Why we don't run old tires

kmead

kmead

Old enough to know better
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So when I picked up the 87X I was pleased to see a very nice set of Nexen's on the rims that looked nearly new. Lucky me I thought. However as we were going to haul this thing a few hundred miles I brought along two of the rims from Jeff VanDyke's X that I had traded my Trons with. They were known tires, not new but clearly they held air reliably and had been running down the road with Jeff for some little while.

The car arrived home safe and sound with all the tires full of air. After unloading the nice rims and tires I had taken off the car I happened to catch a little something as I rolled one into the garage.

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All four tires had similar cracking, even all the way through the tread blocks in places. This was likely caused by low tire pressure, sitting for a long time and the tires are much older than they looked.

So have a look at your old tires on your car and replace them at your earliest opportunity.
 
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Imagine the added traction from all that extra siping! And these tires would probably have built in air pressure adjustment, provided you were only interested in the air pressure dropping... rapidly. ;)
 
Yup. The 80 spider I bought back this spring has brand new hardly used Sumitomo HTRs that look just like your tires. They will go in the dumpster.
I'm always amused with car shows like Chasing Classic Cars where the host drives painfully expensive cars with forty year old tires on them.
 
I have a set of tires (the desirable Pirelli metric tread pattern!) that are so old they don't even have an aspect ratio listed on the sides. They came with my '71 124 Spider on CD3s and were old then, 10 years ago. They have almost no wear, lots of cracks & with a slight misting on the road will turn even the most underpowered Fiat into a drift car. Vinyl-like grip! They are rim protectors.
 
Nice. Someone by me must have been driving on tires like that - the other day coming home there were stripped chunks of passenger car tire all over the highway - definitely not the usual truck tire remnants.
 
When I picked up my '79 from my dad's place in Michigan he kept telling me "all set" why the thing ran when he put it in the barn... Knowing who and what I was dealing with I brought a fresh set of tires on my CD16s for the back, since I did the dolly tow as well. Got there to find a rotted set of 80 series "new tires" that looked just like that.
I am not sure if things fail much sooner than they used to or my idea of worn and or failed has changed. Perhaps both...
Regards
 
Is there any way of telling the actual age of a tire, as in year produced? My 82 only has 44,000 on it and the tires look very good. Haven't checked for cracks yet though!
 
Stoney#1 said:
Is there any way of telling the actual age of a tire, as in year produced? My 82 only has 44,000 on it and the tires look very good. Haven't checked for cracks yet though!
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There is a date code on the side wall. Google "Tire date code". The date code for tires made before 2000 uses only one digit for the year, so unless there are other markings (like a small triangle after the code, indicating 90's), you won't know if the tire was made in 1984 or 1994.
 
ng_randolph said:
There is a date code on the side wall. Google "Tire date code". The date code for tires made before 2000 uses only one digit for the year, so unless there are other markings (like a small triangle after the code, indicating 90's), you won't know if the tire was made in 1984 or 1994.
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Thanks, I will check that out. They are Pirelli tires, so I am assuming they may be original to car
 
rocco79/138 said:
I am not sure if things fail much sooner than they used to
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I think the softer compounds on 'modern' tires contribute to much faster weathering than tires used to back in the day. I recall when I was a college student in the 70's, having original tires on a 10 y.o. car that I continued to daily drive another 10 years later. And they were still on the car when I sold it, with a ton of tread left and no obvious signs of cracks, etc. Good old Michelin's lasted forever back then. And new ones were about $25 each! ('cheap' tires were less).
In the extreme desert climate of Las Vegas, any vehicle left in the sun continually will have completely dry tires in about a year.
 
Wow, if you are driving your car on tires made in 1982 I think you would be shocked to see how your car handles on new tires. The rubber probably has the same traction rating as rocks. As noted above, it's not hard to determine the age of the tires.
 
Four years ago we bought a very nice Miata for my wife, a car she has always wanted. It came with all the fixings AC, Hardtop and some nice new looking tires. I drove it briefly before the sale and if felt fine but didn't try anything exuberant as it wasn't mine yet and I don't know Miatas well.

After my wife drove it home that day I took it out to see how it was. I was so disappointed, I was like why would anyone want one of these? Sure it turned ok but the brakes locked up too easily and the car always felt like it would swap ends. After I got back I checked the tire pressure and looked at the tire date codes. They had been made in the late 90s. We bought a new set of tires (a more reputable brand) and it transformed the car. It still isn't my favorite but it is a very good sports car. Tires do make a car sooooo much better.
 
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