That's good advice if you're going to lay a car up, e.g. for the winter - but I was thinking about ], say, classic cars which are used occasionally on fine days, where you wouldn't want a major operation like that every time you felt like going for a spin.

Having googled this subject it seem the association of tyre makers recommends no more than ten years for cars and the German tyre retail association is six years.

The wheel and tyre bible (an American site) recommends tyres over six years old shouldn't be used: www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html

Oh, well that must be right, then!!

This 'bible' is apparently written by a......

<<I am a pro-car, pro-motorbike petrolhead into basic maintenance.>>

No sign of a Mech Eng there, then.........

The industry "recomendation" used to be 6 years from the manufactured date but that was recently modified to suggest that no tyre older than 6 years should be repaired or refitted to a rim even if its got loads of life left since the stresses can cause cracking. They now say replace after 10 years.

Having seen tyres less than 6 years old with serious sidewall cracking (I had 4 replaced by Michelin at 4 years old for free last year) I find the new advice a bit daft. In some ways I can see the sense in the recomendations but the problem is how many owners actually check their tyres for pressure let alone cracks which may make the tyre unsafe. How many actually take the wheels of and check the inside. Once a year at MOT time is not sufficient especially when a tyre is getting old.

But at the end of the day they are only recomendations, people can do what they want. Remember a case when a bus was involved in a fatal accident and the cause was proven to be the tyres, 22 years old. Not sure what the outcome was but the operator wa looking at huge fines/prison if found guilty. Would the same apply if a car was involved.

An old lady i know has an R reg Nissan Micra, she bought it new and has covered about 22,000 miles so far. Its still on the original tyres. I have suggested their replacement just because of their great age. But so far she has not had an issue from age.

Maybe you should show her this:

Three people returning from the Bestival music festival died after a coach tyre that was 19-and-a-half years old blew out, an inquest heard.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23320526

John, although the pressure in a car tyre is a lot lower than that of a bicycle tyre, because of the different volumes, there is a lot more stored energy in the car tyre. If this undergoes a sudden release, the result is an explosion. This story comes to mind:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8600833.stm

Tyre life was referred to in the engine oil thread as a topic for debate....

Yep, that was me after I received an amusing diatribe from a posterwho suggested that my 20yr old TR7 tyres might 'explode.....and cause a fatal accident' !!!

At 24 and 28psi, less than a third of the pressure in my bicycle tyres and not even as much as one extra 'atmosphere', it would be more of a sigh than an explosion!

I bought an ancient small boat recently and the tyre on its lakeside trailer facing south has much surface deterioration compared with the north facing tyre. I assume they are the same age. My TR7, like most classic cars, has spent most of its life in a garage.

So who has the oldest road legal MoT approved tyres on their classic/vintage car, caravan or trailer?

Industry recommendations may mean nothing to you but most other people are happy to accept them.

I'm with others on taking a stand against peddling ideas like John's.

Avant - please take note, others may be extreme with their points but they're right !!

Edited by Avant on 10/01/2014 at 19:16

Tyre life was referred to in the engine oil thread as a topic for debate....

Yep, that was me after I received an amusing diatribe from a choleric poster with possible similar lack of engineering knowledge who suggested that my 20yr old TR7 tyres might 'explode.....and cause a fatal accident' !!!

At 24 and 28psi, less than a third of the pressure in my bicycle tyres and not even as much as one extra 'atmosphere', it would be more of a sigh than an explosion!

Clearly there is as much nonsense talked about tyres as there is about oil. I bought an ancient small boat recently and the tyre on its lakeside trailer facing south has much surface deterioration compared with the north facing tyre. I assume they are the same age. My TR7, like most classic cars, has spent most of its life in a garage.

So who has the oldest road legal MoT approved tyres on their classic/vintage car, caravan or trailer?

The MOT is all we have to guard against people driving around with weather aged or degraded tyres on motor cars but for bicycles there is no such annual check. My (now married) son recently fitted new tyres and brake blocks etc to his 13 year old Peugeot Racing bike after taking it from my garage and lending it to a friend to try out - it had visibly seriously degraded high pressure tyres with serious longitudinal cracks all round and filaments poking out on the side walls even though the tubes were still ok - and I had been riding it occasionally just for fun for years after he got married !

Moral - the Son is wiser than the Father !

So who has the oldest road legal MoT approved tyres on their classic/vintage car, caravan or trailer?

John - you sometimes give the impression you know SFA about vehicles.

Classic/vintage cars, caravans and trailers simply don't have MoT tests !!

At 24 and 28psi, less than a third of the pressure in my bicycle tyres and not even as much as one extra 'atmosphere', it would be more of a sigh than an explosion!

Tyres may have much less pressure than a bicycle tyre but if they fail due to age degredation the consequences will be serious.When was the last time you say a bicycle on the M1 doing well over 70 mph.

In much the same way as engine oil, any arbitrary time limit has to be interpreted considering how the tyres or the engine have been used. Tyres on a car kept outdoors in hot conditions will expire long before those kept cool and in the dark. On an unused vehicle they may develop flat spots, especially if the pressure falls.

The best warning of time expiry of a tyre is micro-cracking on the sidewalls. This can be easily spotted, and a conscientious MoT tester will do it for you.

I check my caravan tyres before use. After a lay up last year (maybe 6 months) I looked and the tread was 8mm at least, but the rubber at the base of the tread was severely cracked along the length of the tread for the full circumference. The tyres were two years old Hankook, van 8 ply tyres, and had been shielded from sunlight though left on the van. The side walls were like new.

Needless to say, they were replaced.

I changed all 5 tyres on one of my cars recently with still 5mm of tread on them as the rubber was showing signs of deterioration.

On reading some technical info from one of the big tyre manufacturers it seems there is an anti oxidation additive within the rubber compound which is reliant on the tyres flexing for it to work well, Hence why cars that are not used often seem to make the tyres perish quicker. ( that is what they say anyway)