Importance of a tires age.

[auxilary]

ok. question....

 

 

i live in sunny california. In summer of 2003, i bought a set of yokohama es100 225/50/15 tires. Put about 1000 miles on them. car went up on jackstands. only load the tires saw were occasional roll in/out of garage/trailer.

 

They were in the garage, not exposed to elements except maybe occasional heat wave during the summer and 30*F in the winter.

 

They look brand new, no cracks... Dangerous to use, or time for new ones?

[kiwi303]

a general rule of thumb is to replace tires after 6 or 7 years regardless of tread depth or mileage.

 

My tyres are lucky to last 4 years before filing WOF on tread depth. Unless they're either offroad on an offroader or on the trailer.

[Zmanco]

ok. question....

 

 

i live in sunny california. In summer of 2003, i bought a set of yokohama es100 225/50/15 tires. Put about 1000 miles on them. car went up on jackstands. only load the tires saw were occasional roll in/out of garage/trailer.

 

They were in the garage, not exposed to elements except maybe occasional heat wave during the summer and 30*F in the winter.

 

They look brand new, no cracks... Dangerous to use, or time for new ones?

Disclaimer: I am not a tire engineer.

 

It seems that the main factors (besides wear from driving) that affect tires are exposure to UV light and Ozone. In your case it sounds like they were indoors for most of the time so probably not much UV exposure. But ozone is probably an issue given you live in the Bay area. But is it enough that you throw away what are otherwise unused tires? I'd have a hard time doing that. I think I'd drive them on the street at sane speeds for a while and then look really closely for any signs of cracking, separation, etc (really focus on the sidewalls and where the tread joins it) and take it from there.