Tyres. Do they have a lifetime?

Went in to get my Eco Contacts today, nice. I also asked the dude about a slow leak in a rear tyre. He looked at it and said I should just replace it. The sidewalls have lots of hairline cracking, which indeed I can see.

Now I can see the danger if sidewalls deteriorate to the point that the give way and have agreed to replace them too, both rears. They are 6 years old apparently, still have good, legal, tread. I want to make sure I am safe, and also the family, so good tyres are an absolute must. I wasn't going to argue with an expert. He said that tyre prep products also damage the rubber over time.

Headley Tyres have been going for donkeys. I used to get my tyres from them when I was in my teens, so I know they know what they are talking about.

So do tyres generally have a lifetime?

Chris

Edit. Curses, just found the wheels and tyres forum. Please move if appropriate.

Tyres always have a year indicator hidden amongst the characters in the "small print" and it can sometimes be scary to see just how old your tyres are.

The week and year of manufacture of the tyre is marked on the sidewall. A tyre marked 2501 was manufactured in week 25 of 2001

They recommend checking them after 4 or 5 years if the car is left outside (the sun degrades the rubber)

Steve B

5 years is regarded as the age at which they should be replaced. If you are storing tyres they should always be stored in the dark.

Yes, tyres do have a useable life. There is virtually no natural rubber in modern tyres, it's mostly synthetic rubber plus the steel wires and fabric to hold it all together and it does degrade over time due to usage as well as the effect of UV rays and just being exposed to the elements. If you can see hairline cracks etc on the outside, the amount of deterioration on the inside of the tyre will be as bad if not worse. The tyre basically crumbles from the inside out. I have seen the insides of 6 year old tyres when removed from a little used car - very, very frightening! Keeping the car garaged when not in use makes little real difference to tyre shelf life. I used to work for Michelin UK, they recommended tyres were replaced after a max of 6 years regardless of the apparent condition. When buying new tyres, it's always advisable to buy from a large/busy supplier with a high stock turnover, so that you are getting tyres that have not been sat on the shelf for months or even years after they were manufactured. The small tyre shop may be a few pounds cheaper, but you could be getting very old stock. And yes, the tyre cleaning/shining stuff you get from Halfords etc does damage the tyre. You should never clean car tyres with chemicals. They may look pretty when treated but your not doing yourself any favours, stick to soapy water or leave them alone.

My car failed its MOT last week on all four tyres. The rear tyres, Continental, were 2 years old and covered 14,000 miles. The tread looked OK from a visual point of view, but the inside of the tyre tread had parted from the rim of the tyre, you could actually fit your fingers in the gap. The fronts were some cheap chinese rubbish and were virtually shot after 1 year and 7,000 miles. The guy at the MOT station wouldn't let me drive the car home.

Great post, BTW Mike, and sound advice. Should be made a sticky.