Larry
I just replaced a set of tires on my '88 Mustang because of old age
with less than 15,000 miles. The sidewalls on 3 of the tire had hairline
cracks and one those tires also had splits in the tread. The oldest tire
was 9 years old, the newest tire of the four was 7 years old, the oldest
tire was the worst.
There is a manufacture date stamp on every tire, either a 3 or 4
digit number that gives you the week and year that the tire was
manufactured. Tires are always aged on the rack for a time before they
are shipped into distribution so do not rely on date of purchase for the age
of the tires. I believe tire shops will tell you that tires are only good
for about 5 years and I believe they mean from the purchase date but they
are a bit vague about their meaning of tire age.
First check the manufacture date, then carefully inspect the
sidewalls and tread for any hairline or major splits and cracks. Keeping
your car garaged and out of the sun will definitely increase the longevity
of the tires but as with everything, routine maintenance and close
inspection is mandatory.
I notices hairline cracks in the sidewalls last year and ran a track
event with them. I had no problems but I was concerned and checked the
tires every time I came off track, the cracks were not growing or expanding.
If there was a change I would have stopped running.
This year I have new tires, in fact I will have less than 200 miles
on them when I get to a track event in 2 weeks. Now I have to be careful
at the track to not over drive the tires and chunk the edges. New tires
need to be heat cycled a few times to stabilize the rubber compound and
toughen them up.
Remember safety first and always.
Ron Fraser
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-tigers@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-tigers@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of Lawrence Wright
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 9:44 AM
To: tigers@autox.team.net
Subject: Fw: Tigers Digest V1 #523
Stephen Waybright gswaybright@yahoo.com wrote:
>Cliff,
>If your tires are that old, I strongly recommend you buy a high
>performace tire with crappy treadlife just to force you to replace them
>every 5-6 years ;)
Best advice I've read in a while. :^D Currently, I have ten-year-old
Yokohama AVSi's (205/60-13) with only about 5000 miles on them and, while
the car is garage-kept and probably thus less UV damage, I wonder at what
point they have to go. TireRack only lists "extreme tires", those with very
high grip and accordingly low tread life, but maybe that's not really such a
bad thing.
Larry Wright
"I can't get no -- Satis-traction"
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