Aged Tires: a Driving Hazard?

Interesting. Thank you for posting that.

 

zenMachine,

By chance, did you notice at the end of the video, when the news crew is being
sold old tires, the car they are driving is a ... Prius?

Caveat emptor! Buyer beware!

If I'm decoding the date-stamp right, a three digit code is the 1990s, a four
digit code is the 2000s. Did I get this right?

Thanks for the heads-up.

 

Yep.

 

I'm watching the video and the off-screen talking heads are yammering away
about the week-year of manufacturer and I'm trying to keep up and create an
algorithm to decode them myself. Why can't the clowns just say, "A three digit
code is from the 1990s, and a four digit code is from the 2000s?"

I'm sure that I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, and a whole bunch of like folks
were probably wondering too. For a public service announcement, that's pretty dumb.

So now I'm wondering, what will the code be for the 2010s? 5 digits? Or back
to three? Or ... what?

 

Just another way to separate folks from their money.

Bob Wilson

 

Because a 4 digit number could represent anything from just a few weeks old to over 8 years old, as of today; in which case I would not want to be buying them and putting them on the car as new. This is the whole point of the article. As rubber ages, it dries out, gets brittle and can develope cracks in the sidewalls. This will happen. How long that it takes depends on the storage conditions. You don't want to be buying 6 year old tires as new and driving on them for another 6 years, as could happen in low mileage situations. I assume 2010 will be xx10 which is why they went to 4 digits. That will work up through 2099 at which time restarting @ xx00 for 2100 should not be a problem. Although, by then, tires may be archeological relics.

 

Very sensational.
I have had an old tyre blow out on me, it was something like 15 years since I purchased the tyre, it was a second hand retread when I bought it for my trailer and it went out of round well before it blew out. When the tyre people saw the tyre they told me the company that retreaded the tyre had been out of business for 25 years. It is likely the tyre was over 30 years old and had done a lot of miles.

I'm not too concerned about this and I think the whole story is being sensationalised. Those treads you see on the highways are from trucks driven on flat tyres.
The whole story seemed about manufacturers selling more new tyres to tyre dealers or maybe someone wanted some cheap tyres this week?

Old tyres do last longer as the tread does harden as it cures.

 

My wife had a Bridgestone tire a year and a half ago and the tread completely peeled off of the Front Drivers side wheel of her Beetle at 70 MPH on the Ohio Turnpike (I-80). She was able to maintain complete control of her car and safely cross it from the middle lane to the right hand shoulder. Of course she called me to come out and put on the spare. When I picked up the wheel to put it in the trunk after I was finished the tread was completely stripped from the rest of the tire and fell the rest of the way off. I chalked that up to it being a Bridgestone combined with a little neglect.

@ PATSPARKS
Here in the USA we never take responsibility for improper care and maintenance and blame everyone else. That guy probably had a lawsuit against the car manufacturer, the tire maker, the retail garage that sold it, the employee who mounted the wheel, and construction company who built the road.

 

True, most of what I see along the road looks like the retread portion of retreaded tires, usually truck tire sizes. However, I've had cars and been driving since 1957. I've seen old tires with cracks forming in their sidewalls, while the tread still looked good. I'm sure it's a combination of weather, driving habits(under unflated tires will run hot), and age. I have replaced tires because of cracking in the sidewalls when there was still tread left. I've bought retreads. I even retreaded a set of tires myself on my '53(used) Packard Clipper in the early '60's. A friend had a tool, like a soldering iron with I little "U" shaped blade. It heated up and you could cut groves your tires with it, and the threads if not careful. Oh! those innocent days. But my dad tought me not to drive with tires whose sidewalls showed signs of cracking. I'm, sure the materials in tires have come a long way since then and are less susceptable, but why take the chance. It's like buying groceries. I always try to remember to check the "sell by" or "use by" dates for the freshest product. Everything has a shelf life. Some longer than others. Either way it's good to know what it might be.

 

I found a good description of tire date stamps at Tire Expiration Dates

The date of manufacture is indicated by the last group of digits in the DOT manufacture code on the sidewall of the tire. The number is often stamped in a recessed rectangle. The DOT code tells who manufactured the tire, where it was made and when. The last group of digits in the code is the date code that tells when the tire was made.

Before 2000, the date code had three digits. Since 2000, it has had four. The first two digits are the week of the year (01 = the first week of January). The third digit (for tires made before 2000) is the year (1 = 1991). For most tires made after 2000, the third and fourth digits are the year (04 = 2004).

 

Seriously people, if a tyre has cracks or is distorting or delaminating change the bloody thing before it kills someone but the age of the tyre shouldn't be an issue if tyres are inspected and maintained properly. Cracks in sidewalls occur due to exposure to sun wind and rain, none of these are issues in a resellers store room normally. De-lamination is a manufacturer defect or caused by bad road surfaces or air finding its way between the layers, this only happens when the tyre is in use.

In this image you can see the tread is bulging near the guy's thumb,
replace a tyre like this now, it will often make a noise.

 

all,

I just checked all 4 of my "new" tires that I just bought this May. Two of them are stamped with 1606, one says 1706, but I can't find any datecode after the mfr's # on the 4th tire. I guess I'll have to crawl under my car for that one (unless the inside of that tire is miss'g the datecode too). So mine were 2 years old already when I bought them, but they'll probably be worn out by the time they get to be 6 years old.

By the way, zen, that's the date of manufacture, NOT the expiration date.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

 

I got the feeling up to 6 years old was O.K. to buy, although you'd probably want to keep an eye on them if running them on a low annual mileage vehicle, I.E. planning to use them for another 6 years. My understanding was that you should avoid buying tires older the 6 years. Not that 6 years is hard set, just a guideline. Personnally I'll probably try to find them in within a 2 year range, not necessarily knowing under what conditions they were stored. Dry, hot weather conditions will age them more quickly than in I cool, humidity controlled environment, whether in storage or on the car.

 

I bought my Miata's tires 10 years ago. It's been garaged 99% and only about 20K miles since then, but I guess I ought to be shopping for new rubber soon.

 

How do they look? Is there any signs of dry rot or cracking like in the earlier post photo's? If they they look good, just keep an eye on them and avoid any long high speed trips without checking thier condition.

 

They look great, which I thought was fine. But the video implies that even "new" tires that have been out of the sun are dangerous if they are too old and have "dried out."

I'll have to give them a closer look, though. I figured that UV exposure was the main threat and they haven't had muich of that.