WARNING - Dont Use Old Tyres

[101RRS]

For a few years I have had a set of new tyres stored in a dark room.

Recently I purchased a Jag "Club Car" which I had the intention to just use on local club events. I have covered a few thousand kms with no issues on these old tyres - I figured the tyres would have been good enough to use as they had been stored in completely darkened conditions.

Unfortunately, my plan to just the use the car locally came a cropper with a family crisis when at the same time my RRS was off the road and I had to use the Jag.

Last Sunday while travelling interstate I heard a rear wheel flapping and on pulling over I found the tread like this.

187244

The tyre did not deflate but as you can see the tread and outer layer of steel bands were badly damaged - but the tyre still at 36psi. Initially I thought I had hit some debris but on reflection the damage was called by failure of the tyre - while speed was normally less than 100kph, outside temp was high due to the heat event.

On looking at getting a replacement I decided to replace all four tyres which was done today. This pic is of the same tyre taken today - see the extra damage over the above pic. During this time the tyre has just been sitting in the boot doing nothing.
187245

So please learn from my mistake - do not use old tyres no matter how good they look condition wise and no matter what use you intend to use them for - these tyres had never been on a car previously.

Garry

[TonyC]

How old are they Garry?
They should have a date code on them.

Tony

[101RRS]

Not sure but I think 20 years - what fooled me was that they were new and stored for the whole time in the dark. For sure 20 years on a vehicle out in the sun, but I thought these would be OK given storage and and intended use.

A salient lesson on what can happen, that owners of many historic vehicles should take note of - particularly where old style new tyres are hard to find and period correct tyres are often used.

[POD]

Would be interested to know the brand and the codes?
Congratulations on the jag also. :)

[Tombie]

Ozone is the killer… and natural hardening over time.

I never trust a tyre that’s over 7 years old.

Thankfully you came away with little damage.

[Arapiles]

Yep .... our car in Japan had two sets of tyres and rims, the winter ones being Blizzaks which are brilliant in snow and on ice. The Blizzaks were near new when we brought them back with us and are stored in my shed in the dark. They look pristine but they'd now be 17 years old and I won't use them or sell them because they're way past their use-by date, and I'd be concerned about what happened to your tyres happening. Reminds me that I need to clean out my shed ....

[Phil 850]

I read an article some time back, that the tyres on your car will last longer than the spare (time wise, not wear).
As the tyres on the car are warmed during driving and they are constantly be flexed, the plasticisers in the rubber are forced to move around and keep the tyre flexible.
The spare on the other hand does not flex and the plasticisers slowly evaporate and the tyre becomes hard. When put on the road, even though it looks brand new, it is then prone to failure.
Now, once upon a time, when you got your car serviced, they rotated the tyres including the spare deliberately so that all of the tyres shared the mileage and you got the maximum life out of ALL of the tyres.
Can’t do that with a space saver or if you don’t have a spare like some modern cars.

Phil

[101RRS]

Maybe they should have a use by date on tyres.

[shack]

Maybe they should have a use by date on tyres.Good call!

[V8Ian]

Can you imagine the cry from those caught with steel belts exposed, on their tyres?
"Not guilty Your Honour, it was still in date!"

[workingonit]

[QUOTE=Phil 850;3205503...the plasticisers in the rubber are forced to move around and keep the tyre flexible.Phil[/QUOTE]

It would be interesting to hear more authoritative information on this. Same with ozone damage. Let the science and engineering speak.

A shoe salesman gave me the same thing, not moving the plasticisers in the glue being why the soles on a pair of sand shoes in the cupboard for a year fell straight off when I put them on for the first time. Maybe shoe manufacturers are educating sales people on why their products appear to be crap but really aren't? The soles on a pair of German hiking boots bought in 1986, covering over 800 klms of muck, although not worn for two decades because of some foot swelling, are still stuck to the leather upper.

I have a small tractor and several old 4x4's that roll around the property. The tractor came with tyres already about 10 years old, and they lasted about another 20 years, destroyed by big sidewall rips due to tree stumps etc - without rips they would still be in use. Replaced them with exact same brand and model of tyre and I will be lucky to see 10 years judging by the cracking on all, and one with really poor melding of rubber into what should have been a cohesive mass. The 4x4's tyres on the old vehicles are probably 20 years old in themselves, but still flexible, no sign of tread separation - of course I would suspect their reliability at speed, but then I've seen worse condition on much younger tires used on a daily basis. I remember how bald you could get cross plies. On the other hand I have gone through 2 sets of tyres (10) on the troop carrier, each set no older than about 7 years, all on tar, about 85% tread - they throw the whole tread and leave you with a perfectly in tact carcass, thankfully, so you can pull over, change the tyre and limp back to town for new tyres and lose several days holiday. The tyre retailer '...yea mate, it's stone bruising...' my proverbial ar..

Myself, I think it is built in obsolescence, like they now do with pillows (date stamped) - I guess they have become part of the fast fashion culture; and like they used to do with light bulbs. Maybe poorer manufacturing in a lower wage countries with less regard to the quality of material inputs. And regulators that accept some of the guff put to them by the manufacturers. Like engines, why not regulate improvements in longevity, better performance each year, less land fill and micro plastics, and yes I understand some tyres have to be sticky and wear quicker, but overall hmmm - imagine built in obsolescence in athletes, you are approaching your athletic prime (read 'we have better science and engineering') and yet returning worse results each year, but that's good!

That's enough of my 1am rant. Off into the dark to see what's sneaking into the fruit and veg patch.

[prelude]

Myself, I think it is built in obsolescence, like they now do with pillows (date stamped) - I guess they have become part of the fast fashion culture; and like they used to do with light bulbs. Maybe poorer manufacturing in a lower wage countries with less regard to the quality of material inputs. And regulators that accept some of the guff put to them by the manufacturers. Like engines, why not regulate improvements in longevity, better performance each year, less land fill and micro plastics, and yes I understand some tyres have to be sticky and wear quicker, but overall hmmm - imagine built in obsolescence in athletes, you are approaching your athletic prime (read 'we have better science and engineering') and yet returning worse results each year, but that's good!

That's enough of my 1am rant. Off into the dark to see what's sneaking into the fruit and veg patch.

Light bulbs have not changed my friend :) What we did though is replace the good old and very recyclable bulb with a mess of leds that we overdrive to get enough light that still fail, cost a helluva lot more and then are barely recyclable.

In any case, my dad used to work for Good Year and I made a whole school presentation on the subject many moons ago. I recently game across that work and indeed the various rubber materials were extremely dried out. I guess 30+ years does that :) It does seem though that like with the venerable bf goodrich ko2's that once production of tyres has moved to thailand, quality has gone with it. A shame really.

-P

[DiscoDB]

The other natural killer for tyres is oxygen. Even if stored in the dark and in cool conditions, most tyre manufacturers will state tyres have a 10 year maximum life, but typically should only be stored for up to 5 years from new.

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I just threw away some 2016 tyres. I never wear them out.. they just get old. [tonguewink]

[Captain_Rightfoot]

The spare in my sports car is made in West Germany. [wink11]

[Tombie]

I just threw away some 2016 tyres. I never wear them out.. they just get old. [tonguewink]

Same. I often throw my spare away - completely unused once it’s over 5 years old.

Every tyre change on my vehicles is all 5.

A few hundred dollars in rubber going bad causes much more than a few hundred dollars damage, not to mention the inconvenience.

[loanrangie]

Doing some maintenance on my Triumph Daytona and found that the powder coating is lifting in a couple of places on the rear wheel so getting it bead blasted and painted, replacing the tyre as well since i knew it was old. On closer inspection i found its the original Michelin Pilot Sport from new and the bike was complianced 12/1997 !, so coming up to 26 years old and still has plenty of tread on and only 27k on the clock.
Tyre is still quite supple and not hard like you'd expect from an old tyre and still rode well.

[Saitch]

The outside of a tyre can look OK, but the inside can be cracked to buggery. I was shown an example of this by a tyre bloke. It came off a caravan.

.......and for people who may not be aware, 187324

[loanrangie]

The outside of a tyre can look OK, but the inside can be cracked to buggery. I was shown an example of this by a tyre bloke. It came off a caravan.

True, i had been riding on this tyre untill last year, no issues arose but getting tossed regardless.

[Tombie]

True, i had been riding on this tyre untill last year, no issues arose but getting tossed regardless.

Good choice!

My Katana is a 2019, has 4,000km on the dial (sad I know I don’t get the time) and the rubber was replaced last month as it’s showing signs of lack of use

[RANDLOVER]

The outside of a tyre can look OK, but the inside can be cracked to buggery. I was shown an example of this by a tyre bloke. It came off a caravan.

.......and for people who may not be aware, 187324


True, i had been riding on this tyre untill last year, no issues arose but getting tossed regardless.

Or you can fill the cracks with boot polish and set a world land speed record like Burt Munro in "The World's Fastest Indian" movie. [biggrin]

Burt Munro - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Munro)

[vnx205]

I had an experience recently that may lend weight to the argument that you shouldn't use old tyres.

i recently drove from the NSW Central Coast to Adelaide for the Australian Masters Games and I knew when I set off that all four tyres would be getting close to no longer being legal by the time I got home.

Near Adelaide I noticed a split in the sidewall of one tyre so I made the decision to replace all four in Adelaide. The fact that we had changed our itinerary and were going to the Bendelby Ranges and Mutawinji NP was an extra reason to fit new tyres.

When I asked the tyre dealer what might have caused the split, he looked at the date code and said, "Probably mostly the fact that it is ten years old."

At first I was puzzled because when I consulted my records, I saw that I had last fitted four new tyres five years ago. Then I remembered that I had a flat tyre several months earlier and I had left the spare in place of the flat tyre. So the offending tyre was indeed ten years old because it was one of the previous set of tyres.

So while one example doesn't prove that ten year old tyres are a risk, it does at least suggest that it could be the case.

[Slunnie]

Or you can fill the cracks with boot polish and set a world land speed record like Burt Munro in "The World's Fastest Indian" movie. [biggrin]

Burt Munro - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Munro)

Best movie ever! :lol2:

[BradC]

It came off a caravan.

The spare on my grandfathers van is a "Made in Australia" Dunlop. I'll have a look on the weekend for a date but knowing Grandad it's probably as old as me. I recall making him change the tyres on Nans Volvo years ago. Plenty of tread but the sidewalls were all cracking. They were only ~25 years old at the time.

[vnx205]

My new tyres have the date code on only one side.

Since I asked for them to be fitted with the coloured brand name hidden, the code is on the inside.

So i you can't your date code, try looking on the other side of the tyre.