Saw this on another forum I go to and thought it would be a good idea to post it here.

Tires that are sold as new.

Opinions about this?

Great Watch!...thanks for posting.

This is a very significant issue for collector cars.
We buy nice new tires and we dont drive enough to wear the tread out.
Then, as you cruise down the road in your pride and joy with 6-10 year old tires on it...beware.

I have noticed also that due to the odd sizes we require for these cars that the stock tires we can get are 5-8 years old when you buy them...its not safe and I send them back and search for other ones.

Rich

Great info! Thank you!!!

Interesting. Something to keep an eye on.

Great Read ,thanks for posting. I will get up from the computer and check my

914 and our dailey driver. Heck I am luckey to drive my 914 2,000 miles a yr.

Was planning on new tires for the D.D, anyway. Dave

I just got new tires for my 76 as Zims said the ones on there where old. They looked new. Now I need to look at the new ones to see if they where a deal or not.

My Carrera tires are old for sure. They look great. I only drive them 100 or 200 miles a year. If done right there would be a lot of tires going into the tires graveyards. I wonder if this can be overdoing it?

Bob

I had some tires on my 914 that delaminated. I caught them as they developed a slight bubble. I took them back to the guy I bought them from, and with other customers in his show room, demanded new tires on which I checked the date.

The date code info is available on www.tirerack.com and you should check all of your tires. Here is the link: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=11

About a month ago I took my 2001 Nissan Frontier in to get a slow leak in a tire fixed and they told me it was 8 years old, made in 2000, and they had a new company policy that they weren't supposed to repair tires more than six years old. I think I see why.

I hadn't wanted to buy new tires for it yet..., but $700 later...4 tires and alignment, etc. I need to check the date code on the new tires.

This tire had been the spare when we got the truck several yeas ago and had never been used until about a year ago when I put it on. It has made several long trips. Since it had the best tread, I had it put on as the spare, figuring I would plug it myself and be fine. Now I wonder.

This is all good info but all the vehicles in the "death yard" appeared to be SUV and van models which generate a hellova lot of heat because of their weight, also they are inherently unstable compared to a sedan or sport car, much more prone to rollover, etc. of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong....

I would have to say that most of what was said in that news story is probably true but maybe exaggerated a little. I know that ultraviolet rays are very harmful to tires and that was never mentioned. Many of us have cars that are either garage queens or garage kept weekend cars which spend much of their life indoors and protected. This could also be said for new tires that are stored in warehouses for all the tire stores. In my opinion this should extend the length of time for them to be considered safe.

I would have liked to see some test data to prove that 6 years is the limit. When they were talking about the European standards he didn't give an explanation for 6 years being the limit. Where did they come up with 6 years as a standard?
I also wonder about the tires if being out in the sun as compared to being stored inside would make a difference for the life expectancy.

Thats bs.

I drove my car last year (2007) and the spring of (2008) on Yokohamma Track tires that were used in 1998 when I bought them.

I drove that car back and forth from Dayton to Cincinnati on those tires.

They were hard as hell and were starting to crack bad when I got new tires this year.

Other than sitting on my shelf though, I have never had tires last more than 2 summers except on my truck and my lawn mower. (the wifes van) LOL

It's not BS. My tires were sold as new to me in 2006. Less than 10 months later, all four had started to delaminate. There was a weird feeling in the front end, a shimmy. Here's a link to the thread I posted at the time: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...c=60376&hl=

The tires were 5 years old by that time.

Bridgestone warranties the tires for 3 years iirc, and told me that because of the date code, they were out of warranty. WTF was that?!?! These were less than a year old!

Lastly, I am quite sure that not all tires are made the same. Some may last longer, some less. Bottom line is that the date code needs to be made simple, and there should be a standard that the industry applies and sticks to.

I hav old tires on my queens. The 73T has 15 year old Yoko A008Rs on it. They are treated regularly with glycerin & look/act as new. Fine for local driving.

I have 25 year old Pirellis (CN36) on my 914. Same story as above, though they will go in the spring (<5k miles on the!)

Remember, thes are both garage queens & rarely see UV rays.

Howeve, my daily driver spends all day/every day outdoors. When it was 4 years old I scraped a curb with one about a mile from home. By the ime I got home it was flat. The sidewalls were cracked & I initially thought that it was because of the hard curb rash - until I looked at the other 3. Same way! Four year old Conti's with 30k miles!

May have to take a closer look at this.

What about the spares? Particularly space savers that almost neve get attention.

Michelin offers a 6 year warranty on some of their tires.

I have Michelin tires that are well over 6 years old on my DD 2001 jetta, they are the original rims and tires off a 2002 the owner took off when he bought his 2002 GTI new.

The tires were stored in his garage, so no UV rays.

I was little worried about running them, but when i found out that the tires had a 6 year warranty, I decided to run them for a year or two.

BTW, good info i wouldn't be pleased to pay full price for 6 year old tires.

Anybody notice they failed to mention tire pressures? I see under inflated tires every day at work. Of course if they are low enough it damages the tires. I bet most of those blown out tires were run low. I've seen vehicles come in with 10-15 lbs in all 4 tires. I think the government needs to stay out of it. Issuing a recommendation would be ok but that's it.

John

Doesn't anybody remember the Ford Explorer/Firestone fiasco. They both got the blame, but the fact was that most people were driving them under-inflated. The combination of low T/P and heavy weight plus high center of gravity equaled disaster.

However, given the fact that my teeners tire hardly ever see U.V. and are run at proper pressure does not worry me one bit. In fact if any of you worry-warts are removing 245-50-15's due to age, ship them to me, I'll use em.

I also don't like these TV investigative segments on cars. Remember 60 Minutes and the Audi 5000 - that was total BS and they almost killed off Audi.

I think it's a ploy to sell more tires, so we don't have to bail-out the tire manufactorers.

T.C.

This has been a big issue in the 356 circles for a few years now. It's not just big vehicles.

I had a blowout on the (empty!) trailer I brought back from Long Island last year. Tread still looked great but they were all 5+ years old. I made it home safely (and at reduced speed) on the other 3 but I was seriously expecting another failure.

Personally, I believe it's related to the 'new, improved' tire compounds. Every year tires develop more grip and no one has been asking 'what are we giving up to achieve that?' I think static life is it.

my teener has tires on it from 1998. I havn't driven it though. Goodyear Hoosiers 225-60-15s. 3 are fine the 4th has a slow leak. Car has been garage kept for a decade so no uv. They seem ok with no cracking but they are 10 years old. These tires still look new with probably less than 100 miles on them. Should I buy new ones or can I get by with these for a while (not driving it yet. Still have to replace brakes and switch back to stock FI)

Anything will be fine as long as you're not driving it, although I wouldn't get under the car. (Failures have been reported for cars just sitting in the garage...) And I certainly wouldn't drive it across the street. I don't think you'll find anyone that will recommend driving them in normal highway service but you're gonna do what you're gonna do.

(However, I think they might be Goodyears, or Hoosiers, but I don't think they can be both at the same time...)

I had new old tires on my teen one had belt shift.

I had old tires on my Bus, rear blew and the whole tread separated at 65mph, If I wasn't on the ball could of killed the whole family.

sorry they are just hoosiers I have goodyear on the brain from the Sears tire sale that was on Friday.
Ok well thanks for the input. I figured I'd need to replace them so I'll get some falken ze-912s through vulcantire.com. Seems like the best price I've found for the 225-60-15 size tires

My co-worker has a 74 911 with Perelli P6 tires on it. Do they even make those anymore. Tread looks good no visible cracks but I didn't get real close.

How do you decifer the production date code.

How To Decipher Production Date Code
I haven't seen a P3, P6 or P7 for a long time.
A P4 is in production.

My new ones say 08 and the ones on my Carrera say 00 . They look new. Just like my new ones. So do you just spent the 1,000 for a new set or wait till the Army Dudes V8 is done so I can just burn the rubber off as I change them around cars. That must get old fast.

Bob

I had tires on my Jetta that had great tread, and looked fine. That was until I had it up on a lift and saw the interior sidewalls on the tires, which were cracked to hell. Make sure you check the hidden sidewall too.

definitely a case for ymmv. 6 years is probably a cya type of thing - not a hard and fast rule. I've always used my hand to tell me when a tire is toast. Any lumps, bumps or checks and out it goes.

Just being aware is the important part. Start checking them at 5 years. Well - I guess it would be better to say check em regularly despite their age. But around 5 or 6 years expect them to be failing and act accordingly. And read the code when you buy new ones!