Tire expiration
07-02-2018, 06:18 PM
#2
Team Owner
Member Since: Jun 2005
Location: Northern, VA
Posts: 46,100
Received 2,478 Likes
on
1,941 Posts
St. Jude Donor '15
"In honor of jpee"
I'd say if you ck the date code on the sidewall for when they were made, it might tell you something. But, my guess is the tires are no more than 3-4 years old. And they shouldn't be worn to the point of being like slicks. To answer your question, yes, tires do get hard after X amount of what's called heat cycles but yours probably aren't being exposed to excessive heat cycling. One thing to check is your tire pressure with an actual gauge and comparing it to the door label that lists what it should be. The next thing is to ck your alignment (when was the last time you had one done?). Those two things can have a large impact on handling. Others will chime in.
07-02-2018, 06:41 PM
#3
Tires certainly can get hard and lose traction with age regardless of tread depth.
07-02-2018, 06:45 PM
#4
Melting Slicks
Are they Cup 2s or Supersports? The Cup 2s need to heat up for traction.
07-02-2018, 07:03 PM
#5
Tech Contributor
Member Since: Oct 1999
Location: Charlotte, NC (formerly Endicott, NY)
Posts: 40,078
Received 8,919 Likes
on
5,328 Posts
Tires can go bad with age. However, from a traction stand point your tires are nowhere near that age. You need to get them warm. A few miles at high speeds over 100 will generate some heat.
Bill
Bill
07-03-2018, 08:21 AM
#7
2nd Gear
Thread Starter
Member Since: Jul 2018
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Tires
So I was told because the tires are almost four years old, they have gotten hard and lost their ability to grab the road. Four year old tires in the Texas heat. Could this be true?
Last edited by ricksz06; 07-03-2018 at 08:22 AM. Reason: Word change
07-03-2018, 09:35 AM
#8
Le Mans Master
Tire manufacturers really do not design tire bodies to last over about 4 or 5 years. Some tire places will not even work on tires that get older than that. There may already be some small cracking on sidewalls or tread just due to age.
07-03-2018, 01:59 PM
#9
Safety Car
Had you put more regular miles on your tires since 2015, you would had been close to 20,000 miles and they would be close to needing replacement. Just pretend you have that many miles and get them replaced. You don't seem to be enjoying the ride with them now, so there is no good reason in leaving them on the car. Do it before you end up skidding off the road and causing damage to your 3,000 mile car.
07-03-2018, 02:01 PM
#10
Team Owner
Member Since: Mar 2012
Location: Anger Island
Posts: 45,940
Received 3,288 Likes
on
1,399 Posts
St. Jude Donor '12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17
Drive your car instead of saving it for the next owner.
The following users liked this post:
owc6 (07-03-2018)
07-03-2018, 02:29 PM
#11
Le Mans Master
Member Since: Nov 2015
Location: Lake Havasu City Arizona
Posts: 7,326
Received 3,439 Likes
on
2,059 Posts
Six years is the limit, but if they brittle up before six years that is the time to change them. Up to six years, meaning they could go brittle before the six year time limit.
Last edited by joemessman; 07-03-2018 at 02:30 PM.
07-06-2018, 01:38 PM
#12
Had you put more regular miles on your tires since 2015, you would had been close to 20,000 miles and they would be close to needing replacement. Just pretend you have that many miles and get them replaced. You don't seem to be enjoying the ride with them now, so there is no good reason in leaving them on the car. Do it before you end up skidding off the road and causing damage to your 3,000 mile car.
I live in DFW, and replaced my tires last fall at 13,000 miles with plenty of tread on them--wish I had replaced them a little sooner actually. When you're not enjoying the handling/grip, new tires (assuming you're running proper tire inflation) work wonders.