Tyre Age Warning

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 10:36 am

Are you confusing a tire store worker with an expert?

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93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 10:44 am

Silvia wrote:Dilemma! 3 tyre co. experts examine tyres and give them the thumbs up ok.
Forum guys say no good without inspections...
See the problem?

We don't need to see them, they are 8 year old tyres - the rubber hardens, it doesn't require tiny surface cracks for them to have less grip.

Silvia wrote:Have 8 yr. old tyres on rear, less than half used but concerned about age. Three tyre dealers assured me they were fine and you'd think they wanted to push me to new ones. Their criterion was based on tiny surface cracks and mine were fine as car is kept underground and under a cover.

Silvia · Postby **Silvia** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 11:45 am

Advice is considered, thanks. Which led me to check tyres in the first place and put the old tyres on the rear. However
no loss of grip is experienced in "spirited" wet or dry driving.
For replacement, Kumho KU 39 @ $139 for 205/45/16 has been recommended. Good choice?

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 12:05 pm

Yep or re002

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93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 12:47 pm

Silvia wrote:However no loss of grip is experienced in "spirited" wet or dry driving.

Silvia wrote:On wet roads I'm finding the back end of my NB is only too happy to step out and spin up the tyres

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=50812

Silvia wrote:Put simply, the tyres on Silvia are G111's and 6 yrs old (40th week of 2006) and nearly spun me out on a wet roundabout . Investigation showed the tread is about 80% good but they are too old and hard

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=51038

Silvia wrote:On broken road surfaces the front of my NB 2002 (16" 205/45 tyres) can be thrown off line sometimes

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=51702

MattR · Postby **MattR** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 1:13 pm

A lot also depends on the way the tyres are stored or used.

I have a set of tyres mounted up on wheels for use on my Charger, when it gets finished.

The tyres are about 5 years old at the moment, but are stored in my workshop, under a horse blanket and inflated, but obviously no load on them. I will have no problems in driving on them when the car is ready, but the car will be an occaisional driver and kept in a garage out of the sun.

I will be keeping a close eye on them and only expect to get a couple of years out of them, in terms of tread wear anyway, as they may see some track use...... :twisted:

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Thu Dec 04, 2014 1:20 pm

Thank you for making that point with the quotes 93 clubman.

I'm not sure if silvia has a dodgy memory, or is a troll.

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Silvia · Postby **Silvia** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 5:44 pm

All can be explained Mr. Clubman , but I'm honoured someone took the trouble to look up old insertions from years ago.

Ok, bad wheel alignment caused the front to hop around and a good alignment fixed it (nothing to do with tyres of course)

When I hit a roundabout fast in rain the back came out , it was quite fun , but being a responsible soul I changed the rear worn down ones ,putting two new Kumho KU39's on the front and the hardly worn ancient ones on the rear after being advised they were fine, to my surprise. There they live to this day....though if santa is kind, replacement is a possibility some time...

So, not stupid,not bad memoried, not a troll , just sharing my questions and experiences with forum members.

BTW with help from the excellent advice from here , did the "speedo fix" where wires from the gearbox speedo sender come adrift and require delicate soldering. Cheers

taminga16 · Postby **taminga16** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 8:33 pm

Silvia wrote:Dilemma! 3 tyre co. experts examine tyres and give them the thumbs up ok.
Forum guys say no good without inspections...
See the problem?

The concern is your own, do what your head says and let your heart bear the consequences. One of my motorcycles was under service for twelve months, before it made it to the road it got new tyres.
I do not see a problem!
Greg.
Life is short!

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 11:05 pm

It's one of those things when giving the advice is easy but if you have a set of tyres which look good and have plenty of tread then spending say $700 might take a back seat. I replaced all 4 tyres on a vehicle which were not roadworthy and I searched the tyre dates. The tyres were 27 years old! consider that many guys are driving classic or historics etc hardly at all. I think the tyre age change is somewhat uncertain but for many it never arises because the tyres wear out before the age becomes a prob. I think we need to know tyres do deteriorate based on age and slippery tyres seem to be a fact.

Silvia · Postby **Silvia** » Fri Dec 05, 2014 11:34 pm

I think it's become understood that tyres definitely deteriorate over time. In our society it has become necessary to protect consumers with "use by" dates and manufacturers and retailers from blame and litigation . "Use by" dates must list the shortest safe period the item is deemed safe, but of course in many circumstances the item is perfectly safe long after that , depending on conditions of use and storage. I think the intelligent person will use their own wisdom to determine this safety period for themselves or alternately, trust what others say about that and believe it, without resorting to their own wisdom and experience. I know what I'd rather do .
But then I drive a silly little impractical car with no hard roof or roll bar.....

project.r.racing · Postby **project.r.racing** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:49 am

Does this ride ever end? Seems we've been going around in circles for days.

The American · Postby **The American** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:52 am

If you've ever switched from a road tyre to a semi slick, you'd appreciate the difference in grip a tyre can make. If you were able to test a quality set of fresh tires back-to-back with your current set, there'd be no arguments about the value (as compared to price) of younger healthy tires.

Delamination is one thing, but the difference in available grip is the bigger issue (IMO).

On a dry road, the tread on your tire is not the source of grip. It's the rubber itself that conforms to the surface of the road. Old hard tires won't do as good a job of this as newer more compliant rubber.
L
With that said, if you chose new 400 tread wear rating tires, I don't know if you'd be better of or not than on old 180 tread wear rated rubber.

I just replaced the tires on my landcruiser due to age and not tread wear, because it carries my family around. My first mx5 track car had 8 year old shopping trolley tires on it, when I first went in a skid pan, and it was abysmal for any braking/turning tasks. New tires of the same spec made a massive difference.

Silvia · Postby **Silvia** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 9:09 am

"Does this ride ever end? Seems we've been going around in circles for days."

MX5 club track day?

JBT · Postby **JBT** » Sat Dec 06, 2014 9:41 am

The American wrote:My first mx5 track car had 8 year old shopping trolley tires on it,...

...Mine too. And everything was fine...until I had to call on them to avoid an accident...and then had one anyway.
It turns out that "battery cases" look OK and wear well but just don't grip like reasonably fresh tyres - lesson learned the hard way.