I have talked to tire shops as well and they say that they start coming apart at 6 years old I'm not sure if that's correct or what. I do know that my friend has had the tread come apart on some of his tires that were older.

in the old days the only bad tire was one that wouldnt hold air.i still drive them till there pretty well to the canvas.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I just run tires 'till the explode/pop. I've got two of the four original tires on my DD, a 78 Nova, and I'm using 86 Toyo tires on my jeep, they have only been rested for three years (and what a deathwobble they give it!) I've found time has little directly to do with how good a tire is, it's mostly what they've been used for.

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People should not be afraid of their government, a government should be afraid of the people.

--Alan Moore

My '82 Landau has 1986 tires. Good Year Grand Prix E 70, 215 70SR15, white line.

The white line is perfect on all four, and they have no visible defects. I take the car for a spinn about once a month, and never noticed anything wrong. The car has 74 K kilometers from the factory today, and was used for only three years as a "normal" car by the first owner, and he replaced the tires before stoping the car. When I bought the Landau, in 1997, the car had 68 K kilometers on the clock, and the tires were new, even being from 1986.

I use this car very little, but when I use it, It's on express way/highway near my home, and the old rubber is still good.



My '74 Galaxie, had untill last year a set of Pirelli P 3000 Cinturatto radials, white line, bought new back in 2005. Those tires had to be replaced because the rubber was cracking, and the white line was getting yellow. I installed a set of Hankooks, and untill now, 5000 kilometers latter, I'm noticing the tradewear is very high.

Before that I had a twoo sets of Pirelli P77 on the Galaxie, and they lasted a lot more than the P 3000.

With that in mind, I believe that durability is more linked to the model/design/rubber compound than to the manufacturer, and saying that a tire is good for five or seven years, depends on the tire. Some can last 20, some barely last 2 without showing age.


Túlio Lazzaroni "FORD", Florianópolis SC Brasil.

'74 Ford Galaxie 500 292 V8

'82 Ford Galaxie Landau 302 V8

'98 Chevrolet S10 4.3 V6

'01 Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec

I had the same thing happen on my Windstar, lost 2 stems the same week. Lucky for me it was at low speed around town. The stems were about 5 years old, installed by Mavis with the tires.

On my 56 the tires (coker) are 7 years old and show no signs of cracking, the cokers they replaced did crack around the bead at 2 years old and coker replaced them all I had to pay was shipping 1 way.

I guess any tire manfacturer can have a bad batch, A good tire inspection is the best thing you can do to be safe.

I may have had one of those stems. I had one blow completely out of the hole about a year ago. It sounded like a 22 shot and then a spewing sound. I was going faster than the law allows and I certainly didn't want to apply the brakes so I held on to the steering wheel and I totally ruined an almost new Bridgestone. I always insisted on screw type valve stems, but Discount Tire had already ruined them and installed the pull through stems. Their invoice did not itemize stems, so they denied installing them after the incident. I'm sure glad there wasn't much traffic on IH10 that night because I used both lanes to get her slowed down.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

While we a discussing tires I thought I should mention the recall on tire valve stems cracking and coming apart. The recall started in 2008 but there are 200,00-300,000 of these valve stems on the road.

We have had two of these valve stems blow out on us, one time while driving 70 mph on I5. Thank God I was driving and our Ford Windstar has Tire Pressure Sensors that we were able to get off quickly but destroyed a almost new Michelin Tire.. I have since replaced the valve stems on all the vehicles I have had tires put on in the last few years.


BOB

I think the 7 year idea comes from the fact that Michelin gaurantees their heavy truck casings to be retreadable for 7 years. If they think the carcass is good enough to cap at 7 years, it should last another couple of years. However a lot depends on expectations. If you want to drive 120 mph like I used to do in a Mercedes, I would recommend new tires every couple of years. If you drive like I drive my 56 Fords now...around town and occasionally up to 70, I run tires until they look dry rotted which can be 15 years. I have operated trucks for over 46 years. I have had some almost new ones blow out, and I have had some that look like WWII relics run until they were slick.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

Front tires seem to last me forever, back tires.............................well that is a WHOLE DIFFERENT STORY!!!! .........   LOL 

I love the smell of burning rubber in the morning!

I am not a tire expert by any means but tires do have a date code on the sidewall in order to determine when it was manufactured. When buying tires it would be a good idea to know how to read this code so you know how long it has been on the shelf. There is a lot of info on the NET discussing tire age, some of it conflicting.



Here is one link showing how to decipher the code; http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

BOB