Tire age and when to replace?

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Sam_Julier

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I have a set on Michelin Harmony 185/70R14 on the 240 sedan. Mfg 24/06, 30/07, 24/08, 24/08. Installed May 2009. 45,000 miles since installation. 8/32" tread depth. Always garaged. No dry rot, no cracks, no obvious issues.

They run and handle perfectly. And they're super quiet.

My mechanic highly recommends that I replace them based on age. They seem fine to me. I hate replacing something before its time but I trust my mechanic.

Should I replace them? Any constructive thoughts would be most appreciated.

Sam
 
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Remember age/time is a human construct. Tires like oil don't know age. It's a scam. If the tires look good and are not cracked/ or dry rotted and have a safe rubber depth keep them. Again safety is always paramount.

It's like saying all cars need to be replaced in 10 years after purchase. Everyone is different. Some are garaged and rarely driven. Some always outside and driven like a monster.
 
Keep them. Am I to assume they're on one of your volvos, which is taken out more often than not in fair weather?
 
Time to replace. Sure would be a shame if one lost its tread and it slapped around and ruined your quarter panel or fender. Tires for 14" wheels are dirt cheap too.
 
There's no expiry date on tires mentioned anywhere, run them until they look or feel bad.
Originally Posted by Nick1994
Time to replace. Sure would be a shame if one lost its tread and it slapped around and ruined your quarter panel or fender. Tires for 14" wheels are dirt cheap too.
I agree with you because 14s are cheap, but tires don't explode because they are old. That's a BITOG myth.
 
August before last i was preparing for a 2K mile + roadtrip to see the eclipse. My tires I thought were 5 years old, but were low mileage. No Sidewall cracking, plenty of tread, low miles.

Summer, Desert, Midday, and those 'just fine' tires tried to kill me and my Dad.

3 of them had expanded in diameter and narrowed in width and grown in circumference by over 2 inches and gone out of round.

The date codes were on the insides of the tires, those with the white lettering, and I saw that they had just turned 6 years old.

Pre road rip these tires showed No signs of their age or the fact that they were totally unfit for a 65 MPH drive through the desert.

The scary part was, at 65mph they were nice and smooth, when I slowed down for a rest stop at sub 35mph speeds it became obvious that they were out of round and had changed dimensions. They were reading 210F where the third tire not yet failed was 135f. Had i not stopped at that rest stop and continued on at 65mph.........

Do NOT trust old tires. Lots of tread and the lack of sidewall cracking does not mean they are just fine
 
Originally Posted by eljefino
Keep them. Am I to assume they're on one of your volvos, which is taken out more often than not in fair weather?

Originally Posted by eljefino
Keep them. Am I to assume they're on one of your volvos, which is taken out more often than not in fair weather?


Actually, I drive this one about 18,000 miles a year in all weather with a change to snow tires December to late March. The wagon is stored for the winter.

Sam
 
Your mechanic is going by time only. That's the same for the tire companies since is not easily quantifiable to add in sun exposure etc to analyze tire life. IMO, if its truly been garage kept AND you inspect and see no cracks, they are fine. Tires are like a piece of plastic in that UV exposure and heat is what kills them. And since they are garage kept, they should be fine. It's too bad there is not a test you could run....like a pliability test or hardness test.
 
Originally Posted by Nick1994
Time to replace. Sure would be a shame if one lost its tread and it slapped around and ruined your quarter panel or fender. Tires for 14" wheels are dirt cheap too.

Michelin Harmony's are hardly "dirt cheap"
 
Originally Posted by wrcsixeight
August before last i was preparing for a 2K mile + roadtrip to see the eclipse. My tires I thought were 5 years old, but were low mileage. No Sidewall cracking, plenty of tread, low miles.

Summer, Desert, Midday, and those 'just fine' tires tried to kill me and my Dad.

3 of them had expanded in diameter and narrowed in width and grown in circumference by over 2 inches and gone out of round.

The date codes were on the insides of the tires, those with the white lettering, and I saw that they had just turned 6 years old.

Pre road rip these tires showed No signs of their age or the fact that they were totally unfit for a 65 MPH drive through the desert.

The scary part was, at 65mph they were nice and smooth, when I slowed down for a rest stop at sub 35mph speeds it became obvious that they were out of round and had changed dimensions. They were reading 210F where the third tire not yet failed was 135f. Had i not stopped at that rest stop and continued on at 65mph.........

Do NOT trust old tires. Lots of tread and the lack of sidewall cracking does not mean they are just fine

but you were in the desert......a new tire could have done the same I would think.
 
I had an 88 grand marquis I drove for a winter before the frame rusted through badly. The tires that were on it before I put winter tires on were over 10 years old but looked "okay". It pulled to the right which I thought was maybe alignment but it went away with different tires. At 70mph I heard a sound like I ran over something kind of soft on the highway, right before my exit. It still felt smooth until I slowed down getting off the highway then it had a real hop to the front. I assumed it blew a tire but it was just a huge chunk of tread came off exposing the steel belts inside. It was amazing that the suspension isolated it until I slowed down and the car still drove okay at 70mph with a chunk out of the right front tire.
 
Originally Posted by twoheeldrive
Michelin says 10 years. The tire safety group says 6 years.

Here's a report from the NTSB complete with pics and stories of accidents due to old tires:

NTSB Tire Safety


It they want to run their tires over 6 years don't confuse them with facts and prime examples.
 
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
Originally Posted by twoheeldrive
Michelin says 10 years. The tire safety group says 6 years.

Here's a report from the NTSB complete with pics and stories of accidents due to old tires:

NTSB Tire Safety


It they want to run their tires over 6 years don't confuse them with facts and prime examples.
One of the examples they used was a twenty year old tire that best case scenario was stored inside but I'll bet it wasn't. It was an old spare, guaranteed. The second tire was six years old, still new enough that it could be defective.

That's not the same as an old garage kept car having a set of old tires magically exploding. Have you never seen cars that have 10 year old tires that still look good?
 
Originally Posted by twoheeldrive
Michelin says 10 years. The tire safety group says 6 years.

Here's a report from the NTSB complete with pics and stories of accidents due to old tires:

NTSB Tire Safety



Causality.
 
Originally Posted by Onetor

Anything man made will break or fail.


This applies to nature made stuff as well. Just give it time.
 
Originally Posted by maxdustington
There's no expiry date on tires mentioned anywhere, run them until they look or feel bad.
Originally Posted by Nick1994
Time to replace. Sure would be a shame if one lost its tread and it slapped around and ruined your quarter panel or fender. Tires for 14" wheels are dirt cheap too.
I agree with you because 14s are cheap, but tires don't explode because they are old. That's a BITOG myth.


No myth, happens in the SW all the time, not so much in Ct where the OP lives. Remember Nick's frame of reference is Phoenix. Anyone running 10 year or older tires here is asking for trouble. Back East most people don't know and don't care how old their tires are, when they wear out replace them. Here I won't buy tires over 6 months old.
 
In my case if I had quickly had the alignment problem checked I'd have realized it was the tire that was going bad. Unfortunately I was racking up a ton of miles in a short time so the failure happened.
 
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