do you really know HOW OLD ARE YOUR TIRES?

[gary s]

last night i watched a very interesting episode of 20/20 on tire safety.

on the sidewall of your tire is a manufactured date. for example if you purchased new tires today, they could have been made 5 years ago. you can find the date on the sidewall after the d.o.t. numbers in a rectangular box. the date is listed as the week made and the year made, i.e.: 4107 would be the 41st week of 2007.

some tires sit in warehouse for years and they may look new with good tread, but they have started to deteriorate over the years. the general rule is that you should not have tires on your vehicle that are 5 years or older regardless of the appearance and mileage. tread seperation at highway speeds can be fatal due to this problem.

i noticed on our matrix that the manufacture date was 2004 and i purchased these pirelli's in 2006. they are also dry rotting on the ends even know we only put about 7k they are going to be changed next week!

some of you might know of this, but i just wanted to pass this info on.

take a look at your tires.

 

[Gary DiPietroSr]

Thanks for the tip. Good info.



Gary D.

 

[Bill Barber]

Perf tires have a shelf life of max 4 years.

 

[EddieS'04]

I saw part of that. It appears that Sears was the worst. They were selling tires 9 yrs old...as new..

I have checked the manufactor dates on tires I buy for the last 10 to 12 yrs. Have turned some of them down and made them order me a fresh set. That is why I wont buy tires online. Too much trouble to ship them back. I always inspect the tires before they mount them. I watch the them balance for excess weight. Also look for tread runout while they spin them up.

Some think Iam a pest but its my money and life.

 

[Jeffrey Travis]

'Born on' dating, just like beer.

 

[Jim Burch]

WOW....checked out my 37 Ford street rod and there is no DOT info at all .Now I am really worried as to how old they are !!! Anyone know when tires had to have DOT identification ??



:angry:

 

[Dingo]

I'm not sure exactly, but I know it was around 1990.

 

[Richard Kolb]

Gee, I think my father-in-law had some original rubber on his weekend car. I think the date on those would have been something like 4120

 

[Thomas Rogers]

What exactly is the issue here? How old does a tire have to be before someone would consider it no longer new? Months? Years?



"New" to me when it comes to most products means "not used".



Don't get me wrong, I would want "fresh" tires too...but until we have regulations and expiration dates for tires (do we already?), then saying a tire that is several years old isn't "new" doesn't actually hold any weight.



TJR

 

[robert broere]

just checked mine. 2 are 05's 1 is an 06.and the best one for last.one is an 01.

 

[Bill Barber]

the issue is that rubber deteriorates over time, mostly from ozone, one reason you never store tires say in a garage with appliances that are operated by electric motors.

Not an issue with our truck type tires really.

But if you store several thousands of dollors in track tires, becomes a concern.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Bill, I get that it's a potential safety issue. But my point is that the media is whipping everyone up into a frenzy over this, and legally I don't know (do any of you?) if any of the dealers are doing anything wrong by selling several year old tires as new. That was my point.



TJR

 

[gary s]

tjr,

the point of the story was that it was a safety issue and i don't think that the media is whipping everyone into a frenzy as most people did not know this info.

there are no legal issue's at this point , but get a good lawyer and there could be the potential.

if i remember, the episode mentioned that in some countries in europe there are laws that do not allow the sale of "old" tires.

either way my new "old" tires are getting changed.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Gary S,



I can appreciate that, and if media pressure will get some regulations in place then that's okay.



But ultimately it is caveat emptor.



TJR

 

[Bill Barber]

the entire issue is B.S for DDs that may never see anything over 80 MPH

you wanna run 160 plus? than you may have questions and issues, is a non issue for anyone with a trac.

 

[Les]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling...

 

[Richard L]

It is true that rubber will start to deteriorate with age as do most things, the deterioration is not significant until it's exposed to constant sunlight. It's the UV light that really starts to break down the rubber.



So the fact that tire may have sat in a warehouse for years before you purchased them, is not a very significant factor. I think it;s just a case of 20/20 just needing to start a cortroversy. I don't believe there is any safety issue with those tires as long as they are not checked (cracked) or dry rotted.



Most people will wear out their tires long before they UV rays or age will take their toll. Consider that the average person puts 12K-15K miles per year on the tires. If you are lucky enough to get about 60K miles on a set of tires, that's still only about 5 years and that's about when the deteriouration from UV rays will start.



If you don't put enough mileage on your vehicle the effects of UV rays will be faster and more pronounced just due to the lack of use. I have seen tire covers for RV's that sit a lot and only get used a few times a year in the summer, so they are more prone to deterioration from the UV exposure than and need to be covered.



I check my new 2008 Mercedes and the tires were made 3507, so that around August/September which is early in the 2008 model year. So I think the tires are pretty fresh.



,,,Rich

 

[Larry Gamble]

Chicken Little reporting at it's finest. Just what we need, more forced regulation by do-gooders.



Yeah, it could be a problem and tires could dry rot if not properly stored. But, it's going to take something like 15 years or more. That's a huge hunk of rubber sitting there. It's not like a 1mm thick tube or such.

 

[Dingo]

If you look in the second gen manuals, it says to replace them at 10 years old.