Would you run these tires? They're brand new...

These are some Michelin PSC2Rs on a new C8 in a dealership lot I've been doing E36 M3ty underpaid gig work at recently. A couple days ago it was -8C in the daytime and it's been around -15C here the last few nights. There are probably a dozen more C8s just like this there. They drive them from trucks to the lot at these temperatures too - I saw that last time I was there and it was around -8C, and today at around 0C.

Now one Michelin tech bulletin doesn't say that the tires can't be stored in these temperatures, but basically says that they shouldn't be touched at -10C or less and should be warmed up to 5C if they have (reached -10C):

https://marketing.michelin.co.uk/p/PDF/Technical%20Bulletin_PSC2R.pdf

But info from another region has the more familiar advice of not even storing them at -10C or less:

https://middle-east.michelin.com/en/auto/tyres/michelin-pilot-sport-cup-2-r

Should the dealership be letting this happen? Is some New Balance-wearing old dude in jorts gonna blow up his tires approaching Moss Corner because of this?

IIRC, Chevy ended up replacing a bunch of 'Vette and ZL1 Camaro tires 5-6 years ago for similar negligence...

Depends on if you want to get involved. Depends if you like your job. 

The five or six year ago situation apparently had the tread faces breaking, like huge cracks.  The trouble was very obvious, apparently.

My question then, and now, is " How stupid do you need to be to sell a car into Canada on tires that can't go outside for 5 or 6 months of the year?"

Reading this, my thought is that replacing all of the tires would be far cheaper than explaining to your lawyer, and then a judge, why you didn't. And possibly even with a grieving spouse involved. 

Unfortunately, people don't typically think that way. 

dean1484 said:

Depends on if you want to get involved. Depends if you like your job. 

"Hey boss, I remember reading about an issue 5-6 years ago that had this happen.  Should someone be looking into that?"  And then never mention it again

dean1484 said:

Depends on if you want to get involved. Depends if you like your job. 

I've been doing E36 M3ty underpaid gig work at recently. 
 

He answered that in the first sentence.

I'm not employed directly by anyone at the dealership so I don't have much to fear from getting involved. I'll mention it to them next time I'm there.

Funny enough the most gig-imperiling thing that happened while doing this kind of work was caused by me just being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting blamed for some unknown dealership worker's screwup that I had nothing to do with. I haven't got any work from that dealership since...

From in inquiry I made to Continental they said to not allow my ECS tires to hold load below freezing.  Also they recommend not driving on them below 40F.   ECF's must be the same.

We don't get freezes much where I live but when I know its coming I take off my tires and stack them in my living room.  (No female in the house so I can put whatever I want in my mancave home.)

jharry3 said:

From in inquiry I made to Continental they said to not allow my ECS tires to hold load below freezing.  Also they recommend not driving on them below 40F.   ECF's must be the same.

We don't get freezes much where I live but when I know its coming I take off my tires and stack them in my living room.  (No female in the house so I can put whatever I want in my mancave home.)

I didn't have a choice when I picked up the BRZ back in December of '22 having a bunch of work done. When I drove it home it was -13 F outside with a wind chill of -22 F. The lack of grip from 245/35/18 ECS was hilarious.

It was so cold, I could hear and feel the fluid in the Torsen diff was partially congealed. 

So, this thread really got me to thinking about the replacement of the tires on the 2017 Shelby GT350.  They're Michelin Pilot Super Sports, and I assume they are original to the car.  Date codes are mid-to-late-2016, which makes them pretty darn old.  They've got 12k on them now, and prolly another 10k of tread left, but it's the age that has me concerned.  Also, my wife and I were out a few weeks ago on a Sunday drive and we pulled off from a stoplight on a dead straight stretch of divided highway and got into it a tiny bit and the rear broke way loose on the 1-2 shift.  I realize these are summer tires, but I was unprepared for how little traction they actually offer.  Air temp was at least mid-30's F., though the pavement was likely a good bit colder.  We stopped for gas a little ways up the road and I put my hand on the tread.  Barely warm, though we'd been driving a good bit, and the surface felt almost slippery, plastic-y.  

This car is stored in a detached garage with no heat.  If the outside temp is 8 degrees F., then that's what the tires are seeing.  Is merely parking a car with these tires in a cold garage bad for the tires?

As this car will likely never see the track (poser!), I'm leaning toward a more tame tire with a bit more cold tolerance, maybe even a top end AS tire.

Wow, as I'm checking out tire rack, it seems like all my selections include the line "not intended to be driven or stored in temperatures below freezing" or something similar. 

Heat was in the plans for the garage as a workspace, but I didn't think I'd need heat just to park tires in it. 

How do you all store your summer tires?

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Mine sit in the heated garage when off the car, so it's usually in the low 50s in there.  With the ECSs on the BMW, my metric is usually once I have to drive the car in weather at or below freezing, it's time to swap to the snows (and they swap back in the spring once there's basically no risk of me needing to drive the car below freezing).  The ECS behave just fine at 35* though in my experience.  Not as grippy as in warmer weather, especially until they warm up a little, but they're far from hockey pucks at that temp, even if it's wet. 

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

Yeah those temperatures aren't good for them. As a rule of thumb, higher performance summer tires can be damaged just by being stored in temps around -7C/20F, there might be more specific numbers available for a particular model from the manufacturer. On my Toyobaru I switch from summer tires to winter/storage tires some time between the end of the racing season and when temps get close to freezing, and then bag the summer tires and stuff them in the corner of a laundry room.

it would be interesting to see what the  German TÜV  inspection thinks about this ?

They have the cold temps and then the Autobahn high speeds  so they must have some regulations.

In reply to californiamilleghia :

They require winter tires in winter conditions. So if you bought a new C8 with PSC2Rs on it and got it inspected by the TÜV in the winter, it wouldn't pass:

https://routetogermany.com/drivingingermany/tires-regulations

But there doesn't seem to be anything that would keep a dealership in Germany from importing a C8 with PSC2Rs in the winter, driving it through the lot at below -10C, and then in the summer selling it to some New Balance-wearing old dude in denim lederhosen who may then blow up his tires going into Schwedenkreuz.

My summer tires (Continental ECS) sit in a rack in an unheated garage. Back in my racing days the tires sat in the same rack. I don't give it a second thought.

My tires sit in my classroom at school. Seems appropriate for Driver Education no?

I'm reminded of the Roger Rodas/Paul Walker Porsche crash. Andy Pilgrim told me that when he went to the crash site his first thought was old tires, cold tires. The car apparantly had it's original tires on it. 7 years old at the time? Roiger had owned the car maybe three weeks. 

If I bought a Vette like that I'd want to know when and how the car was stored through the winter. There's dealership near me with 3 C8s and an Elmira in the yard on the front line. 

Just thought I would update, I brought up the tire storage temperature issue and the recall for similar issues with the Corvette and Camaro ~6 years ago and they're "aware of it"

Glad you said something. I tend to be on the side of "It's always okay to speak up about safety" and this was clearly a safety issue.

See something say something

vs

Snitches get stitches