Quote:
Originally Posted by Cor66Vette
Wrong.
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I've read all kinds of opinions about the topic of tire age being a factor concerning failures. Not sure what the figure might be for a shelf life, but I know I've seen my share of dry rotter rubber to know that it certainly isn't likely to be infinite. I might very well be that some compounds used in tires by different manufacturers just might be better concerning longevity than others.
I think I would inspect my tires regularly, and once I start seeing signs of small cracks anywhere on the tire, it's time for them to be replaced, no matter how much mileage they've had and remaining tread.
When I had my blue C5Z in the local chop shops being butchered, the guy up in Thomasville said the rear tires had aged to where they had hardened enough to lose most of their grip on the dyno drum. My guess would be that hardening would precede or coincide with the aged rubber cracking.
I remember being down at my mom's (before she passed away) and she was considering getting rid of her Thunderbird. She had had it for a while, and was starting to have reliability problems. She was also concerned about the age of the tires, as some tech had told her they needed to be replaced. I looked over her car for her, and superficially the tires looked fine. But when I took a small flashlight and shone the light at an angle to the surface, I could see a lot of micro cracks all in the rubber. So she traded in the car when I told her that yes, she did need new tires.