Old tyres. (Safety concerns)

glosman555

Just been watching the CBS news on Sky,there was an item about car tyres that were over 6 years old causing fatal crashes. Ford in America advise's car owners to change tyres even if there is the legal tread limit left,tyres in America have a four digit number on them the first two are the week and the second two the year of manufacture ( don't know if it applies in GB).My 9 year old Corsa still has it's original tyres so I am going to get then changed;I don't do much mileage but I will err on the safe side.

jjames_3

I think CBS are right on this one. The rubber deteriorates over time, becomes harder and cracks.

On a Corsa, a set of budget tyres will cost no more than £80 (£60 probably) so it's not a lot of money for peace of mind.

My car's tyres are 4 years old (originals like yours, and still with around 5mm of tread left after 35K so this car is light on rubber). Once it reaches 5 I will change the tyres as a matter of course.

Don't forget to swap the spare over as it will also have deteriorated over time, even if never used.

CrazyChemist_2

If you're replacing tyres, have a look to see if the manufacturer has realeased new asymmetrical tyres, as I was about to replace my Dunlops (for an Almera) with similar SP10 tyres, but happened to ask the guy out of curiosity what SP30 was. He said "Oh that's the new tread design - shall I fit those instead?". So for the same price, I had the new ones fitted. They apparently have better noise reduction measures, better aquaplaning resistance and supposedly last longer.

They tend not to mention the new releases, probably because they need to get rid of the old stock first.

gibby

I discoverd part worn tyres a few years ago

many places in the yellow pages sell then and they cost about £15 a shot including fitting and balancing

simply they are tyres with legal tread - usually taken off cars that have gone into the larger tyre places and the whole lot have been changed.

they work out much better value than budget tyres and you dont get so annoyed if a nail kills one

I got this tip from a friend who was paying £400 for a set of tyres for his posh car - and the part worns were a quater of the price

often they still have the hairs on them

Gibby

jjames_3

Be very careful with pre-worns -- you don't know where they came from -- they may be as old as the ones at the start of the thread, or worse still the car they came from may have been in an accident. If that is so the tyre may have suffered invisible structural damage making it a very unsafe tyre.

Cheap tyres, even remoulds are less risky.