Tires: How old is too old?

Blew 2 on my car trailer in the same trip that were 13 years old.

Blew a tire on the dolly while towing a car at highway speed, tire wasn't even old, but we found out at discount tire that the tire was recalled by the factory and replaced all three (2 tires and 1 spare) for free.

One of the scariest experience on the road for me.

I had one spontaneously pop sitting in the driveway.
Same thing. Junk yard.....brand new......

Not germane to the 6 yr. old max thread going on here, but I remember seeing the inner tube poking out of a gash in the sidewall of a transit bus in Mexico City when I was there Xmas time in 1966.Now THAT was scary looking, and I was only 10! Of course, if it ever went over 10 miles an hour in that traffic-clogged city it would have been a miracle.

I've run 12 year old tires for an extended period (and 2 10 hour round trips across the state). I say run it. Inspect it if it makes you feel better. Check for dry rot. Though a well made, old tire with tons of dry rot still seems to have less sidewall flex than the cheap junk I'm running right now.

I don't take a chance with tires and probably am extreme on the safe side. It can snow any month of the year here though.

Everything has less than 4 year old tires. We have an ancient Subie, and took it down and put on 13" snows just in case my fair half has to get through 6-8 inches of snow to get to work again.

OldGrandpaTune said:

I don't take a chance with tires and probably am extreme on the safe side. It can snow any month of the year here though.

Everything has less than 4 year old tires. We have an ancient Subie, and took it down and put on 13" snows just in case my fair half has to get through 6-8 inches of snow to get to work again.

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You have kids though right?

“Tires are primarily degrading from the inside-out, due [to] permeation and reaction of the pressurized oxygen within the tire structure, with rates proportional to temperature.”

So would filling them with some other gas like nitrogen help slow this process?

TempleUWS6 said:

“Tires are primarily degrading from the inside-out, due [to] permeation and reaction of the pressurized oxygen within the tire structure, with rates proportional to temperature.”

So would filling them with some other gas like nitrogen help slow this process?

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Yes.
Tire stores in Germany offer to fill with pure nitrogen since the early 90's. They call it Reifengas ("tire-gas"). Nitrogen also is used in racing applications and aircraft tires to prevent self ignition due to heat.

suped. said:

You have kids though right?

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I have one, and his is older than you.

Crashed many times, and it starts to hurt after a while.

suped. said:

I've run 12 year old tires for an extended period (and 2 10 hour round trips across the state). I say run it. Inspect it if it makes you feel better. Check for dry rot. Though a well made, old tire with tons of dry rot still seems to have less sidewall flex than the cheap junk I'm running right now.

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I respect you completely.
But **** that.

I start getting real antsy around 5 years. I have 3 vehicles approaching that. Hoping the low gas prices will affect tire prices soon.

suped. said:

You have kids though right?

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Kids in your car or not,have yourself a blowout due to old tires,smack into a car with a couple of kids.

When someone else produces funds for new tires I'll stop worrying about 5 year old tires.

i once bought an Alfa Spider that was imported from Florida.
I ran the car for over a year on the tires it came on.
Then, some day i was making a fast (100mph) roadtrip when the rear of the car started to shake violently. Not reassuring when you are traveling at speed. So i stoped on the hard shoulder to check things over. The tires seemed to be OK, both were still inflated. But once i looked closer i noticed a bulge on the thread of one tire. When i touched it it was scalding hot! I installed the spare and drove on.
So, the next day i had new rear tires installed and i asked the tire guy if he could investigate what went wrong with the old tires. They had plenty of thread left and looked OK. He cut the bulging tire open and then it became obvious what was happening. The steel belt inside the tire had rusted which caused the tire to start delaminating. Very dangerous. Specially in a ragtop.
The guy told me it happened more often on ragtops, classic cars and trailers because these tend to get used less often. Meaning the tirethreads wear slowly, but the tires still do age!

I traded that Alfa Spider for a classic bmw e9 coupe that came with a set of wheels fitted with 20+ year old winter tires. The rubber was like hard plastic! On a wet road i could produce instant wheelspin in 3rd gear! It was impossible to get proper heat in the tire. Hardly any grip at all. Because the tires were fitted with inner tubes i actually used these tires for a while and even did a few Nurburgring laps on them.
Silly, in fact, not very wise since i knew better after that Alfa Spider experience. But those old tires did hold up.

Once i got the 16" Alpina rims with the brand new Michelin PS2's i never looked back. The difference in grip was like night and day.

I will change them every 5 years, 4 seasons for winters, as those dry out faster it seems.

I tried driving a set of older winters (about 7 years) with 'good' tread and they were horrible in the rain. On close inspection you could see small cracks, and it wouldn't handle worth anything. Understeer on sweepers, oversteer in sharp corners. Threw on newer winters, and it's night and day.