Steve J.

Five years ago I bought two pairs of Bridgestone Potenza rear tires for my '87S4. Just got around to installing the second set - 5 years old but never used. Stored laying on their sides in cool, dark, dry place. They looked fine - no cracks or visible ply seperations. After only two weeks they are seriously out of round (ka-thump ka-thump) oval shaped - obviously coming apart. Moral of story - Don't use old new tires!

Mrmerlin

that sux have you tried to run the tires for 25 miles or so before the thumpity thumps, they might just need some heat in them , mine get flat spotted and after a few miles they seem to round out mine are made in 4504

Steve J.

They ran beautifully for awhile. Then it was like I had lost balance weights - shaking violently and getting worse every day. I'm buying new tires tomorrow.

Bill Ball

Odd. Tires should hold up in cool, dry storage much longer than 5 years.

Steve J.

Maybe I'll save them and cut them up to see what's going on.

SeanR

I've got a set of Yoko A520's that are waiting for me to tear up my Kumho's. I think they are 3 years old.

I think I need to burn the Kumho's fast, don't want good rubber to go to waste.

Thanks for the tip.

Charley B

You should not have had a problem with those tires given the conditions they were stored in. It is better to store them vertically rather than horizontally but still should not have given you those results. Two possibilities come to mind.
One, if there was an electrical motor nearby they could have suffered some ozone damge but the motor would have had to be running a lot.
Two, if there were periods over that five years when water was able to stand in the tires for a period of time it will permeate the rubber and oxidize the steel cords resulting in what you have described.
I have had tires sit as long as eight years, mounted and severly flat spotted, that have gone on to use and wear normally.

FlyingDog

Call Bridgestone/Firestone. A friend bought some Firestone Destination M/Ts that chunked off really bad on rocks. Firestone gave him new tires in place of his several thousand mile old off-roaded tires, paid to have the bad tires FedExed to their testing facility, and regularly sends him coupons for tire discounts above the normal ads.

BC

I have turbo twists with Contis on front, and S02s on the rear, and I bought them with a few thousand miles in 2003. Should I be concerned?

Charley B

Assuming you're not exceeding the velocity ratings, I don't think I would be concerned.

jorj7

Steve,

Sorry to hear about your "new" tires. I know in ORR they require that tires are newer then 5 years
for most classes, and newer then 2 years for the 160 mph and above classess. But for street use,
I thought I read that tire should be good for at least 7 years.

mark kibort

dont tell my last set of '03 world challenge toyos!

mk

Charley B

You're good to to go Mark. You have the advantage of "Tire Angels" watching over your "scuffed" tires.

928nut

Had my Bridgestone RE71.s on the car for 10 years now. No winter driving, the weight of the car sitting on them for 5-6 months almost motionless - no problems to date. Something very odd with your case.

\\\|///
(@ @)
o(_)o -- J.S.

'79 O.B. - A/T

Shark Attack

I heard they are thinking about a "good till" AKA "drop dead" date for tires. That sucks. so you think you are good to go.. set of freash tires that womp womp womp womp womp.....