13 Year Old Radial Tires

[John Lokay]

I have BF Goodrich TA radial tires on my '66 coupe which have been on the car for about 13 years. The tires have good tread and no cuts or cuff-marks. Also, the car has always been garaged, in the shade, and I drive it about 500 miles per year. Given the age of the tires, should I consider replacing them? Thanks

[Duke W.]

Re: 13 Year Old Radial Tires

IMO opinion they are "safe", because they have had minimum exposure to UV and ozone, however, if they are S-rated and lack nylon cap belts they are relatively less safe than H-or-above-rated tires with a nylon cap belts that are the same age and have had the same environmental exposure.

Material and manufacturing quality varies greatly among tires and there are no hard and fast rules, other than to buy the highest quality tires available, and, as a general rule, the higher the speed rating, the higher the inherent material and manufacturing quality.

Also, if a H-rated or above tire suffers an internal failure that leads to a tread separation the spiral would nylon cap belt will usually keep the tire intact. I've had three nylon cap-belted tires fail during racetrack hot lap sessions, but they held air and did not disintegrate.

Non nylon cap belted tires are suseptible to sudden disintegration because once the internal bonds fail, there is nothing to keep the heavy steel belts from pulling away from the tire casing.

Duke

[Wayne K.]

Re: 13 Year Old Radial Tires

As usual Duke has given you good advice. I certainly wouldn't have a problem cruising around on those tires from what you have told us but I also wouldn't be interested to seeing how fast the car will go with those tires.

Wayne

[Christopher R.]

Re: 13 Year Old Radial Tires

I had old tires on my car. Much older than yours. But Michelins, and very little miles. One day while driving on the highway, the rear of the car started to sway. Car was almost uncontrollable over 40 mph. Felt like the back of the car was on ice. Figured I had very low tire pressure. But no, pressure was fine when I checked. Terminated my trip. Car was very scarey driving home. Replaced all 4 tires, and the problem went away.

Tire guy told me that the belts on old tires can separate. What I was feeling was the tire tread squirming around on the tire carcass. The separation was inside. Everything on the outside appears fine. I may not be using the same terminology the tire guy did.

I think I saw a post here or on another bulletin board a few weeks ago that stated that 1 of the major car manufacturers recently stated that tires over 10 years old should be discarded.

13 years probably isn't too bad. But they are near the end of their useful lives.

[Dick W.]

Re: 13 Year Old Radial Tires

F**d and C******r have bouth into the theory that radial tires over 6? or is it 5, my minds gone tonight, should be replaced. Over the years it has been my personal observations that problems increase exponentially. I have never had a carcass separation of a properly inflated radial until the tires were over five years old. I am in the process of replacing a set of Michlein tires on Reba's car that are eight years old, but still have over 3/4 tread. It is not worth the risk of an accident to save a few bucks.

My two cents worth

[Mike McKown]

Ten years.

I have spoken with a person who has done research on this subject. He represents the whole US tire industry. His claims, TIME is the most important factor. Not UV, not miles. He says evidence is growing to support that THEORY.

That said, I am driving my '65 coupe on F-78's that I bought in about '73. They are still round and have no bumps or knots and ride smoothly. If they had anything other than this, they would be off here in an instant.

I do not drive this car over 60 mph, either.

If you're going to drive on old tires, I'd recommend you run your hand over them from time to time and feel for bumps and knots. While you're driving, be aware of the same feel.

Seems strange to me. In the days of the old 4 ply nylons, there was never a question of running old tires. Maybe they were safer, maybe they just didn't last long enough to be unsafe. Dunno. They'd get recapped once or twice but no reason to junk them because they were "OLD".