I get told when tires are of certain age, they needed to be replaced. How old?
My spare tire on a car that is about 11yrs old - the shop refused to put air in it.
See http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=184, http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=138, and http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=183.
10 years is the longest cutoff I’ve seen, some say 6 or 8. So 11 is too old.
And even if it looks ok, rubber hardens with age, so it won’t handle as well as a new tire.
That depends on what it is on and how it is used. I have a 1978 riding lawnmower with original tires. I wouldn’t be afraid of an 11 year old spare that had been kept in the trunk,safe from weather and sunlight. I think we get carried away with replacing things because of age.
I have seen recommendations to replace radiator hoses every 2 years. I have sent 14 year old cars to the junkyard with the original radiator hoses.
I junked a 1966 Valiant in 1991 and the top radiator hose lived on under my sink for many years replacing the drain trap that had let go on Easter Sunday morning with 13 people coming for dinner.
If you live in Florida and have no garage or carport, I would replace it yesterday. If you live in Mane, keep the car in the garage and seldom drive it, then I would replace it today.
If I drove it once a week to the grocery down the street, I might let it go another year.
Recent bulletins from the tire industry indicate that tires degrade simply due to time. The age of a tire is important even if the tire is unused. There is some disagreement over how to best express this age limitation, but my take is:
If you live in a hot climate (AZ, CA, NV, TX, and FL) then the limit is six years. If you live in a cold climate (MN, ND, WI, MT, etc), then the limit is 10 years. States in between are … ah … in between.
If you want to know how to read a tire’s serial number:
Proposed in NY is a prohibition on selling tires 6 years or older. The door is closing on this old tire thing, the warnings are real.
I’ve heard of a few spare tires in the 10+ year range exploding inside the spare tire well.
I’ve NEVER heard of an undamaged tire exploding…Some of todays passenger car tires are so flimsy you can fold them up and stuff them in your pocket…Some have one-ply sidewalls! But I have an old Dodge One Ton with 8 ply nylon tires that sits out in the Sonora sunshine and those tires are 18 years old and none of them have exploded or failed yet and I routinely put 6400 pounds of water on that truck and the tires are doing just fine…I suspect there are millions of ten year old tires that are in service today…If two or three out of a million fail, does that mean everyone has to buy a new set of tires??
You have now heard of an undamaged, 60 PSI temporary spare tire exploding. You may, of course, choose not to believe it, and I have no proof to offer.
In my case, for my particular model of car and the temporary spare that it uses, it seems to be a clear pattern. The first models produced (Lincoln LS) are just reaching the 11/12 year mark. Out of a sample size of less than a hundred, I have four or five accounts of the spare exploding while just sitting in the spare tire wheel, usually while the car is unoccupied.
My 1979 Chevy pickup.
Parked in back driveway with the other two trucks.
BAM <<
"what was that noise ? A rock ? A gun shot ? " ( coulda’ been, knowing our neighborhood )
Went to investigate.
No broken glass, house or trucks.
But wait, whats that ?
The left front tire on the princess is flat. 3 year old Uniroyal tires, 1000 miles, parked outside.
Spare tires are kept in the DARK, and don’t spend time being overheated, and don’t need to be replaced at the normal 10 year age. However, I had a camper with a spare, and its outside storage in all sort of weather made the rubber crack at about 10 years. But in a Colt, which was disposed of at age 20, the spare tire looked like new with no cracks.
I realize the tech is being cautious since those mini spares are inflated to 60 psi.
Perhaps we are confusing blow-outs caused by defective tires, not purely age…Is it possible the Lincoln LS has a tailpipe heated spare tire well?? In any case, these emergency use only spare tires really don’t count as being a road-worthy normal service tire…
In any case, these emergency use only spare tires really don’t count as being a road-worthy normal service tire…
I agree that this is a different animal than a normal tire. I haven’t heard of normal tires just blowing up. Blow-outs do of course happen, but that is a different situation, and as far as I know, always caused by damage of one sort or another.
BTW, the LS trunk is part of conditioned space, so no it does not get hot. However, it may be a factor that the battery is in the spare tire well with the tire. The battery is externally vented, but I know some owners replace it with one without a vent connection. I’ve also had one to leak acid.