age of tyres

[stemac]

Hi recently bought a 85 w123 and the tyres have no date stamps (goodyears made in new zealand) car has done 500 miles /yr for 10+YEARS, is it dangerous running round on these tyres plenty of tread and look ok, drives sweet no pulling, hold pressure, your comments please

 

[John Jones Jr]

Personally wouldn't use tyres that are of an unknown age or over five years old. Just for peace of mind I'd change them, there're only thing between you & the road. Also, if they have no date stamp I'd suspect there are old, and if they are, decent modern tyres will make a big difference to the road holding, especially in the wet & how the car handles generally.

 

[johnsco]

I agree.
I made a mistake about 5 years ago of using two unused spare tyres from our two E300TDs.
They would have been about 9 years old.
Neither of them had seen any use at all.
They were Conti premium contact 2s ... Not cheap budget tyres.
I got them removed from the two steel spare wheels and fitted to two of my alloys.
One year and 25,000 miles later, both the interior side-walls had started to fail in more than one location.

Clearly, the tyres has deteriorated with age.
Very risky !!

 

[Rainforest]

There are many factors affecting the tyre are not only travel distance, but also the road conditions, driving style, etc. In general, tyre life in 3-5 year.

 

[flango]

Anything over 5 years = BIN

 

[G.P]

Hi recently bought a 85 w123 and the tyres have no date stamps (goodyears made in new zealand) car has done 500 miles /yr for 10+YEARS, is it dangerous running round on these tyres plenty of tread and look ok, drives sweet no pulling, hold pressure, your comments please

The date stamp maybe at the end of the DOT code and only three digits, may also be on the inside wall. At a guess as its not easy to find or if only three digits I'd say they were produced before 2000..

 

[John Jones Jr]

This worth a read. Take note about the Irish lad that purchased an older Merc.

Car Bibles : The Wheel and Tyre Bible Page 1 of 4

 

[stemac]

found the date code on the inside wall 2400 and 1201 so 13 yrs old hmmmmm..

 

[GP801]

I would certainly change them in that case. The front tyres on our CLK (continental) looked fine at 7 years old and had plenty of tread left. It was quite scary to see how perished the inner wall was when they were changed.

 

[John Jones Jr]

found the date code on the inside wall 2400 and 1201 so 13 yrs old hmmmmm..

I don't think there's any hmmmmm about it!

 

[Dieselman]

I don't think there's any hmmmmm about it!

What would he do if he/you didn't know about the date code?

 

[neilrr]

I'm sceptical about the recently discovered danger of driving on tyres older than a (seemingly) arbitrarily decided upon age.

 

[flango]

I think THIS sums it up. As I said 5 years and Bin with me but nothing to say they can't go past that . But would you want to risk your life and the life of your loved ones for an average of £400 ? No brainer to me

 

[John Jones Jr]

I think THIS sums it up. As I said 5 years and Bin with me but nothing to say they can't go past that . But would you want to risk your life and the life of your loved ones for an average of £400 ? No brainer to me

Spot on. A bit of common sense and as I already said peace of mind should encourage people to take less chances with older cars on what could be possibly old rubber, date stamp or no date stamp. Just like you said F1, a no brainer.

 

[moonloops]

Both tyres and condoms have the same rule.. more than a few years old and you're in trouble

 

[flango]

Both tyres and condoms have the same rule.. more than a few years old and you're in trouble

I always buy 2 condoms, always like to be one jump ahead

 

[moonloops]

I always buy 2 condoms, always like to be one jump ahead

In the states that's called a duplex, still, I wouldn't want to live there..

 

[neilrr]

I think THIS sums it up. As I said 5 years and Bin with me but nothing to say they can't go past that . But would you want to risk your life and the life of your loved ones for an average of £400 ? No brainer to me

Though I can't put an exact number on it, over my lifetime I'm pretty sure I've 'risked my life' thousands of times in cars, taxis, buses & vans, possibly even bicycles.

Life's full of risks, this is just the latest one we're meant to worry about.

 

[flango]

Life's full of risks,

Yep and it's all about risk management and you can remove this risk for an average of £400 as to the risks posed by others not taking care of their tyres well that's a bit out of our control and I dare say I risk my life in this respect every time I go to India, Mongolia, china, Kazakhstan etc.. lifes too short to worry about the risks you cant control

 

[John Jones Jr]

Though I can't put an exact number on it, over my lifetime I'm pretty sure I've 'risked my life' thousands of times in cars, taxis, buses & vans, possibly even bicycles.

Life's full of risks, this is just the latest one we're meant to worry about.

I think you are taking things out of perspective.

The point is to eliminate risk with a vehicle you (along with family no doubt) are going to be using maybe almost daily or far more than other vehicles, especially commercial and hire/reward vehicles like taxi's. Also, from my point of view I drive my cars far, far harder than any taxi driver would. So, for me having as much confidence in my car's tyres as reasonably possible, is as mentioned a couple of times now 'a no brainer'.

Now, going back to the OP's original question, buying an older car and having no history about the tyres other than they are very old. Imo, you've only one option, get new one's fitted! There's no more to it than that!