Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires

[Duke W.]

Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires

That's reasonable, but since I only drive most of my cars about 500 miles/year on local streets, not freeways, and only one is "designated" for rain (but I avoid rain if at all possible), I take pride that I don't replace tires until some cord is showing. For most I have a stash of replacements (all out of production) that will outlive me.

A few years ago I had a Yokohama A008R (DOT legal racing tire) that had a slow leak. It's actually been sitting in my tire rack for nearly 20 years since I quit running the MR2 in track events, but it had a slow leak. It's down to the wear bars, but I wanted to get it fixed. I tried in vain, but couldn't fine the leak. I finally took it to a local tire shop that had a tank, and they found a defective valve stem. So they replaced it and it now holds air, and I don't recall they ever questioned the tread depth or use.

I keep saying I should put the A008s back on the car and wear them out as I have a fresh set (1 front and 2 rears since the mid engine layout goes through two sets of rears for every front set), but I've been too lazy to swap them with the A509 summer high performance tires.

But not to worry... I have one compete "set" (one front and two rear) of both the A008s and A509s. The 509s are more fun to drive around since I can induce oversteer stomping on the throttle coming out of a corner, but the A008s are too sticky for the rear end to break loose.


Duke

[Dan B.]

Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires

It's funny, years ago we ran bias ply tires and then radials on our DD's and never had issues with the rubber deteriorating before the tread wore out. My current DD has 2 year old Michellin tires on it ( 80+ percent tread remaining) and is typically parked with the drivers side facing the east where the morning sun hits it square till mid day (passenger side is shaded) and the 2 drivers side tires already have UV related tire cracks (right side look fine). Never had that probem in the past with other cars that were similarly oriented in that same location. The quality of ALL the rubber products IMO has significantly deteriorated in the last few years. That being said, no age related issues with the older Corvette tires that are garaged. For a non judged car, the cheapest tires you can live with (whitewall or black) is the way to go (forget about tread warranty). I suspect most of these problems arose when China got involved with production. Price v. quality, you can't have it both ways.

[Michael J.]

Re: Time to Replace 15 year Old Pirelli P4000 Tires

Michael------


Ask them to cite the specific law that they don't want to violate. I'm very interested.

They claimed a law states that they may mount no tire without a DOT date visible older than 30 years. I have not found that yet, but I may not be searching in the right places.