How old is too old for tyres?

[PranK]

I'm replacing the front tyres on the E39 tomorrow because one of them has a few gouges out of it. There is so much tread still on them but they're also 9 years old and the rubber is super hard. 

This falls within the guidelines of 10 years old that I've read which surprises me given their condition. 

I'm curious about whether you guys care about tyre age or just judge the tyre based on condition? How old would you consider too old?

[Shoota_77]

Personally I wouldn't put tyres over 4 or 5 years old on any of my own cars. Once they go hard the grip characteristics completely change. As per most things it only matters in an accident and that's when you most want them to do their job!

[GTSBoy]

Yeah - 4 or 5 years is the limit for decent tyres.

Pedestrian grade tyres with 400 TW ratings start out hard and don't start to suffer until they are somewhat older again. But the stickier decent stuff? Nup. My current ADO9s are < 2 yrs old, 17000km in, only have about the minimum 2mm of tread depth left, and they are.....not what they used to be. They are clearly much harder now than when new. Whether that is heat cycles (unlikely, for a road tyre), different compound between top and bottom of tread, or actually aging out (in less than 2 years!!!) is not really able to be discerned. But I'd credit actual aging as being at least part of the cause.

I've got an old pair of ~50% worn AD08Rs in the shed that I really need to get rid of. They started feeling waaaay too hard to put back on the car after a couple of years sitting there.

[The Bogan]

Also, a tip for young players 

Check the dates on new tyres before they fit them, I always ask this question at the tyre shop, as they have tried to put "new" tyres on one of my cars a few years ago, but the build date was about 3 years old

[Murray_Calavera]

If the tyres were fitted when new, I wouldn't expect much over 5 years of use. Especially if the car lives outside full time. 

If the tyres had been stored under ideal conditions and are being purchased new, I'd fit a set of already 5 year old tyres if I only expected to get 1 to 2 years of use out of them. 

I've purchased many a set of new (but quite old) tyres from St George Tyres when I just needed some decent rear tyres to drift on. 

Here is a pretty crazy example, can't say I've ever bought 11 year old tyres from them before though lol. 

https://www.stgeorgetyres.com.au/momo-tyres-245-45-17-outrun-m3-official-product-by-momo-italy.html

[MBS206]

When they're so hard you can't leave a black mark or make any smoke...

[joshuaho96]

21 hours ago, PranK said:

I'm replacing the front tyres on the E39 tomorrow because one of them has a few gouges out of it. There is so much tread still on them but they're also 9 years old and the rubber is super hard. 

This falls within the guidelines of 10 years old that I've read which surprises me given their condition. 

I'm curious about whether you guys care about tyre age or just judge the tyre based on condition? How old would you consider too old?

10 years is really pushing it. At 7-8 years you need to inspect frequently for signs of dry rot.

[MBS206]

1 hour ago, joshuaho96 said:

10 years is really pushing it. At 7-8 years you need to inspect frequently for signs of dry rot.

I've got 15 year old tyres on a car in my garage, holding air (holding it better than the daily driver does!) and no signs of rotting/cracking/drying out. Oh, and they've only been garaged the last 3. Before that they sat in a couple of different paddocks/yards, and even spent about a week underwater too.

However, weather and other environmental factors can really change how quickly they start to dry out and crack.

[niZmO_Man]

My brother's old Pulsar had approx 10 year old tyres (crappy Zeix). The sidewalls split on all four tyres in the space of a week. I'd be paranoid on 10 year old tyres.

[blind_elk]

My understanding is that UV tends to accelerate the aging process. If the car has been garaged, then you could probably get away with extending beyond 10 years.

FWIW, in 2015, I had tyres on my 180B SSS that had a 3-digit code (2 for week, 1 for decade), ending in 0, so could have been more than 30 years old, but still worked fine. I did replaced them very quickly, though, once I discovered what the code meant!