Tire age
Le Mans Master
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 5,955
Likes: 161
From: PNW
They get pretty squirrely at 10 years old. There was a long term test done on a 2002 Z06, and they took it to a track and said the tires were not working very well, traction wise. Probably hardened rubber which caused loss of traction. My Zee is in the same boat, so I don't really push it too hard in corners until it gets new rubber soon.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-z...road-test.html
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-z...road-test.html
Last edited by ZeeOSix; Sep 18, 2012 at 07:23 PM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 6,528
Likes: 752
From: South Dakota
There have been a lot of threads about this.
There are different opinions and different sources for "facts".
Generally the rubber ages and gets harder. As this happens gradually the tire performance goes away until it becomes unsafe and will fail.
The tire performance probably starts getting worse after only a couple years as the rubber ages and hardens and at about 7 years they are due for replacement. (the age I see varies from about 5 to 10 years)
My opinion... The tires lose performance and will not handle as well as they get hard which is where the 7 year estimate is from. The point at which they fail by coming apart may be a little more. There is no age at which they are good and then suddenly bad, it is a slow progression. They aging process may vary based on the rubber compound and the environment they are stored in, so all of the estimates are only rough estimates.
When the tires get hard, they get slippery and easily slide out in turns and easier to break loose with the throttle.
I'm sure others will join in with more opinions.
There are different opinions and different sources for "facts".
Generally the rubber ages and gets harder. As this happens gradually the tire performance goes away until it becomes unsafe and will fail.
The tire performance probably starts getting worse after only a couple years as the rubber ages and hardens and at about 7 years they are due for replacement. (the age I see varies from about 5 to 10 years)
My opinion... The tires lose performance and will not handle as well as they get hard which is where the 7 year estimate is from. The point at which they fail by coming apart may be a little more. There is no age at which they are good and then suddenly bad, it is a slow progression. They aging process may vary based on the rubber compound and the environment they are stored in, so all of the estimates are only rough estimates.
When the tires get hard, they get slippery and easily slide out in turns and easier to break loose with the throttle.
I'm sure others will join in with more opinions.
