I am doing a tire change this week to Michelin PS2 and taking off the factory original Eagle F1 super tires that came with the vehicle 10 years ago. The guy I bought the car from rarely drove it and kept it in a garage so plenty of tread and no dry rot. I was going to trash the tires but was told they may have value for someone who does need to replace and wants original equipment. Are these worth trying to sell??? Thanks, Ian

 

Sure - put 'em in the For Sale section, but you'll want to include some obvious info and photos: I assume OEM 17"/18"? Tread depth? Any plugs?

 

Be sure to clearly indicate the age of the tires if you try to sell them!

A knowledgeable driver interested in performance (or comfort, for that matter) won't come near 10-year old rubber.

 

dispose of them....

 

5 years ago with good tread they were worth selling, its really not safe to drive on 10 year old tires no matter how good they still look. Tires have a useful lifespan of 5-6 years. After that it becomes dangerous. Sucks to have all that tread left and have to replace them I know.

 

In today's litigious society, the only way I would sell 10 year old tires is if they were advertised as planters. (lie on their side, fill with dirt, plant flowers, and enjoy) Even then, I'd drill holes in the sidewalls. There is no way I'd sell them as tires for any road worthy car.

 

Thanks guys. I guess they will end up playground fill. May need to leave a few black marks on the road to the tire shop where the new ones will be mounted.

 

Don't forget, sometime down the road...30-40-50 years down the road, these C5Z's will be judged by NCRS and original equipment tires will bring points. They might not be road worthy, but mounted on the original rims on the judging spot, they will be worth something...

If you have the room, wrap them in plastic and store them in the attic or garage. If you ever sell the Z, include them in the sale for the next owner. I think it would be nice to still have my original tires, but alas mine were worn, especially the fronts (down to the steel belts )

 

most tire shops won't even mount a 10yr old tire

dispose of them

 

Its a simple fact that over time, rubber deteriorates in the presence of air and light. If these tires were kept for the last 10 years in a vacuum chamber with no light, sell them.

 

There really is no need to junk the tires. You might not get much for them, but someone who drives the car lighty can put them to use. Just look at how many vintage cars are driving to/from car shows on Firestone Wide Oval tires that were made 30+ years ago. A tire might not be as sticky as it was 10 years ago, but it was built to handle 40 lbs per square inch. For normal driving, you're in no danger at all to keep using them. Now if you want to go 150 mph at the track, but all means those are not the tires to use.

Ryan J

 

So they're going to be ok if one blows out in normal driving (70-80 mph) just not at 150? Sorry but I would disagree. If you want to hold on to them for some future NCRS show winner thats just going to be taken off a trailer for shows thats fine. For highway use I would replace them. Not sure about the life span of old school bias ply tires but everything Ive ever heard about modern radials is that they are not safe to use at 10 years of age no matter how great they still look.

 

I agree that 10 years is the "industry standard" for replacement. You can hop right over to Tire Rack for example and that is what they recommend. However my point is that driving on a 10+ year old tire under normal street conditions, you are in no greater danger than if you were to run over random road debris and have the tire fail.

If 10 year old tires were time bombs waiting to go off, we would hear of 15-20 year old low mileage "show cars" crashing all time because there are 10s of thousands of drivers using them every day and they would be having frequent blowouts.

Use motor oil as an example - some folks still swear by a 3k mile oil change even through you can clearly run synthetic much longer. There are plenty of members of this and other Vette forums that would have you believe you need to replace nearly every working part on the car before you would dare take it on a track. Some folks just love to spend money and want every nut and bolt to be newer and better than what they have now and claim that you couldn't be safe if you don't so the same thing. The Corvette of the last 20 years, and all its parts are designed to be driven 150+mph just as it rolled off the show room floor.

Now if you want to do that for 4 hours a day, every weekend, sure some mods will likely be necessary. If you want to pull 0.9g around street corners, yes junk the street tires at 10 years and 15,000 miles. But to go 65mph on a freeway in a straight line 90% of the time I don't see any issue. Most Vettes are so pampered, they've never even seen "hard miles".

Too each their own. My car is in the 10+ category and the only time my OEM rubber will be off the car is for track days. If it is a risk, it is one I am willing to live with.

Ryan J

 

MOST tire manufactures go up to 10 years--6 year old tires are still fairly soft and safe- as long as tread depth is ok-

 

rubber has broken down by this point. not only are the tires much more dangerous since they won't stop anywhere near a new tire, they also are much more likely to have a belt seperate

personally i would never ever drive a tire over 5 years old. i try to aim for a 2-3 year replacement

traction is substantially lower by year 4 and by year ten you might as well be on roller skates

the reason you don't hear about show cars crashing is because #1 not many are on the road and #2 they are usually trailered and or driven 10 miles on a sunny day very carefully

there is no greater performance item on a car besides the tires. not the engine, brakes, suspension, nothing. everything goes through the tires.

 

I agree some--if a tire is 6-10 old and the rubber is still soft--at least 5/32 left-your good to go-and a lot of manufactures agree-1 is Michelin--In fact our US govt. wont put a year limit on tires--good enough for me

 

it's not even in the same world at 6 years

you would literally be seconds down on a small 1 minute course

if the tire pulls 1g on said car you would be EXTREMELY lucky to see .90g at six years, it would likely be in the high .8 range

i don't understand why you guys own sports cars if you're going to neglect the single most important part of them

 

Put some Bleach in the Washer Bottle and plant the washer nozzles at the rear tires and Smoke-em up for a memorable Burn-out and film it then Toss-em
IMO Those are worst than the Faulty Valve springs that are known to come apart.

 

By now those tires grip like a hard plastic tire on a Big Wheel toddler bike.. I never cared for the tire when it was new.. I'm sure if I put those on my car right now, the tires would spin like I was on solid ice, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear at any speed or rpm..

 

Throw them out, burn them, turn them into redneck art/furniture, etc. I repeat, DO NOT use them on a car, and DO NOT sell them. I'm currently raging because this happened to my truck.



Somehow I read this as week 27, 2008, which is old but not terrible. Upon further review, they changed the tire dating in 2000. But...


Actually, I'm from the Clinton administration!

This is from a 2001 truck with high miles, so something tells me it's not quite OEM. Ergo, the used car dealer screwed me hard last October when I bought it.

Luckily, this happened going 20MPH about 1/4 mile from home so I could idle it into my driveway. On the other hand... I had put ~2800 interstate miles on this truck, out of the total ~3300 miles... Basically, my odds of dying or becoming a cripple were insanely high. Naturally, I kept my distance after I parked it, because I knew, eventually, this was coming:


Bam

I'm assuming buying it "as is" from the dealer = me out of luck. However, if there's not already a law banning the sale of 14 year old tires on a vehicle without disclosing it, there ****ing should be, because I could very easily be dead right now (or maybe SHOULD be dead, all things considered).