Old tires-dangerous?

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Can tires "wear out" due to sunlight and time. Some say 7 year old tires should be replaced no matter what.

For example, my wife's Explorer with 7 year old Bridgestone Duelers HL with 50,000 or so miles have 5-6/32 of tread left and are starting to crack badly, especially where the tread meets the shoulder.

Of course my tire dealer says replace. I tend to agree. Just something else to think about regarding tread/tire life.
 
I would not be too concerned if I was just driving locally. But if I was doing a cross country trip in hot weather I would replace them.
 
On that particular vehicle, I would change them in a heartbeat. You'll hear everything from 5 - 10 years on older tires. If they are cracking on the outside, check the inside sidewalls as well. I found a very bad split on one of mine one day while doing the brakes. I drove it to the tire shop but dreaded every second of the 9 mile trip.
 
Rubber rots and loses its properties over time. But it's hard to give an exact life expectancy - it varies based on the tire's exposure to the elements and how it was used.

Personally, if it was me, at 7 years of age, I would replace it. And if it was a winter tire, I'd replace it even earlier than that.
 
It is proven that Explorers are a MORE than a little prone to flipping and rolling over when a tire fails and lets go.

"Crack badly... tread meets the shoulder". Yep. That's where the Firestone tires let go as well. And a Firestone is nothing more than a cheap Bridgestone.

I think I'd be keeping good rubber on that thing... especially when it is YOUR WIFE'S vehicle.

Replacement rubber? Two words... Michelin LTX.
 
In addition to other concerns, rubber hardens and loses traction over time.

Life in miles vs how long you are willing to keep them on your vehicle is something to consider when buying new tires. You might not want to pay extra for longer lasting tires, assuming you can find the characteristics you want in a lower priced tires.
 
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It is proven that Explorers are a MORE than a little prone to flipping and rolling over when a tire fails and lets go.

"Crack badly... tread meets the shoulder". Yep. That's where the Firestone tires let go as well. And a Firestone is nothing more than a cheap Bridgestone.

I think I'd be keeping good rubber on that thing... especially when it is YOUR WIFE'S vehicle.

Replacement rubber? Two words... Michelin LTX.




Michelin LTXx that's the tire I am now considering. Especially since Michelin will answer my e-mail questions and bridgestone will not. Perhaps new tires this weekend.
 
On our 2005 Explorer I put Firestone Destination LE's. That was after a good bit of research on the internet. Tire-rack here etc. They were a good bit cheaper than the Michelin and everyone seemed to have a good opinion of them. They have about 30,000 miles on them and I am happy with the decision.
 
Firestone... oh, yes. The company that made both the radial "500" tires, and the Wilderness / ATX tires (OE on Explorers).

Both models of tire were so poorly designed and built, that they triggered massive recalls, of several million tires each.

The same Firestone that Ford won't buy tires from anymore.

No thanks. I put a price on my safety, instead of getting something 'a good bit cheaper'. Since they've lost their biggest customer, and have such a notorious recall history, no wonder they're cheaper.

Best of luck to you.
 
I did not buy them because they were cheaper. I bought them because of the positive things people said about them. That was on several different web sites and after talking to owners who had purchased them.
 
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It is proven that Explorers are a MORE than a little prone to flipping and rolling over when a tire fails and lets go.




FWIW, the tires weren't having blowouts. They were having tread separations but the tires held air pressure, drivers overreacted with the steering wheel, it flipped.
crushedcar.gif
 
It was a combination of low tire inflation specs from FORD and an improperly engineered vehicle that was the cause of the problem. Then people would load up hit the highway and be 3 or more pounds under inflated. Add it all up and that's what causes problems. Firestone was the fall guy on that one.

Tirerack is the best source of tire info.
 
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Firestone was the fall guy on that one.




Problem with this conclusion is that Goodyear also supplied an OE tire at the same time, that was built to the same spec, and the failure rate for the Goodyear was non-existant compared to the failure rate of the Firestone.

Firestone paid the price for a problem that was of their own making.

Thanks for your comments. Next....
 
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....Firestone was the fall guy on that one......






I'm sorry if it appears that I am picking on you today.

The Firestone tire that was installed on the Explorer was recalled - but the vehicle wasn't. The Feds decided the problem was with the tire, not the vehicle.

From an engineering perspective, Firestone didn't actually have a design flaw, except to say that the way tires are manufactured required the design to be slightly different than it was (some folks would call that a design flaw, but that's a little to close to the line for my taste.) AND the Decatur plant had a manufacturing technique that was different than the rest of the industry. Some would say the manufacturing technique used there was archiac - and they would have a point.

Nevertheless, the bottom line was that the tire had a problem and was prone to failure.

On the Ford side, they specified the inflation pressure such that if the vehicle was loaded to its rated load, the tires could EXACTLY carry that load - meaning that if the tire were underinflated (a common condition), the tires could be overloaded. We engineers refer to "Reserve Capacity" as a way of expressing this - and obviously good engineering practice would be to have enough reserve capacity to take into account underinflated tires and overloaded vehicles.

BTW, the reason Ford specified that low pressure was because the Explorer was less prone to tipover with that pressure.


I hope this helps.
 
4/32 is the number tirerack indicated as the point of reduced braking in rain. That said, I will replace the tires wery soon because of the cracking.
 
thank you for your clarification. The problem was the tires, not teh vehicle. It has bee a reasonably good vehicle for us. Lot easier, not always cheaper, to work on than my BMW.
 
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