This past Saturday was a beautiful warm spring day with the sun shining. It was a perfect day to go for a cruise in one of my old cars. I decided to go for a ride in my Chevy Malibu as I haven’t had a chance to take it on a good long highway cruise this spring. I asked my kids if they wanted to join and they agreed it was a great idea. So, with the tunes cranked we hit the highway for our little adventure. That was until about 15 minutes into the trip while travelling at 70 mph when I felt the car starting to pull the left slightly. Quickly this pull got worse and worse and I realized I had just lost the front left tire.
I pulled over to the shoulder of the highway and assessed the situation. The tire was completely flat with absolutely no air in it. That’s when I realized that I only had the OEM bumper jack in the trunk. As I was calling a friend who lived nearby to see if he had a floor jack, an older gentleman with a 20ish year old beat-up GMC pickup hauling some hay pulled over and offered to help. He told me that he had a jack and a tire iron. I took him up on the offer to use his floor jack instead of using the bumper jack.
Note the line around the sidewall. This was the damaged caused by the flat and it is significant enough that the tire is no longer safe to use.
Within a short time I had the car lifted and the tire off. The tire’s sidewall suffered some pretty bad damage due to being driven without any air pressure; however, in examining the tire, I didn’t see any obvious cause for the flat. I pulled the spare from the trunk and realized that it was a very old tire. While, I have examined the spare tire in the past, my complacency due to lack of tire problems for many years meant that I never given its age any real thought. It was also this complacency which led me to not packing a floor jack, something I normally do on longer trips with my old cars. I got the spare mounted but it wasn’t too reassuring. It looked to be a little low on pressure, despite the fact I last set the pressure last year.
The gentleman complimented the good condition of my Malibu and I thanked him for his help. He told me that he has been stuck on the side of the road and nobody helped him. So, he tries to help people when he sees them stranded. It’s nice to know there are still some good people out there. I set on my way, driving cautiously on that old spare tire. I stopped at a nearby gas station to check the tire pressure, which was low as I had suspected. I also put some air in the flat tire and discovered it was a faulty valve stem that caused the leak. Luckily the valve stem leak resulted in a relatively slow and controlled release of the air pressure. Had it been a blowout due to the tire failure, it might have been a totally different outcome. With the tire pressure set, I was able to make it home safely.
The ancient Toyo all-season was able to get me home. It looks tiny compared to the oversized tires I had on the car.
Now what to do about the tires? The flat would obviously have to be replaced due to the sidewall damage, but do I just replace one tire? Or maybe just the two fronts? The remaining three tires are crack free, have lots of tread life left and the tires have lived indoors, other than when the car is driven, since new. That got me thinking, “How old are these tires anyway?” I remember helping my brother pick the staggered set of tires for the Malibu when he owned it, and it didn’t seem that it was that long ago. Well, I was wrong. The date code was 2011 – 10 years ago! I thought I better check the date on my Torino’s tires too, because I bought its last set of tires about the same time. Sure enough they were also dated 2011.
This Dodge Charger was being driven on tires that were about 20 years old. One failed at highway speed and destroyed the fender.
Right there, I decided that this flat tire was my sign that I need to get new tires for both cars. Had this been a catastrophic tire failure, I could have done significant damage to the car or worse yet caused injury to my kids and me. Most of the experts in the tire industry seem to suggest that tires age out and shouldn’t be used after 10 years. Coker Tire, one of the largest vintage tire retailers, suggests that if you plan on driving your classic, you shouldn’t drive on tires that are more than 10 years old. The British Rubber Manufacturer’s Association (BRMA) recommends that unused tires over 6 years old should not be put in service, and that all tires should be replaced after 10 years from their date of manufacture. The Japanese Automobile Tire Manufacturer’s Association (JATMA) recommends inspection of tires after 5 years of use and replacement after 10 years, regardless of overall condition.
Tires made prior to 2000 have a 3-digit date code. They are the last three digits next to the DOT stamp. The first two digits are the week of the year and the last digit is represents the last digit of the year of manufacture. In this case, this tire was manufactured in the 1st week of 1996, or 1986 or 1976.
US market tires manufactured after 1971 have date codes stamped on their side walls. Tires manufactured before 2000 have a three digit code. The first two numbers are represent the week of the year the tire was manufactured, and the last digit is the last number in the year of manufacture. The problem is it can be hard to determine the decade. Is it 1986 or 1996? Sometimes you can narrow the decade by the model of tire, but this is not always the case.
In 2000, the tire date codes were updated to a 4-digit code. The date code is represented by the last 4-digits next to DOT, in this example “2910.” The first two digits are the week of the year and the last two digits are the year of manufacture. In this case this tire was manufactured on the 29th week of 2010.
From 2000 on, the tire date codes were revised to a 4-digit code. The below photo shows my tire that failed, which has a manufacturing date of the 3rd week of 2011.
This is my tire that went flat (note the abrasion on the side wall). The date code shows it was made on the 3rd week of 2011.
My tires live in a moderate climate and don’t see high mileage, extreme heat or cold, and have limited UV exposure. This explains why at 10 years old they still look good, but I know that I can’t see the rubber degradation. That said, the money saved by not replacing them is not worth the risk of a major failure (see the Dodge Charger above). Having looked at my spare more closely once I got home, I assessed it to be well over 20 years old, as it still possessing the old 3-digit date code. It looks like it’s time to update it as well. Luckily the spare in my Torino is a fair bit newer, although I plan to replace it down the road.
Don’t let the lack of tread wear fool you. This is my 10 year old tire that will be replaced due to it aging out before wearing out.
While most daily drivers will wear out the tires before they age out, many of us here at Curbside have classic cars or recreational vehicles that see infrequent use. If you do, this might be the time to go and check the date codes on these tires to see if they are due for replacement. Which brings me to the question of the day and perhaps a bit of a Curbside community announcement, now that you know how to read the date codes, how old are the tires on your vehicles? Let’s all do our best to keep our tires safe, “because so much is riding on your tires.”
Vince
Great article. I had a rear tire go on my ’76 SDV as shown, and there was no sign of deterioration prior to the flat. Treads looked good, with no cracking, etc., but the tire was around 10 years old. A similar tire went on my ’81 CDV at speed, but with no damage other than a change of undies.
1981 CDV aftermath
I had a similar blow out on a 3 year old tire with about 40000 miles on it. It was a major brand name too. It was a 60000 mile rated tire. If the guy who made your tires drank his lunch and goofed it, it sucks to be riding on his work.
Thanks Dean. Now those are blowouts. Glad to hear the Caddy’s survived unscathed.
Both blow outs occurred within 10km of each other on the 401 at about 110kph, and both were the passenger rear. Being large cars, they just sort of listed over like the Lusitania after being torpedoed, and were very controllable. Between blow-outs and shifted belts, I must be up to about 7 examples by now.
Excellent article. Thanks for the information. NOW: a true story. The year: 1967, Bridgeport, CT. In 1955 a lady bought her 1955 Olds 98 Sedan. She drove it out of the dealership and to the Goodyear tire store that was on Fairfield Avenue at the time. There, she had the tires replaced for “Goodyear Double Eagle” tires which came with a life time warranty. 1967: The lady returns to the Goodyear Tire Store. The tread is still on the tires but they constantly go flat. The car had about 22,000 miles on it. The tires had dry rot. The lady was given a set of new “Double Eagles” as per the warranty. How many people used this warranty? Probably very few because people drive their cars much more and, as you pointed out, the tires wear out before they can be dangerous. Funny story.
I too am pretty obsessive about tire age, and generally go with the six year, perhaps push it to seven, recommendation. Currently none are anywhere near that yet, The Jeep got new tires last year, the Tesla’s three (!) sets are of course less than a year old (the ones that came with it, the winters, and then the spare ones that were on the second set of (takeoff) wheels I bought to put the winters on), and the truck’s I replaced when I got it two and a half years ago. When I had the Porsche it was more difficult with all the tires and multiple wheel sets I had, the ones to watch are the winter tires, the Blizzaks I had for it were approaching six years old when I sold it and while the tread was still looking great, they were starting to get far more slippery over the last two winters, leading me to think they harden with age. Still FAR better than anything non-winter, but not as they were when new.
They do harden. Someone told me that taxi drivers in some places (overseas I think) used to buy tires and store them in dark basements so when they need them they are harder and wear slower than new tires. Take that with a bunch of salt but that was the story I was told.
Outstanding article, thank you! This is an aspect of old car ownership that is much misunderstood and, in my experience, almost always ignored. In fact I’d say it’s the #1 overlooked item of most owners with respect to maintaining an old(er) car.
How many old cars ads do you see that, if tires are mentioned at all, simply say “lots of tread life remains” as if that’s the only thing about the tires that matters. You never see the age of the tires mentioned, and a lot of owners surprisingly don’t even know how to read the tire sidewall to find out!
It’s one the first things I check when looking at an older car and pretty much every single old car I’ve purchased has needed new tires. It’s as predictable as death and taxes and something I plan for as a matter of course.
Always ignored like changing out the brake fluid and coolant in the past. While coolant life has been extended the same can’t be said about standard brake fluid used by many.
When I bought my 1962 mini I mentioned to the seller that it would need new tyres all round, and he looked at me funny – it was clear to him that I was just trying to bargain the price down.
When I looked later, not only were all the tyres rotted out, but two of them were re-treads. And one of them was a Dunlop “Made in New Zealand” – the NZ Dunlop factory had closed over 15 years earlier.
The worst part of this is the price of mini tyres – for a good quality set of fitted Falkens, you’re paying about the same price as a single tyre on my Mitsubishi Outlander! How anyone could be so cheap as to fit re-treads to a mini is totally beyond me.
Here’s a pic of one of the tyres
My former Cosworth Vega (#2196) came with a nearly 20-year-old set of Firestone Firehawk SS tires with good (looking) tread and no obvious dry rot. I drove it a few times on those and had no problems, but did replace them with BF Goodrich T/A Radials (pretty much the only option available that would fit today) due to the same concerns you highlight above.
Sadly for my budget, in 2014 I bought new tires and had them installed on my freshly refurbished wheels for my ’62 and ’63 VW projects. It will likely be another year before I hopefully get the cars back together and on the road, which means the never-used tires will be 9+ years old. They’ve been stored indoors out of sunlight and look great, but…
pic didn’t load for some reason…
New tires are cheaper than new fenders and paint. I’m in the same situation with a couple of antique cars. Two sets of new tires that are 20+ years old. Maybe they would be fun to autocross at low speeds.
I could *really* have fun by reinstalling the barely (or un-) used tires that came on the ’63. I’d have to run out to the shop to check the code on them, but they have to be decades old, as they’re skinny bias-ply tires.
Err, 2509 on mine
Looks like the old tires are Kelly-Springfield “Bench Mark” tires. Date code 442. I’m guessing 1992 due to the 3-digit code.
I still have a set of bias-plys I use as rollers. These Goodyear Polyglas G70-14s date to 1975!
My 1976 Cosworth Vega still had the factory spare. It looked like it was made of hard toy plastic and probably would have gripped like it, too, if it would have held air long enough.
Why did Goodyear think the tire size was worth announcing to the world with raised white letters?
Ed, you need to rethink those Benchmark Tires. The Trademark was dropped by Kelly-Springfield in 1989, after their Registration expired in 1985. https://uspto.report/TM/72395238
When we have our annual vehicle check, a tyre in degraded condition would be a ‘fail’, and a tyre nearing its’ ‘use-by’ date would be an ‘advisory’.
The tyres on my daily have been on it less than 2 years one went flat today and has barely legal tread depth I will need a new set it seems or at least a pair put on the front and use the worn ones on the back
I replaced the wheels and tyres on my Superminx with a bigger diameter set the wheels and tyres it came on were old but with near new tread they are now on my trailer.
9 months ago I bought a 06 Mustang with about 45 thousand miles on it. It looked to be in pretty good shape and I was told that the only previous owner was a little old lady (yeah, I know). The tires looked brand new, but when I got to looking at the date, because the car didn’t seem to stop as well as I thought it should, I discovered the tires were nearly 8 years old. They looked new, had plenty of tread on them, but after some online research (thank you, Grassroots Motorsports) I decided to change them out.
In 50 years of driving I think that I have had 4-5 flat tires. It has gotten to the point that when I am seriously shopping a new to me/used car, I rarely check for a spare or tools. My other car has neither tools nor a spare…and I hope that I didn’t just jinx myself.
Yes – a timely article! With cars in northern climes coming out of their slumber, often tires are overlooked apart from airing them up. I just replaced the tires on my 74 Charger with General Altimaxes because I wanted the OWL version. The tires on the Charger were 11 years old T/As. Plus the spare was even older, hiding under a storage cover. I replaced all 5 to be on the safe side. What is an extra $100 or so for the spare, mounted on a Road Wheel? Not a big deal. I do have to put a bottle jack in each of my classics as those bumper jacks are best left in their stowed position as display only!
It does seem like a waste to get rid of tires with plenty of tread but aged out – however, the safety aspect is an even better argument to get them replaced.
Sigh … I probably need to replace the tires on my Ducati that I haven’t been riding much lately. They’re about ten years old and though the rear is pretty worn, at just a few hundred miles a year I’ve been living on borrowed time. Motorcycle tires are expensive and though I can mount my own on rims I don’t mind scratching, I prefer to leave the Duc to a pro. Thanks for the motivation.
Yep…tire age get expensive when you have a fleet of cars, but it’s the smart thing to do. My Mustang is getting new ones this year – the current Radial T/As are from 2012.
Man, I screwed up that comment…”replacing tires due to age GETS expensive…” I even spelled my name wrong…yikes!
We all have days like that! Are you sticking with Radial T/As? There are so few options these days for 14″ and 15″ tires. I actually really like the vintage tire look a lot better than modern RWL tires, like my G70-14 Good Year Polyglas I posted above. However, I am not willing to pay the stupid prices for repros, or drive on skinny bias-plys. They also sell those bias-plys appearing radials but they are very limited in sizes, and I run wider than stock tires on my cars.
I think I’m switching to black sidewall tires and 15″ Torq-Thrust D’s, but I have Cooper Cobras on my Skylark and Firebird. They’re as good as Radial T/As, but the last time I checked, they were about $30 cheaper per tire. I think those are our only two choices right now.
I agree on the look of the Polyglas – I wish you could get radial tires that look exactly like they did. I do spend the money on Coker wide whites for my ’53 Buick, and it is also due for tires this year.
The torque thrusts with black walls will look great on your Mustang! I had a friend with a ’65 that had the same setup. Actually, I prefer black walls or even whitewalls on early Mustangs. The RWL more suit the the 1968-79 era cars IMO. I have heard a lot of good feedback about the Cooper Cobras, although up here in Canada the price difference is not as big for whatever reason and availability is more limited. My only hesitation with them is I don’t like the larger/busier RWL compared to Radial T/As.
I would agree that running Coker repro’s on your Buick is the only real option. I’d do the same if I owned a car from that era. Since I don’t ever plant on getting rid of my cars, I suspect the day will come when I will have no other choice other than buying expensive repro tires. I am sure the BFGs and Coopers won’t stay in mainstream production forever.
“They still got t(h)read and the hold air, that’s all that matters” It really surprises me how many people subscribe to this thought. And these are often very intelligent people who certainly can afford to buy tires.
One in particular that comes to mind is a friend of mine and his 280zx. It is his baby, the first new car he bought shortly after he got his first “real” job as an electrical engineer. It was retired from daily driving many years ago and he has spent money on 2 paint jobs in its lifetime, and even had the seats redone in leather. However it still has the same tires on it that he did when I met him 11 years ago, and they definitely weren’t new at that point. When I mentioned that he might want to replace the tires when he had the most recent paint job done a couple of years ago he gave me the line about them still having tread.
I’ve also had more than on discussion with a customer back in the day where I had to fight to convince the tires that still had a lot of tread were the root of their problem. Either from being so hard from age that they had lost their grip or because they had an out of round condition that was causing the vibration/pull/shaking steering wheel.
I’ve got a few sets that should be replaced soon due to age. I figure that on average I buy a set of tires every year. Even in those that get driven enough to wear out I typically replace at 4/32″ as that is the point where hydroplane resistance really drops off. That is one thing that is cool about some Continental tires. D W and S in some cases is in the tread blocks on the outer edge. When a letter goes away it means the performance in that condition has been significantly reduced. The S if present goes away at 6/32″ while the W goes away at 4/32″ and presumably the D disappears at 2/32″ Of course that assumes that the tire is wearing evenly and the out shoulder isn’t wearing excessively due to misalignment or lots of spirited driving.
I learned the hard way about tires – the 88 Brougham I bought two years ago had rear tires on it that were about 10 years old…one of them went out on me an hour after I bought the car. Next day, put two new tires on the rear as the fronts were from 2015.
But now I’m thinking it’s time for new front tires since those are now 6 years old….they have plenty of tread but time keeps on ticking….
I’ll have to look at the date code (Thanks Vince for the Rosetta Stone here!) on my 2007 Mustang’s tires when I get home. But I know they need replacing, as they are starting to get those little cracks in them. And yes, there is plenty of tread left on these tires.
My wife has had terrible luck with the tires on her 2009 Lancer. She barely drives anymore, so hers were in the same state as my Mustang’s with the cracks starting to appear well before the tread wearing out. So I bought her a brand new set of an off brand sold by Tire Buyer called IRONMAN GR906. They don’t have the best treadwear numbers, but are great in the rain. This is perfect, as maybe, just maybe, the tires WILL wear out before they start to crack. But at < 3,000 miles of usage per year, I'll probably be replacing these too before the tread wears out!
As I said above though, she has had terrible luck with tires. Even the little bit that she drives, she ALWAYS picks up a nail or screw or something. I personally like to wear all 4 tires out at the same time, so that I can replace the whole set at once. It was 2014 or 15 before I was FINALLY able to do this with her car. When it was new, she cut a sidewall halfway thru the tread life on the original Yokohamas. This started the cascading effect of 2 tire replacement as I had one tire that was newer than the others. It drove me nuts. When I first got to replace all 4 at once, I thought maybe this hassle was over. Nope. She did it again. I got the tire plugged, but it plagued me with a slow leak from that point until I replaced them with the aforementioned GR906(s). Sure enough, two weeks after I bought her the new tires she currently has, she picked up a nail in the left front in tire. ARGH%#@$^#&%!!!! I give up. She has very very slow leaks in both right side tires (two of the remaining three that I did not have to repair). Sigh. I think I like the plan my wife has of just giving the car to our granddaughter when she goes off to college. Maybe she'll have better luck!
Timely article, BTW, as my wife keeps saying to me, "When are you FINALLY going to get new tires for your Mustang?" I've had the page bookmarked for the exact same tires I got for her for about a year or so now. I hesitate, because the elephant in the room is the likely need for some front end components for the car first…. Insert Scream Face Emoji Here…
The only car with me at work today is my 2016 Civic. They've been replaced once, and are almost due again. (I actually DRIVE this car every day.) I just went out and looked. The YOKAHAMA Ascend GT(s) on that car were manufactured in the 32nd week of 2018. Yeah, the tread's gonna be gone before the 10-year mark. In fact, I'll likely be replacing these before winter of this year.
Again, thanks for the tip on deciphering this Vince! – AND the tip to check the spares!
I have NEVER replaced one of those donuts. Where the heck do you find one of those anyway? I am SURE that the Lancer and Mustang's are old enough now to need replacing. Both have seen duty, although only to go a short distance to where I had the real tire replaced. It's not like I travel far, or fast, on a donut like that.
I don’t know if you can buy replacement donut tires. I have never seen any before, but I would think someone would sell them. My dad’s Corvette is in the same boat as your Mustang. It sees little mileage and the tires will be aged out shortly. I will have to convince him to replace them even though they have a fair amount of tread left. I know he’s been putting off due to the price of modern hi-po tires.
Yeah, I’m lucky with the Mustang, as it is only a V6. The 215-65R-16 tires are pretty cheap to replace. H speed rating, unlike your Dad’s Corvette which is probably sporting Z(s).
Tirerack has a large selection of spare tires. They aren’t cheap considering how little tire you are getting.
This is good to know, Scoutdude. Since so many new cars come with a can of Fix-a-Flat instead of a real spare tire or donut, when I get a new car, I can at least go out and get one, unless this paradigm shift brought on by CAFE means that there isn’t even space in the trunk for a donut or worse… no jack provided!
I don’t know about you, but the one time I tried that stuff, it trashed the inside of my tire and made it all out of balance. I can’t believe that just to save weight, car companies even consider this a safe option.
I have found that the tires I neglect the most are the winter tires that only go on for a few months. Since I keep cars a long time, it’s easy to let these tires get too old. Hurts to replace tires that only get a few months’ use and still look good, but the downside of not doing so is way too big.
1. Based on the accelerated degradation of rubber products, I’m convinced that “rubber” has been formulated to DELIBERATELY fail early. Wiper blades barely last six months, and often not even that long. Tires used to go “forever” before the rubber weather-checked. NOW, modern rubber products look like death at half the service life we used to get.
2. Chinese valve stems are a known problem; in fact there was a recall of them a few years back.
There’s a conspiracy where Corporate America is racing to the bottom in an effort to grab as much money from consumers as possible while assuring a continuing revenue stream from products that fail early.
I’ve made observation #1 myself and wholeheartedly agree.
This explains why one of my truck tires failed last fall. The date codes are 2006 and one tire suffered a tread separation. Fortunately for me this occurred while parked in the driveway and also fortunately the truck came with a second set of wheels and tires. I see a lot of new tires in my future since the ones currently on the truck are dated 2009 and the spare is the original from 2002 and i think our car tires are only good for another season.
I never had this problem with our Saturn which wore out tires every 4 years or so. Oddly it had two “doughnut” spare fail while stored in the trunk. I guess GM got a bad batch because the tread and carcass plies popped off.
I have just replaced, in the last 24 months the tires on four of my five old cars. The Park Lane first, then the Mustang, last month the Polara, and in May the F100 all were at 10 years. Got to spread out the financial hit. Interestingly the tires on the F100 had noticeable cracks in the tread all around while the others didn’t.
Side note I talked with the previous owner of the Park Lane in 2003. His son emailed me he found parts in his garage and when I called he was stunned, and glad, that I still had the car. He restored his first bought, in 1974, Datsun 260Z afterwards
That is a little spread out but still a lot of money spent on tires per year. Hopefully #5 isn’t due soon too.
It is coming up and they will be the most expensive as they are for the Cougar with 15″ mags. The others got Hankook Kinergy ST WSW 195s and 215s WSW which are inexpensive ($400 total ea.) so to speak.
It is remarkably easy to lose track of the age of tires on a car that is not driven much. I have a Citroën 2CV that I have owned for 30 years. About 5 years after I bought it I put a new set of Michelins on it. In my mind they were “new” tires. I generally did not drive it in the rain (2CVs leak), but one day I got caught in a light shower. Starting up from a traffic light in my usual sedate manner (no choice with 29hp) the wheels started spinning. It turns out my “new” tires were now 19 years old. Driving on a wet road was like driving on wet ice. I immediately replaced them, including the spare, which was even older.
Great article Vince – and SO important. When I read of someone bragging about the original tyres on their collector car I cringe. They are SO lucky, so far!
When I inherited my aunt’s ’84 Suzuki Swift with 19,000km (13,000 miles!) on the clock after 21 years, I had to have a roadworthy check done to get it transferred into my name. A few things were picked up, but most notably the age of the tyres, despite the good amount of tread, and the tester explained it to me. Considering I had run the car at 100km/h to get it to the mechanic for testing I felt very lucky indeed!
About 3 years ago I replaced the tires on my Isuzu Pickup. I knew they were getting up there in age, but…2002! Oops.
I just bought a 2009 MY motorcycle with only 2600 miles on it. The bike is literally showroom new in appearance. It also has the original, new-looking 12 year old tires on it. In this case the tires’ age was a good bargaining chip.
It’s bad enough when you shred a tire on a car; imagine if you only have two of them under you.
Some states also impose expiration dates on tires. I learned this after being stranded out of state with 2 simultaneous flats on my almost-new Blizzaks due my dealership’s stupid service department. A big national brand tire store had one Blizzak in their inventory, expired by 1 year, so they gave it to me to replace the one that got chewed up. Quite a lucky break on a pretty unfortunate weekend. And no, I didn’t make my stupid dealership reimburse me for the tire I got for free, but I thought about it…
Timely reminder! Even though I keep my cars for a long time, I never age out the tires as I drive too much. The spares however…well, that’s a different story.
Three years ago I blew a tire on my Vanagon Westfalia while we were far from civilized roads. Upon installing the spare (which looked great), I realized that it was original – 1987. Yikes! That got replaced the next week. Since then I consciously check the spares when I check the other tires.
Drove to work all of last week in a ’62 Studebaker Champ 1/2 ton. Tires are Cooper made Pep Boys Dakota 31×10.50R15 LT. From 2006. I am pretty sure that the Opel has the original spare, looks good and it even has been used once. Needless to say that if I keep the Studebaker, new tires are at the top of the list.
It boils down to heat, load, and speed.
A slow cruiser puttering around town on summer nights could probably disregard age and just go by condition.
Trailer towing at turnpike speeds in August, every factor needs Tobe considered.
Great article.
Two weeks before my wife and I got married in 1998, we were in my father’s 1984 F-150, pulling a 16′ trailer. We were on crossing the Missouri River on I-70, just west of St. Louis, when the right front does the same thing as your Malibu. It blew as I came to a stop.
The tire was one of the originals my father had put back on it. I’ve had a phobia about old tires ever since.
When my parents were at our house about 18 months ago, I checked the date code on the tires of their ’98 Dodge 1/2 ton. Two were 13 years old.
Both times he could not see the problem as, like you said, there was still a lot of tread left.
Excellent piece! One car’s set of shoes is five years old on the summer tires, and probably ten years on the snow tires. That set of snows has lots of tread left, but I am suspect about the rubber.
I don’t want to spend a bunch on new tires for that car, so might look at off brands.
The other car is a 2014, still on original tires, and the snows are from 2015, so I am good on that car for now.
A very timely article, and a reminder, too. Some anecdotes
My dad is smart about a lot of things, but has been historically prone to overlooking maintenance. When I bought his 2002 T&C (3.3 V6), I went to put air in the tires since I was putting it on the highway, and found 3 different brands on 4 wheels. I never asked why, but I had the minivan only 14 months.
In 2010 not long after I relocated back home to ATL my future wife and I got caught in a rainstorm outside Columbia SC on I-20 in my ’01 Nissan Frontier with a small load in back. When everyone in front of me suddenly braked at about 45 mph, I had to take sudden evasive maneuvers onto the grassy median and then shredded a lot of grass trying to avoid the cable fence and not bounce back into a bunch of stopped cars. I actually got back on the highway without stopping but scared the crap out of her when I was sliding all over the median and scraped the fence once. Once back I passed 4 seperate car wrecks on the median in less than 2 miles. Turns out I fractured the front bumper cover and the L fender was slightly pushed onto the door. Next day I took my truck to my usual tire store to have my front end re-aligned and undercarriage inspected, and they fount a 3″ bubble on the inside R front tire. (Had I known I would not have continued on for another 200 miles at highway speeds.) Not wishing to emulate my dad, I switched out the two front pair even though I had bought new tires maybe 18 months before, and they recommended rotating the new ones to the back. I also found some damage to the exhaust system. I replaced the front bumper cover myself. After I retired my truck as a DD in 2014 when I bought the Venza, I finally replaced the tires when they looked worn, they were 8-10 years old in 2019. The new set will likely age out before they wear out since I put on about 3000 miles/yr on it now, with over half of that from the semi-annual 800 mile round trip hauling power equipment for house maintenance.
On the riskiest note, in 2019 my dad (then age 82) and his new gf wanted to buy a sports car, and Pop spotted online a 1994 Mercury Capri 2-seater with 40,000 original miles and one owner. So they flew out to East Texas and drove it (!!) on I-20 back to Atlanta. Pop promptly took it to Costco for new tires because “those original tires were hard as rocks and the ride back was rough”. And back in his Navy days he had an MGA. The ragtop turned out to have extensive dry rot and had to replace it as well.
Someone I knew is one to hang on to everything they ever owned. He still has a set of studded snow tires from his dad’s van from 1987 or 1988.
They have not moved from the garage rafters since 1989. He says he may still use them.
Like my Grandma had jars of sawdust from the 40s all over the basement in case of a sawdust emergency.
Just checked the Cooper Adventurer H/T radials that I bought from Pep Boys the summer of 2017. Yet, no date stamp??
Open to any suggestions on finding a date!!
This may be a dumb question, but did you check both sides of the tire?
Otherwise, I got nothin’.
Notably, nobody has an actual age limit on tires…not the DOT, not even the FAA. Yes, a 20-year-old tire on a school bus is perfectly legal. So is a 15 year old tire v(capped 3-4 times) on a 747.
“a 20-year-old tire on a school bus is perfectly legal. So is a 15 year old tire v(capped 3-4 times) on a 747.”
Tells me that the tire manufacturers haven’t gotten bold/reckless/arrogant enough to use crappy, self-disintegrating “rubber” on commercial tires…yet.
I’m sure that’s “coming soon to a tire dealer near you!”
I have seen 6-8 year old truck tires that still passed an X-ray test to be capped.
We had one ancient pup trailer at work that still ran lock-ring wheels and 10.00-20 bias-ply tube tires…it had recapped tires from “Union” and “New Pride”, with dates from 1999 to 2008.
Since we’re on the topic of tires, anyone know the modern day equivalent of 6.00×15 light trailer tires? I’ve looked online and talked to tire stores, but have received different answers.
ST205/75/15 would be the closest replacement for that size tire. They are probably available in bias-ply and radial. Make sure to check the load rating of the existing tires. If you don’t see it on the tire, look for the number of plies. 2 ply=Load Range A, 4 ply=Load Range B, etc. As a last resort, the trailer should have tag attached to it with information on the manufacturer, model and serial number plus tire size and load rating. Here’s a link. https://www.etrailer.com/question-532278.html
Great article. I have gone round with my wife on this for months about getting mew tires for my Imperial. The ones on there are at least 6 years old and I have not driven it in 4 years. I just bought a new set of Cooper White walls made the 11th week of this year so I will be good for a
Few years.
Late to the party on this, my 2004 Nissan Titan has the tires I got for it in 2005, it a base model and I installed his take off which were off an 2005 Titan. The owner installed 20 inchers, so I bought his originals for $250 in 2005. They were mounted on alloys to replace the skinny tires and steel wheels that my truck came with. They are 16 years old, dated 03/05. Truck only has 17000 miles on it, sidewalls are crack free but there are cracks between the treads. BF Goodrich Rugged Trail, size P285 70 R17. They are almost down to the wear marks, next trip is going to be a visit to the tire store.