Old tires low mileage

[Jeff in Ferndale WA]

My Cutlass has pretty much been a garage queen for then last 13 years.
I put new Radial T/A s on it in 1999,but have only put about 9000 miles on the car since then.
Car has been garaged with carpet under the wheels,and inflated properly any time the car was driven.

The tires look very good,no visible cracks or splits.They feel like they could be slightly out of round,or possibly slightly out of balance.
I've heard bad things can happen to old tires
Should I be worrying about the aging tires?

 

[Kwik_Cutty88]

My Cutlass has pretty much been a garage queen for then last 13 years.
I put new Radial T/A s on it in 1999,but have only put about 9000 miles on the car since then.
Car has been garaged with carpet under the wheels,and inflated properly any time the car was driven.

The tires look very good,no visible cracks or splits.They feel like they could be slightly out of round,or possibly slightly out of balance.
I've heard bad things can happen to old tires
Should I be worrying about the aging tires?

Possibly. You might want to take a drive to somewhere that can measure road force and where the high and low spots on the tire are.

 

[RITTER]

Tires can flatten from sitting. The flat spots will make some weird feeling and noise. It probably wouldn't hurt to have them balanced. The date code on my tires say that they were made in '98

 

[GBODYLS3]

your tires have probably flat spotted from sitting. they should smooth out if you get them warmed up good. take a 20 mile drive at highway speed and see if it helps.

 

[marcar1993]

I have old tires on all our old cars, never had a problem. They have tread and aren't all rotted, run em.

 

[Csilvy2000]

I run old tires often. I've had one bad experience. Ironically it was with a BFG Radial TA. The tire was about 8 years old and had maybe 500 miles on it. On a trip down the highway the tread separated and did some damage to the front fender. Unfortunately it was on my 1969 Ford Mustang. Since then I always do a quick inspection of my old tires. Small cracks are one thing to take notice of. In the case of the BFG, the belts began forming some rust and caused the tread to separate. Good luck!

 

[Jeff in Ferndale WA]

Tires can flatten from sitting. The flat spots will make some weird feeling and noise. It probably wouldn't hurt to have them balanced. The date code on my tires say that they were made in '98

I've still got the lifetime balancing guarantee in writing from where I purchased the tires and have been planning to take them in and see if they really will honor "lifetime" :shock:

 

[Jeff in Ferndale WA]

your tires have probably flat spotted from sitting. they should smooth out if you get them warmed up good. take a 20 mile drive at highway speed and see if it helps.

They do seem to get better when driven a few miles.

Thanks for the replies guys.
I know that weather is hard on tires and since this car has always been parked indoors,weather should not be much of a factor.
Since I'm not planning on any long trips with this car,I'll keep running these tires until they show signs of trouble.

 

[Doug213xrj]

X2, If there not rotted with good tread run them.



Doug

 

[beermonkey9417]

i heard on a tv show about vintage cars that you shouldnt use tires that are older than 6 years old because there is a greater chance for a sudden blow out.