Tire age reminder

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I was on year 6. Sidewall rubber was showing age, tread depth still very good.

Road was really hot, Was doing 65mph +, Something did not quite feel right.
Stop check air pressure, inspect tread, push vehicle sideways. look Ok, keep going 150 miles later entering a rest area very hot, At sub 25mph vehicle started wobbling. The slower the more apparent it was somethign was horribly wrong.

Found two rear tires 1t 195F plus Drivers side front at 170f and passenger at 122f.

Nearest town, 80 miles. Replaced worst tire with spare. Drivers side front when jacked up was a good 1.5 inches out of round.

35MPH hobbled driving on shoulder then a 55 mph attempt on a wider section revvealed no shaking/vibration.

Arrived small town, both rear tires 204F, spare tire front drivers side, 122f. All tires appeared extremely overinflated, but the spare.

Small Town had 4 cooper AT3 in my size. They were expensive. Very lucky they were there. They got me on my way quickly, would have loved to see them have used an actual torque wrench as I just inspected and rotated them yesterday retightening in 3 stages to 100Lb/ft.

Figure I Could have saved About 400$ had I replaced them in a larger metro area at my leisure.

Got extremely lucky one or more did not let out. Dangerous to me and others.

Shame. I should know better.

It's a Dangerous road with good tires.
I apologize. Thankfully traffic was light.

5 years, no more, and I will check their temp with IR gun whenever something does not feel quite right from here on out.
 
I had 7 years old front tires on my Yaris. But they were looking good. I took a bend pretty hard and one of them cracked and went flat within one minute. I replaced one with another aged but new tire as I'm broke, but I will replace the pair as soon as I have €80 available for anything than the bills and food and gas to go to work. Life is though sometimes. I replaced the other pair of tires that were showing dry rot on sidewalls... because they seemed to be dangerous to live with. But I guess external apparence means little to nothing
 
Limitations on tire age are very dependent on ambient temperature. Tires behave quite differently in Phoenix compared to Minneapolis. That's the major reason why the government hasn't issued age limits. Personally, I think this should be done at the state level, but that's just me.
 
You had a belt separation. Can happen at any time from installation to the tire's death.

Same happened to me on the inside dually of my E450 in March. Vibration kept getting worse on the interstate but the nearest exit was 5 more miles. Pulled over and the inside tire was easily 4" taller than the outside with the tread starting to peel off. Still held air. Tires had 10/32" but this short drive took the bad tire down to the wear bar. Messed up the outside tire because of the rotational difference.


 
Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
I was on year 6. Sidewall rubber was showing age, tread depth still very good.

What tires were they?
 
First HOT Summer days on New Mexican interstates you find cars every five miles with failed tires stranded on the shoulder. Trailers about every 20 miles. Makes me wonder if I am the only one with a proper spare in good condition and the tools and ability to change a flat.
 
Bummer.
frown.gif


If I need to start replacing tires every 3-4 years then I'm going to rethink my tire purchasing habits. As in, if they can't live past 4 years then I need to "get my money's worth" out of them before that mark. I don't want to buy the cheapest tires, but... I won't buy on the basis that price means longevity.
 
I've got 70k miles on the General Altimax RTs and based on the date they are about to hit 5 years old. They have 4/32" on rears and 3/32" on fronts. I'll be replacing them based on age in a few months but they're nearly shot anyway. They are only starting to show slight cracking in the tread blocks. The sidewalls look great. Two of the tires do have slight leaks. I figure they've got some nails in them.

Ive got my money's worth on them so no worries.
 
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They were Kumho Sat KL61. 30 x 9.5 x 15 .

The rear tires were about 2 inches taller and narrower than the full size spare. Same brand/ age spare that was in The rotation.

The drivers side front which was out of round did not appear overinflated like the rears.
 
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