age old tyre question

[stuffedpike20]

I have got a set of wheels fitted with Goodyear tyres that seem to be from 2005. They have '2905 ' on the sidewalls, which I guess is the 29th week of 2005. There are no other dates.
The tyres have loads of tread, no cracks in the sidewalls or between the treads.
I bought a new set of tyres a few years ago that cracked between the treads within 6 months of fitting. The supplier gave me my money back, stating that they must have been a 'bad batch'.

My question is... would you be happy driving around on 18 year old tyres?

Thanks.
John.

[svenedin]

I would not be happy to use tyres that old. Even if they look physically perfect the rubber may be weakened and cause catastrophic failure.

It does not apply to cars but for goods vehicles, buses and coaches tyres over 10 years old are not allowed in the UK. Surely there must be a good reason for that?

Stephen

[ManyMinors]

One of my cars has tyres which are much older than that. The car is stored indoors and has seldom seen sunlight and has no visible cracking to the rubber. It doesn't get driven far or fast so I reckon it is OK. I do check them regularly and they would certainly pass an MOT test without comment.

On the other hand our low mileage 4 year old modern car recently had an "advisory" at MOT time regarding the cracked original tyres and I'll have to replace them soon.

[Chief]

I've mentioned it before, but our other Minor came with the original 1963 tires still on it meaning at the time they were around 55+ years old.

They had good tread, no cracks/splits in the side wall etc. and passed two MOTs (pre-purchase and post-purchase).

Of course we had them changed before it went on the road, and the fitter did mention that internally they were completely disintegrated and somewhat dangerous

The tire manufacturers recommendation is that from 7+ years you start considering replacement depending on visual appearance, and at 10 years you change them no matter what.

[stuffedpike20]

Thanks for the replies.

Looks like I will have to replace them.

I asked a question a while ago.... if I have Winter tyres on my car, and I have a crash in Summer... am I un-insured? Will it be my fault for running on the 'wrong' tyres?

[geoberni]

Thanks for the replies.

Looks like I will have to replace them.

I asked a question a while ago.... if I have Winter tyres on my car, and I have a crash in Summer... am I un-insured? Will it be my fault for running on the 'wrong' tyres?

No, there is no requirement to change tyres in the UK. The Spec for such seasonal tyres is that winter tyres perform best below 7C and Summer perform best above 7C.
So what are you going to do in a typical season in the UK, be swapping tyres every day?
Or even go out during the day when it's 10C but come home in the early hours of the following morning when it's -1C....

Any tyre is a compromise unless you're living in somewhere with greater extremes of weather than the UK.
If for example you were living in Canada, or Scandinavia, then Winter & Summer Tyres would make sense, but there's still going to be periods when you'll have the 'wrong' tyres fitted...

[kevin s]

There's a lot of opinions ans suposed expert advice around tyres, many tyre fitters and a notably a classic car mag sponsered by one will tell you five years, to be fair if you want worst case it's probably not a bad starting place . Most of the manufacurers won't commit and will say it depends on many factors which is the bottom line, if it is storred out of light, the pressures are kept up and it's regularly rotated (of the weight taken off) they can still be fine after 10 years or more.
If I have looked after tyres from new then I tend to regularly check for cracks and bulges and check the wet performance in a safe enviroment, I would be wary about using old second hand tyres though.

[Tinasminor]

Why replace perfectly good tyres? Are you going to be competing in racing or rallying or time trials do you drive at 100mph? no, obviously up to the individual but if you have £300 burning a hole in your pocket and have nothing better to spend it on go ahead but i would just make sure my spare is up to the job and spend the money elsewhere.

[stuffedpike20]

Interesting stuff. Thanks all.

If geoberni is right, I may just leave my wheels with Winter tyres on at the moment. I do very few miles in my minor now.

I would not be surprised if the 18 year old Goodyears were better inside and out than a much younger cheaper tyre.

[Grumpy21]

No one has mentioned the key property of grip.

I’m fortunate in being able to run three ‘classic’ cars at any one time and change at least one of them every 2-3 years. I’m no stranger to the tyre conundrum, they age faster than they wear so should they be replaced at 10 years even if they still look perfectly serviceable.

From experience I can tell you that the biggest differences you will notice will be a huge improvement in grip and ride. Rubber hardens with age, sadly that’s an undisputed fact. Hard rubber has a lower coefficient of friction so grips less. Harder rubber flexes less so ride comfort becomes compromised.

My pal has just fitted new tyres to his Standard 14 and he is amazed at the improvement in ride and handling.

[Mr Spigot]

I have been through a similar process with my car. It sat in the garage for nearly 14 years awaiting time and TLC to get it back on the road which I finally did last year. Having sat in the dark, the tyres look almost new and have around 5mm of tread on them (see photo). However, when I checked the dates on them, the front ones were 14 years old and the back ones 18 years old!
As I am hoping to get to the National Rally this year, which will inevitably involve some motorway driving, I have booked it in to have 4 new Bridgestones fitted. Not cheap, but the alternative could be far more serious.