[Dr Forinor]

Especially with the xdrive models, a lot of people are getting an easy 15-20k miles out of their tyres.

If someone does 20k miles a year, that's only taken one year. If someone does only 5k a year that's going to take 4 years.

Is there a limit to the effectiveness of the rubber compounds in the tyres as far as time goes? Will the rubber be less effective after a given time?

[PX3]

There is a date stamp on the sidewall that shows the week and year it was manufactured. I believe the recommendation is to replace these every 5-7 years, although I never have in the past and I doubt many do.

[Craig-SM]

Old tyres become less supple and you will start to see cracks appearing between the treads especially at the edges, which obviously reduces their strength.

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Dr Forinor

Is there a limit to the effectiveness of the rubber compounds in the tyres as far as time goes? Will the rubber be less effective after a given time?

The longer they are on the car the more chance of environmental influences causing degradation. Cracking in the rubber is one sign of issues.

Rubber compounds can work harden through heat cycles, one reason why grip becomes less as tyres wear down. I suppose the driver who has tyres on for years may suffer that more, than the user who drives decent mileage each day.

[Dr Forinor]

Is that time then widely recognised as being around 5-7 years?

[Alscoob]

6 years is the recommendation I believe.

They do degrade quiet significantly over that period. Example is in laws front wheel drive KA - rear tyres have about 6mm tread but they've been on the car that long the walls are perished & the rubber is rock hard, no real grip.

Also as it sits around for quite a long while between drives, they have flat spots which you can feel on a smooth road. Tried telling them to change the tyres, but the answer is 'well there's lots of tread so they are fine' !!

[teaston]

There is no legal limit on age for car tyres, unless you tow a caravan then I believe they cannot be older than 5 years.

[Dr Forinor]

Originally Posted by teaston

There is no legal limit on age for car tyres, unless you tow a caravan then I believe they cannot be older than 5 years.

I wasn't necessarily looking at it from the legal aspect of it all. More from the "how well is this tyre working to the design that it was built for" angle.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Dr Forinor

I wasn't necessarily looking at it from the legal aspect of it all. More from the "how well is this tyre working to the design that it was built for" angle.

It depends hugely on many factors like how much the tyre is used, temperatures and humidities etc it has been exposed to. As said above they are fine until small cracks start to appear in the rubber.

[JD6]

Originally Posted by Dr Forinor

Is that time then widely recognised as being around 5-7 years?

These days quite a few online tyre sellers (probably mytyres blackcircles, asda tyres...) define a new tyre as one up to 5 years old, so they clearly expect you to run a tyre beyond 6 or 7 years old, perhaps more like 10 years old.

As stated, how they have been stored and used will make a large difference. I assume that a tyre stored properly in a warehouse and not exposed to UV will still have a lot of life in it even if first fitted at 5 years old.

[sensible]

It all depends on how they are treated, tyre pressures, weather etc.

I have never had tyres that have deteriorated before the tread has worn out but my wife's Hankook tyres started cracking after 3 years and 15000 miles which is poor.

For storage of tyres they recommend bagging them to stop the oils in the tyre drying out.

So some last a very long time and others not very long....but I would expect them to last more than 3 years.

[Dr Forinor]

Thanks for the info guys.

[B6WAF]

I've long been asking the same question about winter tyres. A friend of mine who lives in Northern Italy says that winter tyres are fantastic in the first year, OK in year 2, and useless in year 3 (due to deterioration of the compounds, I guess). I have failed to find any other source to confirm this view. Mine are now starting their fourth winter and they seem fine (they've probably only done about 7,000 miles, and they've been stored indoors at 20psi during the summer). Perhaps he is referring to worn tyres, not just old ones.

Anyone heard of this issue with winters ?

[DaveA]

There is a recommendation about age of tyres in the manual for the car, together with advice on how to read the date stamp on the side of the tyre...

Mine (from the Driver's Guide app) says "Irrespective of wear, change tyres after 6 years at the latest."

[5557223]

6 years is what I know. You can work that out from the DOT code (WWYY).

[RoShambolt]

This thread reminded me of this. Only 5k on the tyres but the age had a big part to play.

I could never understand the guy had enough money for a Carrera GT but left old and perished tyres on it. Sad story.

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/pau...en-it-crashed/

[Proftinkerpot]

Runflats never started out as supple so you won't notice any degradation effect with time. Lol

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Proftinkerpot

Runflats never started out as supple so you won't notice any degradation effect with time. Lol

I changed run-flats, Continental Sport Contact 3 SSR 'like for like', definitely felt a change in suppleness.

It is one reason when users swap to a different brand and say "the new ones are softer riding". Some of the difference is in the hardening over time/mileage.