How old is too old for a tire? - MBWorld.org Forums

Feb 19, 2009 | 03:15 PM

mikeinsf

Thread Starter

Member

Joined: Jan 2009

Posts: 229

Likes: 0

From: San Francisco, CA

SL500

How old is too old for a tire?

I just got my first set of shoes in for the wheels I bought. I'm slumming it on my first round of tire buying and getting used tires off Ebay. The tires I got were produced in mid-2002 (production code 2102). They're 6.5 years old at this point. I'm ok with it this time around because I got the set for $600 shipped, which gets the car on the road. My next time around I'll buy new tires.

I'm just wondering about peoples' thoughts on the borderline for when tires have outlived their operational life due to age.

Feb 19, 2009 | 03:38 PM

mcleantmw

Senior Member

Joined: Oct 2006

Posts: 470

Likes: 3

From: McLean, VA

2003 E500 Benz & 2015 BMW M235ix

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeinsf

I did a Google Search about tire rott last week and found lots of articles about the shelf life of tires. Most of the articles indicated that you should only keep tires on a vehicle a few years even if they have some good tread left due to the aging of the tire.......gave examples where "aged" tires had the tread come off at high speed and caused an accident. One article also explained how you could find the code on the tire which indicates the month and year it was manufactured and suggested to check that out on your tires because some tires can sit in the warhouse for months before being bought and installed. The code is sometimes on the inside of the tire so it's hard to find and read on your vehicle. Basically, it's a two letter code, the first two numerials are the month and the second two are the last two digits of the year, eg, 0202 means manufactured in February 2002.

Feb 19, 2009 | 04:17 PM

jmf003

MBWorld Fanatic!

Joined: Dec 2005

Posts: 1,653

Likes: 5

From: Ann Arbor

'03 SL55

Forum sponsor Tirerack has some good but general advice here:http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...jsp?techid=138

Feb 19, 2009 | 04:24 PM