Tires: how old is too old?

I have 40 year old polyglass tires on the back of my car right now. I might be a bad judge of tire age but for daily driving on the highway I usually go with 10 years but I've had tires crack up badly after 3 years. 

In reply to 03Panther :

The tires on this car look nearly new, though a lot of that is Armor-All.   Plenty of tread, more so than on my current daily driver, and no age cracking to be seen.  

This car actually came from the Staten Island area.  Why a 64 year old woman bought it new is a mystery.  But then again, last Christmas I saw a woman in her late 70s driving a Mustang GT.  When we got to talking she told me she had had to get the GT when driving her old car (a GT 350) required a bit too much effort on her left ankle when shifting.

There are 2 or 3 small paint chips on the passenger door, and from the low mileage I assume she drove to church and the grocery store...and not much else.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

I live in northeastern Florida and the roads are generally well taken care of.  Though I have only lived in this rural section for 3 years so maybe if I get around more?

In my experience, driving in Florida the last 10 years, roads start to get into really bad shape a year or two before a very major upgrade.  It's like they decide to re-pave a road, or upgrade from 2 to 4 lanes and to get a down payment of sorts do nothing in the way of maintaining it before saving enough to go ahead with needed work.

Carsandbikes said:

In reply to 03Panther :

The tires on this car look nearly new, though a lot of that is Armor-All.   Plenty of tread, more so than on my current daily driver, and no age cracking to be seen. 

The tires on the 435 mile Taurus I worked on this spring had no cracks at all.  Full tread (of course).  They were absolutely scary.  They would howl and skate with mild braking pressure.  Accidental burnouts with the monstrously powerful 3 liter Vulcan were as easy as gently nudging the accelerator.

The important place to look is the date code in the DOT number.  Eyeballs are not equipped with accurate durometers

The 10 year-old "near-new" Kumho's I put on the V8 Firefly made it accelerate about as fast as the 3cyl Firefly it started as. Marginal grip.

I get about 5 years about of a set of winters before that are too hard to grip in winter.

Never experienced a catastrophic failure, but I'm a firm believer in fresh tires.

One time, I had a mis-matched set of winters on an '86 Civic.  The oldest on the front, and the car would just slide straight and not turn corners.  The oldest on the rear, and it would swap ends at the drop of a hat.

Fresh tires.

Are your tires almost as old as your whiskey? If so, replace them.

In reply to G_Body_Man (Forum Supporter) :

Phew! I was worried there. I have a bottle of whiskey given to me 40 years ago. And my Dunlop race tires are only about 25 years old.  So as long as no one drinks that whiskey I'm good?  

I'd replace them. They may not be about to fail, but they certainly won't have the grip they did when new. You don't want to find that out in an emergency situation.

Reminds me of the time my neighbor complained to me that he had a "new" tire blow out on his 1990 4Runner.  He showed it to me.  It didn't blow out--it was still holding air, but the entire tread section was gone.  He was zooming up the left lane of I95 at about 75 mph when it let go.  Bent the bottom of the rear portion of the front fender back into the door/rocker panel.  You could barely get the driver door open.  I looked at what was left of the tire--it didn't exactly look new.  I asked him about it.  He said it was the spare that came with the truck.  Brand new.  He had just put it on a few days before.  Yeah, brand new in 1990!

If a nun had been driving the truck, she would have died in a fiery crash, because, you know, only the good die young.  

Old tires get harder. I do not know anybody that needs to check the durometor to know that. Hard tires do not ride/handle/stop as well. Don't need special eyes to know that. Will harder tires  that look perfect CAUSE a catastrophic failure? If they will under your driving/maintenance habits, please go turn your driving license, and use public transportation. And read the warning that tells ya not to use your toaster in the bathtub. Check the date codes and change tires BEFORE every 5 years (as recommended by all tire manufactures) NO MATTER WHAT if you do not have the ability to understand any of this.

On a similar note, check the date code before they mount your brand new tires ( especially trailer tires ) to make sure their date is not out of dat from sitting in a whse.

Other than tread wear, tires last longer roiling than they do in a climate controlled whse. out of the sun.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

not disagreeing at all. But your neighbor should not be allowed to own a car.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I don't know if the comment about looking at the date code was addressed only to me, or everyone following this saga.   But as I originally pointed out, a look at the DOT code told me the date of manufacturing was mid 2011.  That is why I posted my question.

I have, as I also said, only driven this car about 100 miles in 3 weeks and never more than 60 mph.  I might have driven it a bit more but we are still in the midst of a " love bug " infestation.  Love bugs are one of the few bugs that when they die, smashed against your car, leave an ACIDIC residue that destroys paint if not washed off as near immediately as possible.

A member in our motorcycle club showed up with a rear tire on his Honda 750 4 that was so old it was GREY. He had ridden halfway across the province on a tire that was old enough to vote.

Personally, I think he's an idiot but nothing bad ever seems to happen to him.

frenchyd said:

In reply to G_Body_Man (Forum Supporter) :

Phew! I was worried there. I have a bottle of whiskey given to me 40 years ago.

That doesn't make it 40 year old whiskey.

In reply to 03Panther :

The structural catastrophic failure you keep going back to is not the only concern with aged out tires. No matter how carefully you drive, you don't always get the choice to not utilize the full grip of your tires and you certainly don't always get to chose when and where it happens. To say that aged out tires getting harder simply reduces handling/stopping capabilities is a massive understatement. If that's all there rally was to it, aged out tires that are showing no signs or symptoms of impending structural catastrophic failure would perform no worse than a set of new similarly hard tires. But that's not the case at all. They're still far worse performing than that. They get less controllable, less predictable, and less progressive. The grip is not merely reduced, it also becomes more and more of an on/off switch that you don't know at what point its going to get flipped, with no discernable transition for even some of the most experienced of drivers to overcome it.  Like I said: They can look and feel fine, right up until they don't...And that just so happens to be when you most need them to be.

The catastrophic failure is the band wagon I have responded to. I may not be as sophisticated and eloquent as some of the writers on here, but I know common sense goes a lot farther than the sky is falling responses he got. But then common sense ain't all that common. I assumed he knew how to drive within the car and the tires limits. My history shows it can be done. No need to respond. Ill let others give him all the advice that they like, and ill move on, since I'm obviously not right. by by now. 

The main catastrophic failure I would be concerned about is the tires failing to grip, resulting in a vehicular catastrophe.  Fairly low pressure tires like passenger car tires generally don't explode without a bit of warning.  However the lack of grip is always there and tires are the most critical safety device on the car.

The thing is, you can't tell by looking at them if they're going to fail because of age.  They'll work right up until the point when they don't.

Personally I would get new tires

Also I would slit the side walls of the old tires before I dropped off the wheels so the dealer doesn't sell the new looking old ones to some unsuspecting little old lady.

In reply to 03Panther :

Driving on aged out tires is a lot like not wearing a seatbelt. It's a gamble people can rationalize, and get away with, with for only as long as nothing bad happens. If it were simply a matter of choosing to drive within the tires limits, seatbelts wouldn't be important either...So much for common sense.

I have some 50 year old Michelin XAS that show no perishing or cracking of the rubber, but they are hard as heck. I had to use them (they are mounted on some special peg drive wheels one of my MGs has) and I mounted them on the car just to run it to the body shop for a repaint. Car was all over the place because I was on a dewy road surface.

I go for the 5-6 year replacement schedule. Plus the modern rubber pigments dry out the rubber much sooner than the old ones did and the tires aren't safe as long.  I changed some OEM tires on my 2009 car at round 5 years and they had tons of tread but far less grip than they had when new.

jharry3 said:

Personally I would get new tires

Also I would slit the side walls of the old tires before I dropped off the wheels so the dealer doesn't sell the new looking old ones to some unsuspecting little old lady.

In the op’s case, and the question he asked, and info he gave, I would not... but...  I LOVE your plan if ya did!!! Smart. 

In reply to Driven5 :

I’m not the guy that posted a question. Please respond to him, and leave me out of it. You gave him advice and your opinion with statements to back up your position. Ain’t that enough?

If you have to ask, They're too old.