how old is too old?

my front tires date from 05, 12 years old. they have 1/2 the tread or much better, do not seem to be cupped or worn badly in any way, and I can see no signs of cracking or checking.

are they still good? is 12 years too old for a tire regardless of how it looks? would you run them or get new ones?

If there is no cracks I would continue to run them. Just know that if you see cracks in the sidewall that the tires are DONE! Those cracks go all the way through the sidewall.

If you do much highway driving I'd replace them.
12 years is a long time on todays tires.
Theoretically they should have been worn out in 5 or 6 years, tops.

Here's a pretty good test: On a new or relatively new tire, push on a tread with your thumb and attempt to compresses and bend it. Note the feel, appearance, and how much deformation is possible. Do the same on the old tire. If the old tire does not compress or bend nearly as much, it may be too hard and brittle for high speed driving, and the risk is fender damage or worse from flying pieces.

I recently removed some tires I thought had no cracks.
Once off the van, I noticed they were cracked right by the rim on the back side. No idea how long I was driving on borrowed time.
I would say if your not sure better to be safe then sorry. 4 tires are gonna be cheaper then body work, or possibly worse if on the highway...

I'll just throw this out.

http://www.tiresafetygroup.com/tires-expire-in-six-years/

I can verify that a Sears Snow Commander from 1977 will not survive a 3 hour drive home on a road runner in modern times. lol.

My old tires had 70% tread, no deformation, and always properly inflated. Never noticed a problem, they looked great, up until one of them capped themselves and took my rear quarter out at 35 MPH. Now I need tires and a quarter panel.

Get rid of them old tires!

Uuugh, you guys are killing me,
Just looked at my tires, 10yrs old and still have 50% tread left.

From now on I'm buying the cheapest tire I can find, definitely will age out out before wear out.

Yes tires age no doubt but unless they are out in the sun or in a high ozone laden atmosphere they are still good I will no scrap a tire unless I see cracks or it is abnormally hard or The side wall is damaged I just bought a new pair of Nitto drag radials and they have a warning about driving in temps below 15*F say they will crack

I know what you mean cnxt. My Goodrich T/A's are 17 years old and have maybe 2000 miles on them. So I just ordered a set of new Firestone Wide Ovals (not cheap) for my car.

Well, the evidence does seem to suggest new tires, except for one thing: these tires have been garaged their whole life, apart from the time they have been driven. So they haven't seen the usual baking in the sun and weather every day of their lives.

I most likely will replace them, but also will do a closer inspection of them first, most notably see how/if the tread compresses.

Thanks all!

You'll get answers all over the place, but here's my second-hand experience: Several years ago my Dad's Ram 3500 lost the front tire while running 80 mph down I-10 driving from the Dallas area to NW Florida. His tires were 6 or 7 years old. He said he picked up a vibration somewhere in Louisiana, but kinda ignored it with the intent of getting it checked out when he got here. When it went, the tire disintegrated, completely and violently throwing that big @%$ truck off the interstate into the (luckily) grass. He was able to hang on and get it stopped. He's driven alot in his life, as a truck driver for about 15 years, and that rattled the $&!% out of him (almost nothing does). By the way, he lost an inner fender, headlight and some other small plastic stuff around the front right corner. Do what you want, but don't ignore ANY warning signs.

If your lucky enough that when one blows it only takes out a fender or quarter panel your repair costs will be low vs if you ditch the car or hit another car.

But hey, 540 inch hemi 70 Road Runners are beater cars an can be fixed or replaced in short order, right?

Please buy some new tires.

I have blown out on two occasions tires that were bought new within the last 2 months> My son was ina new Jeep grand Cherokee that blew out a rear tire and I was told that the one that blew out on my one car and took park of qtr panel spun on the rim! Wrong the bead was st.ill stuck like Iron and tread and side wall were in pieces..

(I ran a set of Eagle ST's for a long while that were 'garage and Tire Shine' protected...

Finally had a belt separate...

I think today, I'd err on the side of caution...

Alright, I get it!

You guys are right, new tires it is!

I too had a tire come apart on my daily driver.
But it had given me warnings that I ignored, isn't there usually some indication before it goes?

Sometimes... just enough time to think...."what the hell is that...."

I've had older tires blow out just sitting in the driveway. One of the rears on my F250 did that...sounded like a shotgun. Didnt see any cracks/splits in the tire before it went boom.

Flip to the next page in this magazine and there will be an ad for Radial T/A's.

Brother.

Send all your "expired" tires with 2000 miles on them to me.

I'll wear 'em out since you guys are too Chicken to do it.

While your're at it send your "expired" oil on the shelf and one-month old gas that gets thrown out on here too: I'll find a use for it.

But it had given me warnings that I ignored, isn't there usually some indication before it goes?

I had enough time to think, hmmm I got a u joint maybe going bad, I better pull over and look...them boom. Maybe 15 seconds.

The Radial TAs on my 68 are...old... now you have me worried...

If I drove it I would be really worried....

1987 ford 350 box van, one original rear tire blew in 2000, the set now are 17 years old but I'm afraid of them so I'll get some new ones. Might have 4000 miles in them. My 2006 3500 Dodge truck came with Michlens, replaced those in 2016 because I got a good deal on take offs from a 2016 3500. They had... 96,000 miles on them, you could see the air in them they where so wore out and they where cracked up bad. Each one might have had five patches in it. They where 8 or 10 ply tires. I've always said the "rubber" of today is not as good as 40 years ago, almost designed to go bad so more tires are bought. If you have an old car and quarters are hard to find, tires are cheaper, don't take a chance. Besides, the old ones are easy to sell.

I use to jack up my Stocker and put it on jack stands so the tires didn't sit on the cement floor in the back shop out of the sunlight, that help keep the slicks biting longer than when I use to let another drag car sit outside in the sun on the asphalt driveway between races
I can't tell you many tires on the car hauler trucks and trailers I've lost going to the races Way to many
Sitting still for long periods of time is not good for anything or anybody
Buy new ones now

i paid the price once
i got a flat and the
spare only made it a mile down the road...
tires are a lot cheaper then a fender

The tire must have been dreaming about running over a curb or speed bump.

Come on, Micky....
I put a set of Nitto 555 tires on my Charger in 2003. I heard many of these same horror stories and went ahead and replaced them with a set of Nitto NT 01 tires in a softer compound than the 555s. The old tires looked great outside and inside because like you, my car is safely tucked away out of sunlight other than a few times a year.
These softer tires do grip better and this time, I may "age out" right about the time I wear them out.

I think you guys need to do more burnouts so the tire wears out before it times out.

Several years ago a guy gave me a set of 15 year old Michelin tires to put on a beater I had just gotten running. They looked great, no cracks, pretty soft tread, they took no weights to balance them. I used them for about 4 years running around town and doing short trips. I finally bought a set of new tires and pulled off the Michelin tires. Once off the car you could see many small cracks deep down inside the tread. Guess I got all the use out of that set of tires. Gene

Looked up the warranty on my Sumitimo's, as a reference point, they expect them to last at least 6 years.

Workmanship & Materials Warranty:
5 Years from purchase or 6 Years fr / Free replacement for 6 Years from date of purchase or worn to 2/32" remaining depth

here is one for the nay sayers..
someone learned the hard way..

http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum...#post-910767516

245 60 15 TA Ive a new set with the blue still on them, 12 years old, anyone want them for shipping?

Im serious, I bought a set and put like 50 miles on them, went to skinnies when I put the coil over front on and they have been on a roller in my shop since and im nearly ready to drive this car but not with these tires, but the have been rolled around twice a year and been on stands.

And just think the tires on my AIRPLANE are from 1998 and are weather checked but as long as I don't see any cord, they are legal to fly with...

yes but....are they legal to land with?

Legal doesn't prevent harm, especially in airplanes
My airplane sat in a hangar in Novato for several years before I got it, I have no idea how old the mains and front tires where when I got it, it wasn't enter in the logs by the decease previous owner
I ended up flat spotting both mains shortly after buying and flying it do to not being a good pilot and knowing how to land that airplane properly and safely I replaced them with some cheap, legal mains and ended up replacing the front tire around a year later. Those cheap mains lasted less than 4 years before they started weather checking from sitting outside tied down for those four years in Hesperia, CA before I was able to buy a hanger on the field for it. That was a Comanche 250 that I learned to land at 85 MPH indicated with or without flaps, those long tapered wings love to float above 90 MPH
I ended up putting a set of the best Goodyears available on the mains and they where still on it when it got total by a hail storm in Bend in the spring of 2006
What risk are you willing to gamble on?
I have a pile of destroyed trailer tires that had the caps come off going or coming back from the races at 55 to 65 MPH, I hate having tire troubles on the road I carry three spares for the race trailer now

poorboy, these are front tires.

back tires never last more than a year or two...

God, all this over 2 tires, bone head go buy two tires and have fun.

I would just run them. The tires on my daily driver are about that old. I had them in storage for 7 or 8 years while I ran down the set that came with my car. I did 80mph with them on the way in to work today.

The considerably newer tires on the back of my wife's car started to separate tread from the casing. One wore through and just went flat on the highway one day, no catastrophic failure. The other one developed a super nasty wobble and I noticed the same tread separation when changing the tire.

Not exactly apples to apples but on our highway tractor/trailers we recently pulled a worn retread tire off a customer's trailer. The tread was worn but an inspection of the casing showed it was 17 years old and had been recapped 6 times and it was still in good shape. We have a trailer on our yard we use for putting around off-road only and the date on the casings is either 1990 or 1980 can't tell which.

Just change them, not worth taking a chance on your life or car.
I'm working on my A66 Challenger convertible that was in storage since 1984. At the time I put new TA radials on the car.
Out of storage, they still held air, and had most of their thread.
Good for moving the car around the driveway, NO way highway.
Be safe and change them.

Saturday I had a job at Bandag, they recap tires for a living, google them. In the process we discussed recaps and I was told pass car and light truck casings are too light duty anymore to recap. So they don't as they cannot be guaranteed.

I wouldn't run old pass car or light truck tires for anything more than getting it to the tire store for a new set and then only at city street speeds. If the are not so old as to be the old HD ones that could be recapped then they are a poor gamble and if they are so old as to fall into the HD category, they are too old for the rubber to have held up safely.

But if you want to gamble with your life go ahead play polish roulette but don't gamble with mine or anyone elses.

I've posted before, but I had a "brand new" spare trailer tire that I kept in the trailer or in a garage during that time. I finally needed to use it about 6-7 years later. It still looked like new. After only a couple of thousand miles, it peeled like a banana with the rubber simply separating from the cords. I drove on the steel cords for a couple of miles before finding a place to pull off & change it.

I had 10 year old BFG radial T/A's on my old 69 Bee. Garage kept, proper inflation looked perfect. One night the left rear tread came apart suddenly and tore apart the lower quarter. The cost to repair and paint it was well above the cost of a new set.

You'll really be ticked if you buy new TA's and find you now have not raised white letters, but instead the now Michelin produced raised brown lettering on the sidewalls.

Last I checked the smaller sizes are still ok, but any larger than 255's will not be white.

FWIW - !! That's an important note.

Store them above freezing if your winters are that cold. I learned this from a job I did at a Ferrari/Maserati dealership who was talking about needing heat in their tire warehouse.. I asked why? ..They said there is enough water content in some competition compounds they will freeze-crack when it's cold enough.

- Art

I bit the bullet and bought bought 2 new tires for the rear.
Stupid Tire Rack wouldn't let me order just 2 tires online without entering car info, so I had to call.

Guy on phone kept explaining these are "summer tires and directional", we need the car.
He finally placed the order when I explained this size wasn't stock on the car.

And yes, I did try to find another car that uses 275/40/18 to enter online before calling....

Many auto parts guys are idiots that drive Toyotas or Hondas and never spin a wrench.

How old is too old?
Well I'm going on 58 and I still get up and go to work everyday.
So I guess 58 isn't too old.
Oh.
Wait.
What are we talking about?
Oh yeah, tires.
Sorry.
I guess I'm too old.