Age to replace tires

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racer12306

racer12306

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At what age would you consider replacing tires. The tires on my Neon have no more than 15000 miles, probably closer to 10000, but they are 6.5 years old. The vehicle is stored outside.

They still look to be in decent shape, but with some minor cracking here and there.
 
If you google you'll find other threads on the topic and recommendations from the manufacturers.

Long story short, I believe most recommendations are to carefully start inspecting at 5 years and discontinue use at 10 years. But I'm too lazy right now to verify.

So at 6.5 you should look carefully for cracking or other issues.
 
Originally Posted By: opus1
I'm guessing the source is just a bit based, but here's what the Tire Safety Group has to say about expiring tires.


Their claims are quite compelling.

Wonder who funds the group.

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
capriracer has posted in threads numerous times over the years on recommended replacement intervals for various regions of North America.

It should probably be made a "sticky" as the question keeps coming up & coming up.


You at least gave me a name to refine a search in this section.
 
If there's no obvious issues with them, out of round, bulges, significant cracking, etc, I'd run them on a Neon. The tires have so much extra load rating that they aren't stressed much.
New tires would be expensive insurance IMO, $3-400 spent for a very small reduction in risk, but its up to you.
 
Your climate is not so hard on tires so I'd say they should last 10 years. of course you left out the brand and model of tires.

You should be able to get 4 new good brand name tires for under 200$ during sales if you want to replace proactively or "upgrade" your tires.
 
The Michelin tires on my Honda are 9.5 years old and at 10 Discount Tires won't rotate and balance them any more. The car is always parked in a garage at home and at work. The Honda never gets left outside for any length of time, ever. They have never seen snow or freezing weather and the hottest ambient temps are in the low 90's and not much of that. There's half the tire tread left and no signs of damage or wear to the sidewalls. When the tires are balanced they take very weight and have never been a problem with flat spotting or shaking. The Honda is never loaded up and I drive in a reasonable manner. For 31 years this car has always been easy on tires and brakes. With all that I guess I'm still faced with the idea of installing new tires.
 
It really depends on what the tire is on!! Like a tractor or lawn mower, I would run the tire until it either wore out the tred or no longer holds air.


High speed applications are different, I would say 10 yr is pushing it, but it really depends on the shape of the tire on a individual basis.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
Your climate is not so hard on tires so I'd say they should last 10 years. of course you left out the brand and model of tires.

You should be able to get 4 new good brand name tires for under 200$ during sales if you want to replace proactively or "upgrade" your tires.


Good point,

They are Yokohama AVID TRZ in 185/60/15



Thanks for the other comments.
 
a few years back i replaced the set of Yokos on my 05 neon Sxt with Pirelli P4 four seasons's from tire rack. fabulous tires for these cars. Plenty of grip, low-no noise, but the review that sold me was from a guy in MI who put them on his neon, and never felt the need to switch over to his snow tires.

I would highly recommend them to any second gen neon(2000-2005) owner.

the Yoko's on mine were..Yk520(?) way more miles than yours, but still had plenty of tread left, the reason i replaced them was simply for piece of mind, after seeing the sidewalls turn into an ocean of cracks.

back when i got them, tire rack had them for ~$75 ea. just looked them up now, $89 on special, or $87.11 for the P4 Four Seasons plus
 
I think storage plays a large role.

I went 10 years on my low mileage Honda that was primarily stored in the garage.

I had to replace the tires on my mother's low mileage Hyundai after 6 years. It was primarily stored outside.

Chicago's winters are not nice to cars.
 
I think this is a big "it depends" sort of thing. IMO if its stored inside and used regularly 10yrs is the cutoff. If its stored outside and used heavily 6-8 years. We just took our van on a roadtrip and it had 8year old tires with plenty of tread. We ended up having 2 tires with broken belts and they just fell apart. My dad just finished pushing his luck with a 14yr old set of Michelins on his motorhome and had a very serious blow out. For me its not worth driving on old tires..
 
35+ years ago, I resurrected a Fiat 850 for a cheap commute vehicle. It had been sitting for quite awhile with the engine apart.

I got it all back together, flushed the brakes, etc. Thought I was good to go. Took it for a test drive. Hit the brakes to test them.......And all four tires locked up, with only modest pressure!

On closer inspection, the tires were 10 years old, and harder than an old rental girlfriend's heart.

At no time since have I failed to wear out tires in less than 6 years. But it was an education.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
The Michelin tires on my Honda are 9.5 years old and at 10 Discount Tires won't rotate and balance them any more. With all that I guess I'm still faced with the idea of installing new tires.

I don't know your individual situation but -
I have never had to rebalance a tire as a regular maintenance item in all the 40 years I have been driving cars. I drive on some truly terribad roads.
Can you do your own rotation?
Lastly, don't worry about balancing or rotations. Just drive the dang thing. Let tread depth and road holding capability determine when you change the tires.
 
I've got just short of 50 years on the roads and I'm not so big on the rotation/rebalance thing either. I don't run through the cloverleafs at 40mph and blast up to and then brake hard at stoplights. I get good tire/brake life even as my 'straight line' cross country speeds are pretty high, I drive more conservatively in surface street situations. My John Deere tires are 25 years old and with my wife's MG the Pirelli tires are about 30. I've run a number of tires up to 8-10 years as I don't put alot of miles on a particular vehicle each year-no problems. I had way more problems with any tire in the 60's with separations and blowouts. My stuff also stays inside so that helps.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
The Michelin tires on my Honda are 9.5 years old and at 10 Discount Tires won't rotate and balance them any more. The car is always parked in a garage at home and at work. The Honda never gets left outside for any length of time, ever. They have never seen snow or freezing weather and the hottest ambient temps are in the low 90's and not much of that. There's half the tire tread left and no signs of damage or wear to the sidewalls. When the tires are balanced they take very weight and have never been a problem with flat spotting or shaking. The Honda is never loaded up and I drive in a reasonable manner. For 31 years this car has always been easy on tires and brakes. With all that I guess I'm still faced with the idea of installing new tires.




my ridgeline Michelins were cracked when I bought the truck (sat 1 year on a lot in Lansing MI), they are quite cracked now, tires were probably made in 2006.
working fine, I only have 3x miles on them, NEVER rotated them, the dealer rotated them when I was getting my brakes down last year.
I just came back from a 1300 mile trip to PA and OH. I will keep them they rot off.
 
My tires have never outlasted even two years due to wearing out, but I would keep a close eye on any tire over 5 years old. At the first sight of hairline cracks in the sidewall, I would replace them.
 
Official sources - ie. tire manufacturers - vary as to how to express age limits on tires. My take is this:

If you live in a hot climate - AZ, CA, TX, NV, FL - then the limit is 6 years. If you live in a cold climate - MN, ND, MT, WI, ME - then the limit is 10 years. States in between are, ah ..... Mmmmmmm ...... in between.

I would judge Maryland to be about 8 years.
 
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