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Old Tires

L

LilCe98

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Jul 14, 2006
Messages
2,030
Location
Richmond, VA
I recently bought a set of FSVT wheels with tires from a fellow CEG'r a few weeks back. The tires that came on the wheels (Kuhmo's I believe) look to be in good condition with a good amount of tread left. The previous owner said they are about 7+ years old and at least one has been sitting flat for most of that time. They said they wouldn't trust the sidewall.

Now I've gotten some opinions saying the tires are fine and others saying buy new ones. Since I don't know to much about the subject I'm leaning towards not risking a blow out at 70 mph, but I did want to get some other opinions. How old is too old? What should I look for to determine the safety of these tires? Should I just recycle these and buy new ones?

Thanks
{J}
 
Tires don't ever really "blow out". Worst case, it would start to go flat, you would feel it going flat, and you would pull over to swap on the spare.

Choose your battles.


Personally, if the tread is OK, the tires hold air, I would ride them until they didn't hold air anymore. But that's just me, and I'm cheap.
 
air them up and see if you can see any cracks. if nothing else they arent going to grip as well because the rubber is older and harder and could be unsafe depending on your driving style.

air them up do some big smokey burnouts and chew them up
 
if you know how to read the dot date code. It is inside a shaped oval with numbers for code. you will know exactly when they were made. Should be month and year. I personally have tires that are about 5 years old on mine.
 
Thanks for the input. I'll probably put some air in the tires this weekend and see if they hold air.
 
Excellent article and based on my experience, how you store your tires has more than any single factor as to their reliablity and long life after having been off the road for a period of time. A flat tire in the bone-yard may very well have belt damage, as well as other issues such as flat-spotting, etc.

My son had a recent incident (3 weeks ago) where a tire sitting mounted on it's rim, had belt seperation, with steel protruding from the surface of the tire. This was on a '86 Celica that has been off the road for less than 6 months. The tire store that sold the tires had rotated these tires just a scant 37 miles before the rod thru the block regulated it to "rebuild status". He drove it the vehicle less than 50 miles, after the replacement engine was installed when this belt seperation took place.

Date code alone doen't tell the whole story - while I was in the Navy, I made a few West-Pac cruises where I was gone for over 8 months at a time - vehicle was kept in inside sotrage (no sun) and up on jack stands, with 40 pounds of air at the start of the storage period. Was not uncommon to have closer to 20 pounds of air at the return of my West-Pac. Due to temperature swings and the porsity of the tire.

Make sure that sidewall cracking is not present, as well as other concerns mentioned. Just my two cents worth.
 
contour_r_us said:
how you store your tires has more than any single factor as to their reliablity and long life after having been off the road for a period of time.
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I would have to agree. Age alone is not the only factor, tires that sit outside in the sun all day long are going to suffer a lot more than those that are parked in a garage.
 
Redlineracer12 said:
I would have to agree. Age alone is not the only factor, tires that sit outside in the sun all day long are going to suffer a lot more than those that are parked in a garage.
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That was my concern as well. It looks as though these were stored in an outdoor storage room so they might be ok.
 
The rubber is made with all kinds of solvents in it for flexibility, once tire gets old the solvents dry out to let the rubber crack. they also get harder and traction especially in hard rain goes to crap. Often when dried out while sitting the tires can develop flats depending on temperature that upon driving will either eventually roll back out round to not be flat or they don't and tire is then garbage. It is also risky to rotate tires like that if they are then changed in direction of rotation, I've seen them spit radial belts quickly like that. Radials WILL reform to roll the other way but the rubber does not since rock hard and then it begins to delaminate from the belt.

Stick a fingernail deep into the sidewall, you can tell how hard they are from that often. The rubber should rebound back up after a minute or two, if not it's dead.
 
amc49 gives very good advice. The cost of a set of tires is not worth your loved ones life. Cheap can be a good quality but when in doubt do the right thing. If you thought the tires where in good condition you most likely would have never asked the question.
 
blu_fuz said:
Tires don't ever really "blow out". Worst case, it would start to go flat, you would feel it going flat, and you would pull over to swap on the spare.

Choose your battles.


Personally, if the tread is OK, the tires hold air, I would ride them until they didn't hold air anymore. But that's just me, and I'm cheap.
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Sorry blu have to disagree with you on that .I had a rear tire with only "slight"weather checking "blow out" on me ,Luckily I was just leaving work going less than 30 and was a rear tire scary though
 
Well tires do "blowout", as in 'kablamo' blow up. Seen this many times in my over 45 years of driving. Can you say "Firestone 500's"? Do a google search and you will have a better understanding of "blowout".
 
Well I'll update you guys on this topic. I took the tires in to a shop where I usually take my car. They stated that all 4 tires were bad. The basic reasoning was that eventhough the tread was good the fibers had separated on the inside and probably would have blow out under pressure. I may get a second opinion but for right now i'll just keep them off the car to be safe.
 
'....fibers had separated on the inside....'

The 'delaminate' I spoke of.....................how they can suddenly blow out and I mean BLOW OUT. Most will not but some will, there for a while I was intentionally running all my tires down to show steel before I chunked them, the wife got all the new tires. We have common car models so I got the older ones. I rode a bunch of tires down dead to lose air suddenly and thought I was good at it, even going through some pretty serious blowouts. Then I had one that for some reason simply deflated quickly with no true blow out, it had air then suddenly it just didn't. The car became one of the scariest rides down to a stop I've ever seen, trying to twist car around backward the whole way down. Thinking it has to do with just exactly how the deflated tire wraps wheel up to then be on the road surface. That one taught me to stop doing stupid stuff like that. It scared the crap out of me to be frank about it...............
 
contour_r_us said:
Yes, so hear ya.....I did my time with Fireston 500's...recall those? I had a '69 Hurst Rambler Scrambler - http://musclecars.howstuffworks.com/classic-muscle-cars/1969-amc-hurst-sc-rambler.htm and it had Firestone 500's on all 4 corners. Somewhere around Waco, Texas in the summer of 1974, driving non-stop from Ca. to Fla. Lost two of these and had to walk miles in that heat!!
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Here's a link to those interested in the largest tire recall on record - 7 million Firestone 500's. http://www.tiredefects.com/firestone-tire-failure.cfm
 
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