The spare tyre in the boot of my July 1999 Mondeo is unused. I have not checked but I would imagine the tyre is not much older than the car. The fronts are nearing replacement (again). The car covers about 25k miles a year, so the front tyres last about a year.
To help cash flow I am considering using the spare and only buying one (matching) replacement front tyre.
Does anyone know a recommended maximum age for tyres?
I realise that there is no point at which a tyre will suddenly become dangerously weakened and that we are talking about a gradual process, but I'd appreciate any wisdom from the BR on the subject.
Thanks in anticipation
Andy
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There will be plenty of tyres more than 4 years old doing decent service on moderately-used cars. Assuming yours was original equipment and has been in a dark dry place all its life, I don't see why it shouldn't be put into service with a new one. The longer you leave it the more useless it gets!
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AS it's been in the boot it should be fine.
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Tyre life is generally reckoned to be 5-7 years on a caravan, but they\'re subjected to UV light exposure, flat spotting from standing still for months on end etc.
If the spare\'s been in the boot (not slung under it collecting brine from the roads) it should be good a new. Just check the walls aren\'t showing signs of cracking and you should be fine.
Terry
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I've always taken my 'new' spare and put it on a road wheel at some point and put a part worn tyre as spare, makes economic sense. As regards life of an unused tyre, if its been away in the boot it will have avoided the sunlight and oil and chemicals that normally degrade tyres. If there's no visible signs of cracking in the rubber it should be fine. I'd expect 5 years as a very minimum and I'd be surprised if wasnt okay some years beyond that.
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Have you checked price of the new single one to match?
If it is original, it may be a top brand, high priced one.
So there is a chance, if you are trying save the £££, you could have a pair of good, budget ones fitted,for the price of one new dear one.Thus keeping the spare as a spare.
I think I'm nearly making sense, see post a couple of days ago for WIDE price differences.
Remember, the 2 new, go on the rear, again see post last week or so.
VB
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There's some tortured logic there. Whats the point of two 'budget' tyres and one 'top grade' expensive tyre sitting in the boot ? And non-budget tyres on the other two wheels ? If you pursue your arguement then why not buy part worn tyres from a breaker and save even more money by fitting them on all the wheels ! Its all a trade off between safety and money but when making a comparison you have to compare like with like. Compare a 'budget' solution with another 'budget' solution. Alternatively compare original fitted equipment with a similar standard of replacement tyre. Otherwise who's kidding who ?
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I see what you're saying, but I didn't mean buy a bottom of the market, low quality tyres.
It's just that, quite often, original fitment could be MUCH more expensive to buy for the owner, where a suitable alternative would be OK.
Just see how many fleets specify price, rather than brand, upon replacement.
The other thing is, the actual original, may not be still in production, so a match may not be possible.
Can't imagine tyre companies doing this, so we would need to buy in multiples, rather than singles, to keep a matching set on the car!!
VB
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Can I push this to an extreme.
I used (but not a lot) until 1986 a 6 cwt luggage trailer I made in 1978.
In 1986 it was stood on end (with weight therefore off its tyres) in the back of my dry warm and very dark garage.I am just about to put it back on the road and the Colway remould mini tyres look perfect--not a sign of cracking or anything at all but disappointingly they were partly flat.
They look safe to me. Any views please.
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There must be a known shelf-life for new tyres. Anyone in the tyre trade here?
I imagine that stored in the right conditions the life must be pretty well indefinite. There are specialised tyres, old fashioned sizes, vintage tyres, limited production runs of rare and obsolute sizes, etc, and I bet these last 20 years easily.
It must also depend on what they are going to be used for. The tyres on my ex-army trailer are 50 years old, but I never exceed 50 with it and never burn down motorways for hours on end.
On the other hand if I drove a powerful car to its limit I would want nearly new top quality tyres.
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I'm just replacing tyres on my trailer after 14 years but they were part worn when I bought them so they're probably 15-16 years old. Now showing cracking/crazing in the side wall but not surprising considering its been in the open all that time. On the other hand I also have a classic car on tyres 13 years old but in that case its spends most of the year on axle stands in the garage. They show no deteriation at all.
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Good thought. But the spare is a Continental Eco Contact, the same as the other tyres on the car, which I bought as a set of 4 for £200 fitted from my local garage.
I like these tyres and with the long motorway jaunts this car gets I will not compromise on the quality.
Thanks
Andy
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Missus has a nine year old, 19K miles, pug 306 that has spent most of it's life in the previous owner's garage, where of course the tyres didn't get degraded by UV light.
It is still on the original tyres, which have no cracks or other signs of deterioration, and which from the totally unmarked steel wheels (not even any surface rust, let alone dents in the rim or scrapes), have never been kerbed.
It passed the MOT last week with no comments other than "Blimey, this car's still new!" Take the wheel trims off, and even the drive shaft nuts are clean and golden.
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