How old are your tires

[7212Mopar]

My tires were purchased back in 2013, 11 years old now. I don't drive the car enough and don't do regular burnouts so the tires still have at least good 60% tread remaining. I do occasionally do pulls up to 100 on empty freeway for some fun. There are no cracks on the rubber and the car is park inside a garage, minimal sun exposure. I am wondering if it is time to change them out just to be safe. How long do you guys keep your tires?

[soundcontrol]

My Hellcat has original tires from 2015, they are hard as hockey pucks, no cracks though, thread is OK in the front and kinda bad in the rear, not much grip, like driving on ice. Gonna change them for summer.

[Brads70]

Mine are 10+ years old now, grip/traction is gone and they are like hockey pucks now. No cracks etc... but I now stay pretty local. I'm hoping to get "new shoes for the baby" this spring just because they have aged out, lots of tread left but no grip. Mine are like $500 per corner. 

[JH27N0B]

That's a good question I never came up with a hard and fast answer to.
My convertible had Eagle ST tires on it when I bought the car in '97.  I'm not sure how long they'd been on the car when I got it.
They looked fine and I never gave them much thought for the first 15 years I owned the car.  Car garage kept and driven 500 miles a year if that.
It occurred to me at some point they were likely 20 years old and I got nervous.
I was not happy with the choices in new tires and had heard a new Polyglas radial version F70 tire was in the works, so I waited for them.  But by then I was too nervous to drive the car on the highway and restricted my driving to local events for a few years until the new repro tires were available in 2020.  I definitely pushed things though, my STs must have been over 25 years old by the time I replaced them!
I'm now in a similar situation with my Magnum.  It has Goodyear GTIIs on it I don't think have been available since the 90s.  So I may have 25 year old tires on it.  They're 60s and I'm not excited about the choices to replace them, but I don't think I should be taking a chance running such old tires and need to do something next spring!

[RJChallenger]

I've got a set of BF Goodrich I bought in 1989 thinking i was gonna put the car back on the road. Still got the little bumps on the treads , I did get to drive it about about 10 miles with a tow rope. Bought new BF Goodrich tires in 2010 for the front of the car.

[torredcuda]

Just because they look fine on the outside does not meant they are safe. I have seen old tires come apart too many times to take a chance even if the car is always stored inside. I  replaced mine a few years ago because they were old. Anymore than 10 years it`s time to replace them - you don`t want one to blow out at even 60 mph never mind 100.

[Katfish]

I too used to run them forever because they looked ok.
Now I replace at 10yrs, no matter the tread left.
Another reason to not buy super expensive tires if you're not driving the car.

[Fern]

I would think if you kept the car garaged and the tires out of the sun, they would last a lot longer?

[tparker]

Let's see... I parked my Challenger around late 1990 or early 1991. It's almost 2025. Those tires weren't anywhere new when I parked it, so 35-40 years. I did replace two of the four.   

[torredcuda]

I would think if you kept the car garaged and the tires out of the sun, they would last a lot longer?

Uv is just one of the things that causes tires to degrade but I do believe being stored indoors does help prolong tire life.

[blown motor]

Hmmm. Now you guys have me thinking. My fronts are 13 years old.

[soundcontrol]

I would think if you kept the car garaged and the tires out of the sun, they would last a lot longer?

Yes, my 2016 truck has original tires, and it's parked in the sun all summer (I got wintertires that I use fron late November to late March) and my summer tires has cracks all over the sides, my tireguy told me to replace them for 3 years now.

[captcolour]

I assume you all know that there are date codes on tires so you don't have to guess how old.  Four digits usually in an oval, format:  first 2 digits week of the year; last 2 digits are the year.  Rubber will degrade over time.  UV and heat help accelerate the degradation.  I let my BFG radials get to 12 years before replacing.  I think 10 years is a good rule of thumb.  That's like $200 a year in insurance.  Worth it to me. 

[pschlosser]

I assume you all know that there are date codes on tires so you don't have to guess how old.  Four digits usually in an oval, format:  first 2 digits week of the year; last 2 digits are the year.  Rubber will degrade over time.  UV and heat help accelerate the degradation.  I let my BFG radials get to 12 years before replacing.  I think 10 years is a good rule of thumb.  That's like $200 a year in insurance.  Worth it to me. 

You mean there's an expiration date?

[JH27N0B]

There's not an expiration date, however one thing to consider is that many tire shops won't mount tires over a certain age due to liability reasons and it's not even a very old age.  I don't recall the exact age I've heard but it may only be or 4 years old limit to how old a tire they'll mount can be.
I've been alarmed by what I've found on my daily driver a few times.  It has low profile tires and the car has low ground clearance so I can't easily crawl under it to see the tires. The outer part of the tires would look fine, but I'd take the tire off to do the brakes and find cracking on the inner sidewall and inner tread.  Tires might have been 4 years old and 35-40K miles.  That scared me as they weren't especially "old" and I'm not getting some off brand tire, I think they were Yokohama tires. I found a front tire one time that the inner tread area was deteriorating so much it's a miracle the tire didn't fail when I was driving to work at 70 mph on the highway. Scary.
On the other hand looking at vintage car listings I'll often see cars with tires like Goodyear STs and GTIIs I know haven't been available for decades.
I've seen a few posters on forums over the years report they've had tires fail on a vintage car while it was just sitting parked in their garage.
Tires are something I pay attention to yet still haven't come up with hard and fast rules.