Old tires?? Safe?? Hmmm?

[Michael F.]

Take this for what it's worth. I am sure many opinions will follow. Up to the individual whether it's worth the risk.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

[Terry M.]

Re: Old tires?? Safe?? Hmmm?

Those of us with our forty-year old tires better watch out.

Michael you have been a victim of the news media. This is VERY old news, repackaged by ABC to make it sound startling.

Just for S & G I teach auto shop to adults at my local community college. I have been teaching my students about tire date codes and European tire manufacturer's position on the age of radial tires for well over a decade. No need to go into the lack of a similar position by US tire manufacturers. We have been discussing the issue on this board since it started. Welcome to the party.

Oh, I know I saw that ABC piece over a year ago, and I think it was long in the tooth then.

BTW: Look up a similar story about tire valve stems. One of the major networks did a similar alarmist piece on them too.

[Michael F.]

Re: Old tires?? Safe?? Hmmm?

Not new to me either. Just wanted to throw the line in the water.

Being a long time seasoned member, I am sure you have covered many subjects. I bet it gets tiresome sometimes. But there are always new members who may have never seen it. I made no judgements one way or the other. Thats for the people who see it. Not me.

Personaly my old Silvertowns and stock rims are stored. Mines a driver and I prefer modern tires.

I will say, when I buy a "new" set of tires. Thats what I expect. Date codes help assure that. Looking past the ABC "Not my favorite newsgroup" sensationalism. The date coding issue is the only thing I take from it.

My Vettes new Goodyears were dated Jan 2010.

[Terry M.]

Re: Old tires?? Safe?? Hmmm?

Not new to me either. Just wanted to throw the line in the water.

Being a long time seasoned member, I am sure you have covered many subjects. I bet it gets tiresome sometimes. But there are always new members who may have never seen it. I made no judgements one way or the other. Thats for the people who see it. Not me.

Personaly my old Silvertowns and stock rims are stored. Mines a driver and I prefer modern tires.

I will say, when I buy a "new" set of tires. Thats what I expect. Date codes help assure that. Looking past the ABC "Not my favorite newsgroup" sensationalism. The date coding issue is the only thing I take from it.

My Vettes new Goodyears were dated Jan 2010.

You are right. There are new members on this board all the time, and they may have missed the first run of the ABC story, or slept through the Ford/Firestone debacle -- or maybe not too many own a Ford, so they didn't care.

In re-reading what I wrote I want to make it clear I wasn't knocking you for the post. The journalistic sensationalism gets under my skin. My dad was a newspaper reporter/photographer back in the days when newspapers reported and didn't editorialize. Modern "journalism" just gets under my skin.