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Tire Age Dangers

2K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  Warzone 
#1 ·
#2 ·
Horrible article and the guy that wrote it is a dipshit. Sounds like the typical BS a mustang owner would spout on about cause they can't drive.

Oooo I lost traction on the course and went into the gravel so it's the tires problem because they are 5 years old....

What a load of shit!! I can guarantee it had nothing to do directly with the age of the tires. It did have to do with the fact that is was a cold track, it was 40 degrees out and he was the first one on the track. So cold tires on a cold track means no traction stupid!
 
#3 ·
He was a Corvette Owner. "I entered my modified C5 Corvette" :)... same difference, lots of power RWD, not much for gripping the road.

Probably the bit about chemistry of the rubber gripping is a minor effect, but a dry rotted tired not flexing they way it should or blowing out a sidewall is pretty believable.

The other thing that should be said is a dry rotted tire rarely looks new, you can see the tell-tale micro cracks, even if there is little tread wear.

Also with our cars, we get them with tires of unknown age and history. Previous owner says 3 years but it was really 13.
 
#4 ·
I'm going to have to disagree - I know alot of people want to jump on the "I Hate Matt Farah" bandwagon in order to be cool, especially Emilie @ GZP - but He's got more track day and semi professional racing experience then probably anyone on this forum.

He's also driven ALOT of very different cars at or near the limit from Camry's to Full Fledge Race cars, and everything inbetween - which gives good reason to respect and consider his input on car behavior.

I will have to agree with him - You would be amazed what pure age will do to tires. Example the 265 NT05s' on my race car are fairly old (at least 5 years old), unsure exactly how old but old enough for there to be mild cracking in the tread.. NT05's aren't the best tire in the world, and While they hold air, and have decent tread life still - No matter how warm you get them they refuse to have any REAL grip of any kind like my experience with new NT05's do - The brand new 350 TW Rated tires I just put on the VR4 put the old and tired NTO5's to shame.

I haven't taken time to look at mine, but all tires are labeled on when they were manufactured to get an idea of how old they are.

Here is a quick guide on how to tell

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiret... date&ef_id=VsJzsAAAAC1qTipu:20160915140129:s
 
#5 · (Edited)
I just want to remind everyone that trailers their car to events that trailer tires deteriorate after 5 years of life as well. Often the thread looks great. A trailer tire blowing out isn't necessarily a good thing. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Marshall
 
#6 ·
Blew a trailer tire 3 weeks ago - Was not fun, especially when I put the spare on and found out it was almost flat.

First thing I did the next day was drop it off for all new tires.
 
#7 ·
Yes, trailer tires wear out fast as they sit outside and the sun bakes them so they dry rot faster. Same thing happens with RV's. So quick fix is the same as what RV owners do. Put tire covers over the tires when not in use. The old Potenza tires on my stealth trailer are trashed from it sitting out in the sun and rarely moving. So I'll have to replace them before I take it out again. My 18' dovetail also sits outside but it is more in the shade and I have covers over the tires and spare. Only thing I need to do is get them off the dirt and onto some concrete blocks as the ground/dirt can also dry out the rubber over time.

The Dunlop Direzza's I have on my car are 7 years old now. 4 years on the shelf and 3 years of me driving on them. They have been to the dragstrip, Auto-x and road course over the last 3 years and I wouldn't hesitate to take them back out anytime. The car is stored inside, driven maybe 2-3k a year if that and I don't use any type of tire product on the tires. Soap, water and a scrub brush. I also have another full set stored flat in the garage that I will throw on once I wear the current ones out.

Simply put age alone will not cause tire failure unless you are taking tires that are like 15-20 years old. A 5 year old tire, Ha. if you have issues with tires at 5 years then get better tires or take care of them better.
 
#8 ·
Not being an asshole..

...but I'm about to be an asshole.

When you actually drive your car, and you run sticky tires - You're lucky to get a year out of them let alone 5... Even strictly street tires...and that's running them until they are literally bald, occasionally with exposed wire...

Hell, the hardest longest lasting tires I ever put on my old blue Stealth I got 9 months out of, but that was also about 35,000 miles.

I've decided you might be the type of person that will form a opinion about something before actually taking the time to read about it, think it over, and then form your opinion... As you've shown.

You've essentially repeated what the article said (paraphrasing) You're less likely to have tires crap out from pure age, if you avoid extreme cold/climate change, and actually regularly put some miles on them. Doesn't have to be alot of miles - but allowing the tread to flex more often from driving, will help prevent cracking and hardening of the rubber.

I'd like to also add that I've put about 1,300 miles on the race car since I bought 3 weeks ago, and I did notice a slight improvement in the tires after getting some decent wear on them, and getting rid of some of hard rubber exposing a more fresh layer of rubber (if you will)

It's still no where up to the standards of my experience with this exact same tire new, but it did seem to get better.
 
#9 ·
If you have no choice but to park outside, like the majority of people, then the age certainly can become an issue before the owner has worn down the tread. If you have the ability to keep your car in a garage then yes, the tires can last quite a bit longer without any issues. That said, if a car is driven even close to the average number of miles per year then it shouldn't ever be an issue anyways as they will likely wear down the tread within 5 to 6 years.
 
#10 ·
I drove 2000 miles on cheap Chinese tires with cracks everywhere and chunks falling off.
They were sticky as hell and over 7 years old. These were on one of the two 97s I used
to make one good 97. I put another set I had for another 2000 miles until I purchased the Bridgestone Potenza Pole Position S-04. I expect to only get 8000 miles out of the S-04s.
I wanted to see how far I could get with the cracked/chunky tires. They held pressure just fine. For some reason they had great grip. Of course I would not do that again.
 
#11 ·
When I first bought my '99 VR-4, it had tires on it that looked new as far as tread was concerned. But they were dry rotted pretty bad. Especially on the sidewalls. They were Michillen Pilot Sports that were installed on the car in 2005. So they were 10 years old at the time. They still had great grip, but worried me as far as their structural intgrity. So I got new tires to be safe. Didn't want to risk failure on my stock '99 witth 37k miles on it, or more importantly, risk my own safety over an $800 tire purchase...
 
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