Anyone have an opinion on this article?

Read this in consumer reports:

Do tires need a use-by date, like the milk in your refrigerator? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is being asked to require tire makers to provide expiration dates. Strategic Safety LLC, a safety research firm, submitted comments to NHTSA in September 2003, saying it has identified 20 cases in which tires six or more years old failed, resulting in nine deaths.

 

Most certainly they need dates! Just ask what happens when you put a 5 year old pristine looking WR rated tire on your Ferrari and you cruise on the track for a while or run the Silver State Classic. Kaboom!

There is a big difference between a few month old, 1 year old, and 5 year old tire. You should always ask where you buy/mount the age of the stock your getting and how old are the tires they usually maintain.

Sunny

 

holy****!!! you mean, there's people in the world tha don't buy 4, and up to 6, sets of tires a year? holy crap.

 

Come on guys. Can't you hear the screaming already from those people who will cringe when giant piles of expensive, but outdated, tires are hauled off to the shredder complete with the original stickers still attached? Won't you feel good seeing all those VR and SR or whatever rated tires like expensive Michelins and Pirellis and Goodyears all being ripped to pieces by a giant shredding machine because now that they have an expiration date on them, our beloved lawyers in the tire company legal departments would have a heart attack if those EXPIRED tires were allowed to get onto the public market. So naturally to avoid more lawsuits, those old tires MUST be destroyed. Of course the next step is naturally to have those same lawyers backing a lobbying effort in Washington to have the Department of Transportation pass a federal law requiring ALL tires in use on federal highways to be less than 5 years old. And who reeps the FINANCIAL benefit of all this? The TIRE COMPANIES and their LAWYERS. Won't you feel all warm and comfy when you have to open your wallet to buy some new tires on your old collector car JUST BECAUSE the tires are over five years old?

 

bottom line: tires are rubber, and they degrade when exposed to "the elements" over a prolonged (hmm, say 5 +yr) period of time. even the air inside the tire is responsibe for a given % of that degridation. and, no one, no body, should be on 5 yr old bricks, er, tires. the tires, in case youhaven't noticed, are your only lifeline, and you should never skimp on that end, ever. the letigiousness of our society is moot here, now if you want to lobby against all those stupid ****ing baby net nanny crash beams, idiot bags and diaper service / training wheels electronic gizmos and such BE MY GUEST, but the tires are a pertinent, and obvious, neccessity.

 

nice

 

An environmentally friendly solution.

 

My Porsche 944 Turbo manual says the the tire should be replaced after they are five years old, so maye there is some truth to the article.

 

It's true..........110% true.

If cambelts and seals deteriorate, and they are rubber, are they not ???........ then why not tires ??? I mean really guys.....think about it.

When manufacturer's ship cars across the pond they pump up the tires to 60 PSI to prevent flat spotting. And this is only for a period where the car can be exposed to no or very little movement for a period of up to 2 months before it may end up in someone's hands at a dealership. Now.....if they are concerned about potential damage due to flat spotting in 2 months, what about 5 years of little or no use ???

I always drove my cars 12-15K a year, and used them almost every day so the tires never made it that far anyways.

If your car is a garage queen or a concours special, fine.......but I would never drive a high performance car at high performance levels with old tires, regardless of how much tread they had left and how nice they appeared visually. YOU ARE ASKING FOR TROUBLE.

 

i always check the manufacture date/code on tires before installing, to avoid these
very issues...altho, with performance tires, if purchased from a volume source,
such as the Tire Rack, they usually move inventory quickly enuf that this is not an issue.

 

Wow. The tires on my 911SC are almost 20 years old. They are Pirelli P7s. I tracked the car for 5 days on them a few years ago. Now I feel lucky to have survived.

I gues it is times to replace them eh?

Here is a pic of the tires, if you are bored: http://www.findlay.com/jpf/porsche/rearleft.JPG