Tyres

June 23, 2009

I will have had my car for 5 years, next month & have had the same set on for that time. I don't know how long they were on before I bought her.

They appear to have plenty of tread left & are well within the regulations. I don't start off with smoke coming from them or do drifts (Intentionally :lol: ) I check the pressures regularly & 3 of them always need a top up. No sign of cracks in the sidewalls.

All that said, I am starting to worry about perishing & stress due to age. She doesn't sit out in all weathers, but might be at my front door for about 6 hours per day= Sunlight.

I have no wish to lash out for 4 new tyres, unnecessarily, and even more so, I don't wish to have a blowout on the Motorway, & do myself & others a mischief, at the very least.

What do you recommend ?

June 23, 2009

I recommend you keep doing exactly what you are doing... that is looking after your tyres properly.

Tyres have a "shelf life" of five years, that means that when you buy a new tyre, that tyre can be up to five years old at the time of purchase, there are no hard fast rules as to how old a tyre must be for it to be considered unsafe, but it seems to me that you know what to keep your eyes open for.

If I was in your position I would get my three slow punctures checked out to make sure everything is OK, it could be a very small nail, a leaky bead or a valve causing them to loose pressure, the only way to be 100% sure is to get them looked at, then when finances permit I'd buy new ones and replace them... but as long as my tyres weren't showing signs of deterioration I would be in no hurry to do so.

June 24, 2009

When you buy a new tyre though it has a protective coating on that that keeps it "fresh".

The biggest killer on old used tyres is sunlight. The amount of fresh jap imports I have taken on and seen cracked tyres is scary!.

If you have a free afternoon I'll pull off the three that need topping up, pump then up and cover them in washing up liquid/water mix, see where they are leaking from.. check the wheel edges and especially the valve. If you have alloys old alloys can get porous and cause presure loss.

Failung that price up 4 new ones, there are always deals on and I am guessing you haven't got an off size that'll be excluded from these deals... it might be worth it for the peace of mind!

I had a puncture in one of mine about 4 months after I got it, so I got a matching set of 4 new, just so I knew that all the rubber was good and not puncture repaired etc. I have had a blow out put me into a tree at 80, and don't take chances anymore!