Spare Time Toy

Would you trust brand new 10 year old tires? A guy here local has a set of take off Good Year F1 in the correct size for my car. I checked the date codes and it was 4404. The tread depth was over 9/32 they are 10/32 new. I could get the set for $400 but the age scares me.

leadfoot4

I, too, would be concerned about tires that old.......

VETFEVER

Fine to show the car - not to drive the car...

I bought a set of 2-year old Pirelli's for $325 on Kijiji - that's for 4 tires....

$400 for those F1's is too much $$

Allthrottleandsomebottle

If stored in a temp controlled area, out of light and still soft to the touch I have driven w/o issue. How many miles and how were they used is the variable..........value is what you make it

romandian

i drive 15 years old yokos on a very fast car. nothing weird about them. excellent traction.

leadfoot4

If you choose to press your luck with tires that old, "on a very fast car", that's up to you........Good luck!!

romandian

what can be wrong with tires that have been sitting for several years, except the compound has lost stickion? i read that a lot, but my experience tells me otherwise.

the reason i do it, is that this tire size is not available any more and i still have two fresh sets to go.

frsr06

I just removed a set from my 04 that had only 12K on them - original tires. They seemed to be extremely hard/rigid and did not perform well. Installed Michelins and made 100% difference. I think the tire age issue is over-inflated (no pun intended) but there is some degradation over time. I drove on the old tires for about 1000 miles and due to performance felt I had to replace them. If you are looking for tires to beat around with - your choice.

Breze84

They should be fine as long as they are not dry rotted.... **** I know guys with muscle cars still driving on 25 year old tires with no problems...

waljr

Trust me, they don't give any warning before they let go

TWS Racing

6-7 years and that's it. Driving on 10 year old tires is foolish. Driving on even older tires is...

Hope the guy with 16 year old tires has good medical and life insurance. They can come apart with no warning.

Bill Dearborn

There are plenty of old tire failures documented in the news listings. One of the big network news shows (maybe 60 minutes) had a expose on the problem seven or eight years ago. The problem is the oxidation of the tire especially from the inside. Even kept in a cool dry, dark location the tire is exposed to oxygen. With regular tires the problem is a blow out due to heat build up during highway driving. Runflats are subject to the same problem but the sidewall reinforcements keep them from losing their shape. The problem is how well those reinforcements will work on a 10 year old or older tire.


Bill

68notray

I run a set of repop Polyglas GTs that were bought in 1990 - at Zmax dragway. No dryrot or cracking of course, always stored indoors. No issues, trap speed 115 mph. Some tires hold up better than others.

leadfoot4

..........And some people are crazier than others!!

Vetteman Jack

I would not run 10 year old tires on my car, even if they had not been mounted on a car before. No sense taking a chance with something as critical as the tires.

Vette_DD

Had my 012 Vette at the dealer's shop to check for a slow tire leak. No leak, but they told me the rear tires were beginning to show cracks from dry rot between the treads.

The tires were made in June of 2011 and the car was built in August of 2011. My car does sit under a carport in southern TN when I'm not driving it. Although I drive it 3 or 4 days a week, the car's only got 9500 miles on it. I did buy it new in 2012.

Is that low mileage plus UV rays plus summer heat enough to cause the signs of dry rot?

Froggys's Apprentice

One of my favorite part of buying my corvette. Other Corvette guys selling old tires.

Boy do I love to burn rubber and never imagined it would be this cheap :-)

carnant

Probably nothing will happen. But you only need one failure and you are in big trouble. Use it for city and slow driving, that'd be my opinion.

Allthrottleandsomebottle

Check these links out, similar cracks?

https://www.michelinapex.com/thread/1409

https://www.michelinapex.com/thread/1420

Bob K

I replaced the original run flats on my 07 at 18k miles. They were starting to crack between the tread.

I replace my trailer tires every 6 years. It doesn't matter how many miles are on them.

Tires are pretty important when your going down the highway. Like my motorcycle helment, I buy Arai's and replace them every two years. I'm worth that much to myself.

Bob K.