Two-year-old "New" Tires

[BillyHW]

In Ontario they won't let you sell a car if the date code on the tires is over 6 years old. Personally I wouldn't buy a tire with a date code over a year old, unless I got a really good deal on them. I would buy from a place that does high volume like Walmart or Costco so that you are more likely to get fresh stock. Although I can't understand why a small shop would have a problem either, they normally just order from a manufacturer warehouse anyways, as they don't have room to keep tire stock around for no reason. (Or maybe they are getting the good deal on the old stock from the warehouse and not passing it on to the consumer?)

FYI I bought tires in September from Costco and they were manufactured in July.

 

[zzyzzx]

Age may be more important in Arizona than in Canada.

It is. I would say that the age limit (7 years?) is most likely only applicable in places like the southwest US that get a lot of sunlight, and if the car is parked outdoors.

 

[userfriendly]

My 2011 GMC 2500 still has the original spare tire. Never used, it looks good with no cracks. Size 265/70R18 E rated. I check the pressure every now and then.
I’ll pump it up to 80 psi if it’s low.
It will never be put into service because of age, but I should swap it out one of these years.

 

[burnbomber]

From where did you purchase them? Very curious, if it was a big chain or a local small business. Given the current trend of big chains refusing to maintain aged tires, seems like a no-brainer to use the 30 day return policy and exchange them for current year manufactured stock.

We had to do a tire repair on one of our Pilot's OEM tire; this was at a big discount chain and the shop's service writer gave us a free pass against their repair policy. The tire was just under 7 years old with half tread; the car's been garaged it's whole life, and the tire shows no signs of cracking or chunking. Maybe another shop in another town would have refused the repair. Just exchange the tires for the same tire with new date codes.

As far as the pounds of pressure limit, seems like a 51 psi tire is stronger than a 44 psi tire. I'm very curious if that's true, or not.

 

[zzyzzx]

The whole "It's more than 7 years old" was the excuse for a local tire place to not honor their lifetime rotate and balance. I never went back there.

 

[CapriRacer]

As far as the pounds of pressure limit, seems like a 51 psi tire is stronger than a 44 psi tire. I'm very curious if that's true, or not.

I'm going to give you the short version, but there is a long complex version that fully explains all of this:

No, a passenger car tire (This is important!) with 51 psi max pressure listed isn't "stronger" than a tire with a 44 psi max. That's because increasing the pressure reduces the flexing.

 

[benjamming]

@CapriRacer

Will you expand on what drives a company to list different max pressures? Could the "same" tire have different max pressure listing if a company decided or is it a "hard" calculated number?

 

[CapriRacer]

@CapriRacer

Will you expand on what drives a company to list different max pressures? Could the "same" tire have different max pressure listing if a company decided or is it a "hard" calculated number?

First, the tire standards say that an H speed rated tire can be inflated up to 44 psi, and V rated up to 51 psi. Plus, it is known that some vehicle manufacturers have specified over 35 psi for S and T rated, so it is common for S and T to be 44 psi max.

And while I don't have direct knowledge, it seems logical that a tire marketing department would figure out that some folks think that a higher max pressure would make the consumer think the tire is better somehow.