Hey All,
I have a 01 Miata that has been sitting outside (both under roof and 2 car-covers) for a few years. I'd been in the midst of a full rebuild/reassembly after painting and installing Tubular suspension etc.... when we bought a house.
Question is. The tires (Toyo R1R) are (were) brand new (driven 2 miles?). Do we think they've lost a lot of their 'quality' (for lack of a better word) sitting for a while.
Under the covers they don't get UV and look as new.
Experiences?
Cheers,
Fox
They might have become a bit crusty and lost some grip over the years, but if they're under 5 years old and have no visible signs of degradation I wouldn't think twice about running them.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=138
If they weren't cracked.. Id run them.. Won't be as sticky as new, but they'll be fine.
Agreed... they'll be slick but they should be integrally fine. Once those tires get below about 40*F they start to harden. The more times they go up and down, along with the UV the worse they deteriortate.
Step 1: Lick the stamp.
Step 2: Send it!
If they haven't cracked I'd say you're good, biggest issue I've had with tires that sat was flat spotting.
Even if covered, mounted and sitting outside is still going to age them. I'd consider running them up to 5, maybe 6, years old. Much beyond that and looks can be deceiving. No cracking on old tires does not mean no problem...Just ask Paul Walker and Roger Rodas' families.
I'd be ok with them for initial testing / sorting of the car but I wouldn't use them for sustained high speed running nor track work.
They'll be well down on grip so you won't get any sort of valid set up done with them. If it's just to make sure everything is operable (read drive it around the block to see if anything leaks) that's fine.
You can't do a real suspension set up done on old hard tires. Structurally they likely fine but don't waste your time.
You'll need to log in to post.
