pfitzsim

Quick question - what is an 'acceptable/normal' gap between tire manufacture date and sale date? I need new rubber this spring and wanted to know in advance what was reasonable. My guesstimate is somewhere between Tim Horton's 20 min pot of coffee and 12 months. Ideally I would be logging enough miles that date was irrelevant but that has not been the case over the past couple of years. Thanks in advance.

theiceman

i think Zook would be the best to answer this as he has been in the tire game for years.

obviously the shortest date the better. i would not be happy if i ordered tires and they were more than 12 months old.

full confession , the tires on my 911 were over 15 years old before i took them off.. They worked just fine with no issues.. ( of course just cruising around , no stupid driving )

Kitc2246

Environmental conditions, temperature, humidity and exposure to UV/sun deteriorate tires. I'd expect a major tire distributor like Tire Rack would have temperature and humidity controlled warehouses. Long threads in the DE section on how old tires can be. 5 years is the rule of thumb. Any dry rot between the treads and on the sidewall are the failure/replacement signs, especially for the track. I bought a set of tires from Tire Rack that were two years old with a major discount. They were track tires and were worn out long before the 5 year date. No issues. I've seen threads were members complained about receiving "aged" tires from Tire Rack that they replaced them.

I'd be interested if someone in the tire industry would comment on what they consider an age tire before they start offering discounts to sell.

Onami

From Tire Rack:

Should Drivers Replace Old Tires Even if Their Treads Aren't Worn Out?

While most drivers' past experience might not indicate it's necessary, the growing realization that tires are perishable means tires on some vehicles will possibly age out before they wear out. Composed of steel belts, fabric plies and rubber compounds, the structural integrity of tires can degrade over an extended period of time as the result of chemical reaction within the rubber components, cyclic fatigue, abuse and road hazards.

Tire aging isn't typically an issue with vehicles driven frequently. However, the lower annual mileages put on sporadically used motor homes, enthusiast vehicles driven for pleasure and collector cars trailered to events could make tire calendar age an important consideration. Tire age is also a concern for the often unused spare tire in a car's trunk, suspended under a pickup's cargo bed or hung off the back of an SUV.

Unfortunately no one is absolutely sure of how long tires will last because of the many variables. Heavily loaded tires on vehicles stored outdoors in sunny, scorching hot climates and only driven occasionally face some of the most severe service conditions and potentially have the shortest calendar lifespan. In contrast, lightly loaded tires on vehicles parked in garages and driven daily in moderate climates experience some of the least severe service conditions and potentially have the longest lifespan.

Then there is the influence of how well drivers maintain their tires (regular cleaning and pressure checks along with periodic rotations and wheel alignments), use and/or abuse them (drive on them when overloaded or underinflated), as well as the possibility of irreversible damage from punctures, cuts and impacts with potholes, curbs and other road hazards. A tire's original durability will be permanently compromised if it is uncared for, abused or damaged.

Therefore every tire's life expectancy ultimately depends on the environment in which it operates and its individual service conditions. The difficult task remains how to attempt to quantify tire life based on calendar age. Arbitrarily replacing tires prematurely based simply on age may result in tires being discarded before their time, contributing to increased operating costs, as well as waste disposal and recycling concerns.

Since Tire Rack sells tires manufactured in North and South America, as well as Europe, Africa and Asia, it's common for us to receive new tires directly from manufacturers that are already six to nine months old. Since we rotate our inventory, most of the tires we ship are less than a year old.

However some low volume tires in sizes for limited production vehicles can only be efficiently manufactured periodically where one short production run may produce more than a year's worth of global supply. In some of these cases, Tire Rack might receive new tires directly from the manufacturer that are already several years old.

There are also some occasions where we work with a tire manufacturer to help them clear out their inventory when they discontinue a tire line. While this may uncover some new tires that are several years old, these clearance tires are typically offered at a discount and will wear out before they age out.

Tires are stocked in Tire Rack distribution centers under favorable storage conditions. Protected from exposure to direct sunlight, moisture and hot and cold temperature extremes, our inventory leads a sheltered life compared to the tires mounted on wheels, installed on vehicles and exposed to the elements, road grime and brake dust.

Tire manufacturers' replacement tire warranties begin when the tires are purchased and typically last 4 to 6 years from that date. This allows the tire manufacturers' limited warranty to accommodate the time it takes tires to be shipped from the manufacturing plant to the warehouse or distribution center, to the retailer and to the consumer, as well as the time they spend in-service on the vehicle.

Keeping tires properly inflated is probably the most significant action a driver can take to prevent tire failure. For example, driving a vehicle with a significantly underinflated tire can permanently damage the tire's internal structure in ways invisible to external visual inspections. A U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tire aging field study revealed that 30 percent of spare tires observed were significantly underinflated when first checked, Putting underinflated spare tires into service before being properly inflated would greatly increase their risk of catastrophic tire failure. The inflation pressure of spare tires should be checked monthly along with the rest of the set.

Vehicles equipped with a full-size matching wheel and spare tire should use the vehicle's five-tire pattern at every tire rotation. Not only will this prevent the spare tire from sitting idle, it will keep all five tires' tread depths roughly equivalent throughout their life and extend the tire replacement intervals (if rotating four tires would result in 40,000 miles of service, including the full-size matching wheel and spare tire into the rotation pattern would result in 50,000 mile replacement intervals).

The NHTSA tire aging field study also indicated a strong correlation of the speed rating with tire durability, with higher speed-rated tires losing the least capability with increasing calendar age. Drivers living in hot climates may want to consider purchasing higher speed rated tires than those that came as Original Equipment.

Our experience has been that when properly stored and cared for, most street tires have a useful life in service of between six to ten years. And while part of that time is spent as the tire travels from the manufacturing plant to the manufacturer's distribution center, to the retailer and to you, the remainder is the time it spends on your vehicle.

911 Rod

I think within the last 12 months is acceptable.
The last set if tires that I got from Tires23 were so new that they stunk up my garage before I scrubbed them in.

rich_r

I've had numerous issue with Kaltire on this exact topic. 3 times now, I've refused and have had refunds on tires from them (on various cars) because they've tried to palm me off with tires that are 18 months+ or older (production date vs sale date).

theiceman

so how did that go down ? you noticed after the tires were on ? or you saw them and said forget it.. as i imagine your old tires would have been chucked.

rich_r

First instance was some studded winter tires on my WRX, loose rims, with no old tires. I only noticed the tires were over 4 years old when I got home and unloaded them from the car.

Second time was winter tires for my 996, the rears they fitted were over 3 years old. I hadn't checked them, as it was dark, i was the last customer out of the door that night. I subsequently drove 450kms home (as i'd just bought the car that day) however I requested that the summer tires were stored and my local friend to that store was to collect them for me a week later.

Third time, was they agreed to replace the 996 tires above after I complained. When I got to the store, I asked about the new tires and the service guy told me the tires were approximately 5 months old so i told them to proceed. When I collected the rims (they were loose/off the car), I checked them, they were 2 years old!! Cue outrage, told them to take all the tires off and I wanted a full refund. Eventually they agreed, it was escalated etc. I ended up not driving my 996 that winter.

In a summery, worst experience ever.

Adamant1971

VW just put new winters on my Treg with a date stamp of 0521. Car goes back to them tomorrow cause the balancing was not done well and I am going to tell them that tires 23 would never sell me 2 year old tires. My mistake for straying from my pals at tires23.

rich_r

Annoying isn't it. So many people don't check the date or know how too.

theiceman

wow that is truly brutal .... a great lesson here for others to watch for

last tires i got at tire rack guy actually emailed me with the date codes as he was shipping to me without me even asking, i thought that was outstanding service.

theiceman

put tires on your caravan and they were made last week they move so much volume, but for us we have to ALWAYS do our due diligence with this stuff.. make sure they have High Turnover... Adam im not sure a lot of people go to the dealer for tires so your story is not surprising..

Adamant1971

Ya, I only used them since it was there getting some suspension work done. I was being lazy.

Took my wife’s car to tires 23 last week and was in and out, great price and perfect balancing.

reacp911

Oil changes and tires are two things people are nuts about. Materials and technology have improved substantially in the last 50 years, if you haven't noticed. The picture below is a fuel hose from my '75 TA(which I bought new) and which I just replaced because of the now mandatory use of ethanol in canadian fuel.
It's still serviceable.

I recently replaced the 30+ year old tires on my '83 westfalia, which I have been more or less storing since '01. Two of the tires were american made, and quite cracked but still holding air without leakage. Two were japanese and were crack free. The spare was a michelin original which had no tread but was crack free.

Yeah, if you're on the autobahn or on the track, you need to be a bit cautious, but snow tires? I don't think so. If you need to store a car, keep it in the dark.

Onami

In 1996 I was judging the NCRS Bow Tie class (unrestored) at Bowling Green, Kentucky. We just finished judging a 2,500 original mile 75 Corvette convertible with mint looking original tires. The car was going to go through performance verification next (road test) and the Judging Team Leader asked the owner if he was going to change out the tires for the test. He laughed and said "no way, these tires are perfect". At 60 mph the left rear tire blew out busting up the quarter panel. I have respected tire dates ever since....