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Today I was checking my car's service records and saw that my tires (Michelin LTX M/S) are 9 years old. I thought they were no more than 6 or 7 years old - time flies. They have just under 60k miles on them. They look great - about 5/32 wear on the treads is my guess (passed the coin test), the wear bars are nowhere near being reached, and no visible cracking or damage. My mechanic checked the tires last time the car was in the shop and said they looked fine.
Should I replace them just based on their age? I am in Boston and snow is a concern. They've always been great in the snow.
I'd replace them before the snow flies. Tread depth is VERY useful in the snow. I'd rather have confidence in the snow, vs trying to save a few bucks and get an extra 5K miles out of them.
BTW, you can't really tell a tires condition by looking at them. The rubbe breaks down as it ages due to many factors and weakens. There's no guarantee a perfectly fine tire may not suddenly fail without reason. At 9 years old, and low tread...i'd replace them.
Today I was checking my car's service records and saw that my tires (Michelin LTX M/S) are 9 years old. I thought they were no more than 6 or 7 years old - time flies. They have just under 60k miles on them. They look great - about 5/32 wear on the treads is my guess (passed the coin test), the wear bars are nowhere near being reached, and no visible cracking or damage. My mechanic checked the tires last time the car was in the shop and said they looked fine.
Should I replace them just based on their age? I am in Boston and snow is a concern. They've always been great in the snow.
At 5/32 tread depth these will not do so well in snow as they did when newer.
I'm guessing from your screen name you are a lady and probably don't want to have to deal with roadside tire problems anyway.
It's generally on the inside of the tire, against the wheel rim. The week and year are shown. Tire below was manufactured the 51st week of 2007.
I follow the 8 year rule, and that is only because I use nitrogen, which has no moisture to rot the tire from the inside. So, my 2607's are just about done. I'll drive around town, but won't take a long high speed trip.
I have some BF Goodrich Long Trail on my Silverado... The front end was bad last year and once fixed I rotated the tires back to front.... The front ones are now coming apart - I took it back to the front end guy and he said the front end was still good but the tires are splaying - pieces of rubber coming off... "Don't go on any road trip"
I am ordering new ones tomorrow - not the same brand but my question is how old of a NEW tire are you willing to accept. If you look at the DOT code you may find that the tire was made 3614 36th week of 2014.. Depending on how popular the make, size of tire they may have sat in a warehouse for months - or even years... I plan to tell them that I will not accept anything more than 6 months old... or say 0115 which would be first week of 2015
The biggest danger with old tires is a blow-out, and that's most likely to happen at high speed when the tires are hot (summertime). My wife's '96 Saturn still has the original tires, but it's strictly a work car -- 2 miles to work on 30 and 35 mph streets. She knows she's not to drive it on the highway. I think I'll buy it a set of tires soon, just so it's safe for the highway should we need it.
That said, the only blowout I've had in 50+ years of driving was 9 years ago on our new 5th wheel camper. Camper was 5 days old and had been driven <500 miles since purchase. I got 6 new tires. Dealer gave me $100 for the 4 remaining Goodyears, and I've not had anymore tire problems. (I didn't use the camper for the last couple years; sold it in June and gave a discount for expired tires.)
Once a flat or blow-out while on the road, even if no damage or injuries are involved and roadside repairs are minimal, your negotiation power for a decent price on a new set of tires just went down the toilet.
I live by the replace at 6 or 7 years max (not purchase but actual age stamped on tire) regardless of mileage as another one of those . . . NOT WORTH THE RISK.
I drove coast to coast 3 years ago with 8 year old Toyo Tires. The tires had 25,000 miles on them. I was worried about tires that old, so I had the tires checked where I bought them. I thought for sure I would be told I needed to replace them, especially on a drive of that distance. I was told the tires didn't need to be replaced, they showed there was plenty of thread left, and no cracks to be worried about. So I made the drive, and everything was fine.
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How long do tires last?
