Have just taken the tyres off the rims on my 348 to strip and repaint them. Well a bit of a saga getting the old paint off and having them repainted "correctly" but in the end they look great, really happy. So took them down to local tyre shop to have them fitted up and they said.... "Sorry no can do"............. The tyres are out of date,............ Huh????...... apparently it is illegal to put tyres over 5 years old on rims for a passenger vehicle. I remember in the paperwork I got with the car that "all" the tyres were replaced about 3 years ago, so checked the dates on the other tyres and sure enough 3 were dated 05 and one dated 02. The only option was to replace the old tyre, a front, so not a good idea to do on its own and if I was going to replace both fronts I may as well do the backs as well as they wear more. Seemed a waste to spend the best part of $2000 to replace perfectly good tyres just because of a date stamp when they had only been on the car for 3 years (& only about 2000 kms). The tyre guy agreed & we could see they were all fitted at the same time and basically new so after a bit of ummming and ahhing agreed to fit them up. When I buy tyres in the future I am going to be dam sure they ALL are no more than a few months old or they can have them back.
Learnt that lesson the hard way. Put a new set of Pirellis on after a full shell resto and had one peel its whole tread and batter the bodywork on the way home. Always check what you're getting whether it appears insulting to the tyre guy or not, I say.
Ian, 348's are VERY sensitive to tyre age. They lose directional stability under power and you would be well advised to replace all four at once because the 348, 355, 360, 430 series do not respond well at all to differing ages of compound on the front and rear axle. Also, make sure you if you are fitting Pirelli's you fit the correct Direzionale on the front and the Assimmetrico on the rear. You can ask Aircon what F40's are like with mis-matched tyres too If you would like to know how to tell the age of a tyre, here is a small article written by Martin Naegele and myself, HTH. Regards, Carl. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Wow, wouldn't have expected that from Pirellis. 5 years seems a bit short. I know with the racing belts you have to replace them every seven years as required by the FIA (they are stamped with a manufacture date). I believe CAMS are considering extending this time frame as the belts are around $7-800 plus. (well for Sabelt anyway)
No. I beat it out, wet n dried that guard and had it back in the spray booth in two days. Wanted to get the disappointed feeling out of my life as fast as possible. If I'd taken pics and hassled their insurance etc the car would've been marked for months. Wasn't worth feeling down that long. Just got them to replace all 4.
She judged him alright, apparently he's gay.......... not that theres anything wrong with that. (tm Horse )
Thanks for the advice Carl! I have read that you should replace ALL the tyres on a 348/355 when you replace them. I didnt, I only replaced mine last year or the year before. I dont remember now! But either way, the car still handles great. I dont push the car hard on the street, so they will do just fine driving around here I reckon. The rears are 12 months+ old and the fronts probably 6-7 years old now maybe?
Thanks Carl, I know that replacing one tyre at a time particularly on a 348 is not a good idea, by the look of these tyres they were all fitted at the same time it was just that one "appears" to be old stock. I have not noticed any bad habits in the car, but have not put many miles on it yet, if for any reason I do not like the way it behaves I will replace all the tyres but as I said I will make "sure" they all have recent dates on them.
You mean like this ? Sometimes tyres fail even when they are not old, have not had much use, are correctly inflated and not punctured. That tyre didn't loose air pressure immediatley, which was fortunate. The oldest tyres I have are the original 1979 Michelin XWX's that were on the GT4 when I purchased it in 1995, they still have the ORIGINAL Italian air in them from the factory and have only done 19 000 k's. Those wheels and tyres are not on the car, and I wouldn't drive on them. M Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes like that, except the peeled section stayed in one piece attached at one end. The whole deal stayed inflated at 100kph on the freeway and the three foot long bit of peeled tread flailed around like a whip.
There is a fundamental failure with that tyre M. What was the verdict???? That section of tread that was split along the groove is proof of manufacturing faults.
Almost, bleed the brakes and clutch tonight, pick up the injectors tomorrow and should be all go then..... all being well.
