The_Backmarker

During the 5 months I spent looking for a C5Z I noticed that most of the Corvettes I looked at had old tires on them. Many Corvettes are weekend toys and second or third cars for many owners and many simply do not get driven much. Most of the cars I saw had tires between 7-10 years old. That's too old for the street for any car, let alone a high-performance sports car like a Corvette. Forget about using these tires on a track day or autocross event. They simply will not have the grip they once had and, more importantly, their structural integrity is in question. The Porsche crash that claimed actor Paul Walker's life had nine year old tires and that played a role in the car losing control and crashing. Personally, I replace any tire that's over six years old.

If you're wondering how to find the age of your tire, look for a 4-digit code on the sidewall of your tires. It'll be separate from all the other letters and numbers on the sidewall. The first two digits indicate the week of the year the tires were manufactured and the 3rd and 4th digits indicate the year of manufacture. So a date code of "1608" means that the tire was built in the 16th week of the year 2008. It's a ten year old tire.

Here's a good article on tires and age: https://www.edmunds.com/car-care/how...our-tires.html

Anyway, I don't want to sound too "preachy" but I figured every car owner/driver should be aware of this.

corvette.cw

I love my Corvette, but I don't want to die in it.

Black 03 Z06

I still have the original Goodyear F1's mounted on the Z06 wheels. They are used just for storage and moving in the garage if needed. So it is good advice if you are looking to buy a car that both the cost and availability of tires should be considered. Mine look brand new but now are almost 15 years old.

Vetteman Jack

This has been posted about many times on the forum, but a reminder never hurts. Looks can be deceiving when it comes to tire safety.

MikeG37

When I bought my '99 the seller was under the impression that it having its original tires with practically brand new tread in 2013 was a good selling point

The tires were almost 15 years old.

Mike98SilVert

That's crazy.....however some purists prefer originality and only drive their car a few miles to a car show at 25-40 mph on sunny weekend day to sit around with others for 8 hours, collect their plastic trophy and then drive back to their garage. Tire age is not a safety or perfomance consideration to them and fortunately for them their tires only see ultraviolet light maybe 15-20 times per year and will never see high speeds or g-forces while they own it. To someone just like them it is a selling point. For someone who will drive the car it means that the tires need to be replaced immediatly and is an expense and devalues the car lust like buying a car with completely worn out tires would.

Mike98SilVert

Well put Jack.

chasboy

You're not being preachy. I don't approve of those who compromise safety for any reason.

~Josh

My car is mostly a garage queen. 8 year old tires that still look great but I've been planning to change them before the spring driving season this year.

Bucs14

The 2000 I just bought Wednesday as original 18 year old tires on it. Look great, but replacing next Friday with new Michelin Pilots. With a front end alignment.

Mike98SilVert

Good idea,

Make sure the shop lifts it properly at the GM lifting points and use pucks so that they don't lift from the body of the car.

Also make sure they perform a 4 wheel alignment

Mike98SilVert

Here are the lifting & jacking locations:



Always use jacking pucks when lifting from the frame contact hoist locations if you don't have frame rail protection.

Jacking Pucks: https://www.corvettepartsandaccessor...-jacking-pucks

Lifting without pucks. :

http://www.z06vette.com/diy_lift.php

cherokee433FL

after putting new tires on the vette, and then here i am planning a trip soon in the pickup, i checked and found the tires on it were at 10 years and 81k, so yes, just a thought and then a glance to find that those were way out and due for replacement. Not only tires on the fast cars are of a concern, but a check on the other vehicles as well serves as a wake up that will eliminate difficulties down the road.

chasboy

I’ll never browbeat anyone who has a garage queen. The only thing I’ll say is that it’s more fun to drive than look at!

I have the ‘leave in’ jacking pucks, and would never do without them. I was exiting a strange driveway and turned to quickly and luckily the puck took all the damage by the time I realized what was going on.

chasboy

You might think about a 4 wheel alignment, especially if you don’t know if it was ever done. I did it with my one owner when I got it and they told me it was way out.

~Josh

I work 60 hours per week. Maybe once every other week I'll take it for a 3 hour drive through the countryside, but that's taking up half my single day off. I also have a wife/kid so time is sparce.

Wont drive it to work in solid 1 hour each way Atlanta bumper to bumper rush hour traffic with a highly modded 6 speed that would never get out of 2nd gear more than twice. F-that.

Garage queen it is. Clean as a whistle.

Bucs14

Thanks for the reminder. The guy I bought this creampuff from said the only work done on this car was to repair damage from his shop that didn't use the pucks. Does anyone have a photo of what those would look like?

~Josh

Here's a set of them.


They each fit in a slot on the frame. Half rotate and it's captive, rotate some more and it's free to be removed from the slot.

calguy

The big thing to think about with tires that look new, but are over seven years old, is dry rot.

I use to have a continental mk v and the tires were about eight years old, with lots of tread.
On the way to SanDiego one Sunday, I had a blow out.

That made me look at the other tires, and they all had cracks in their sidewalls.
I turned around and headed home.
Bought new tires the next day.

Bob.

ClipperFan