause, so Ford had a strong interest in seeing any suspect tires replaced.

I had a friend that had a '90s Explorer (I don't recall the exact year) with a set of the suspect tires on it. He had never had any problems, but, as I recall, it was Ford who replaced the tires.

More reading here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firesto...re_controversy

 

The Firestone tire issue has nothing to do with tires that have expired due to shelf life. That was a tire pressure issue & plays no part in this discussion.

 

Did I miss something? Did somebody die and leave you in charge of what's "plays a part" in this discussion or not? I sure don't recall such a thing happening.

What I wrote about the Firestone/Ford situation is perfectly relevant, in spite of what you might think. The fellow brought up the subject, and I thought I'd offer a clarification, if it's OK with you. Second, it's an issue that dealt with tire performance, so that makes it relevant.

I've looked back through the posts on this thread, and you've been pretty nasty to most everyone:


Why don't you take a chill pill and go sit in the corner.

 

The original post is about TIRE AGE. Try to stay on topic. This is not about blow outs due to tire pressure. If you want to talk about the Ford/Firestone issue start a separate thread and I will gladly debate that with you in that thread.



Not nasty. Just calling a spade a spade. The problem with posts is that there is no tone & the reader puts their own tone to it. The bottom line is that tires have a shelf life and this shelf life is not based on visual defects on tires. Those who choose to ignore the facts simply have their head in the sand because they do not want to pony up for new safe tires.

 

This topic has come up previously and I got schooled about tire age and safety back then. That was just after I had taken my car to a (highway road trip) car show. Speeds were sustained about 70 mph for around 300 miles and I was blissfully unaware that my 28 year old radials (that showed no signs of any deterioration) could be a problem. Several members pointed out that I was sinfully lucky to not have had anything happen, and after researching and reading about tire failure/potential failure based on age alone I indeed agree with them.

I have not replaced the tires since then mainly because I needed roller tires for the car while it's being worked on in the garage the past 2 years. Later this spring when it's ready for the road I'll look at replacing them with new tires. While the tires look like new, they likely won't perform or be safe like new even though they have been stored in garage and properly inflated all their life. (there are still some of those small new rubber tip mold extensions on the tread that haven't been worn off, but that just means they are now 30 years old and have survived that long)

NOTE TO ALL: verify your tire date codes WHEN YOU BUY THEM. Some tire stores will sell product that may have already been in storage for up to 2 years; expecting you will drive the crap out of them in 4-5 years and need a replacement.

Anyone who needs to know how to date code tires? Look at this link

 

This is really getting me thinking guys! The tires on both of my 98's are probably 10+ years old now. The ones the red car probably have 20ish K on them while the ones on the black car may have about 1,000 miles on them, if that. On older tires, is there still a marking saying the production date/year? I know it is on newer tires but I'm not sure about older ones.

I'm hoping to take the red 98 to Niagara Falls next month....oh man, I may need to throw tires on before we can take it without fearing a blowout!