Re: IML: Tire Expiration Dates

[David Whitney <david.whitney@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you show your car and want points for originality, you can delay the rot
in those old tires with meticulous care -- a light annual application of
Leatherique's rejuvenator oil or a similar penetrating moisturizer will
help prevent the dry rot your car's other rubber parts succumb to when left
untreated.  I have heard Armorall and related products are actually
counterproductive and promote drying.  Store the show tires out of the sun
in the proverbial cool, dry place.  Rubber  -- it's a natural substance,
and that's just the way it is.

Put the original tires on your show car on show day at or near the show,
and take them off again for normal driving.  If that's too much of a pain,
then you need newer tires on your car all the time.  Obviously, if you
trailer your car it does not matter.  Sooner or later, the tires will give
up the ghost, but nobody will be killed or injured when they do.

No tire manufacturer I know of stands behind (or in front of) its products,
be they bias or radial ply, more than six years after the date of
manufacture whether the tires have ever left the warehouse or not.  The
companies' assumption, to avoid product liability claim exposure, is that
the tires see continuous use in the elements from day one.  If you want
more years out of your tires, be sure to buy them fresh from the factory.
That said, the six years applies to the current manufacturing process.
There may have been a different standard in earlier years.

In any case, I would not drive Nixon-era tires on Schwarzenegger's
freeways.  They don't make roads in this state like they used to.

Happy motoring,

David



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