[eye30]

An AA tyre technician's trip to pick up an online purchase on his day off may have saved the life of the man he was collecting from when he spotted his dangerous tyres.

The off-duty mechanic spotted the nearly-new 63-plate car on the driveway was fitted with rubber that was 23 years old.

The combined age of the four tyres fitted to the three-year-old car - believed to be fitted by the used car dealership that sold the unsuspecting owner the vehicle - were a staggering 64 years - older than the owner himself.

When he scrutinised the weathered rubber in detail, he then saw it had a three digit number on the sidewall, indicating that the tyre was manufactured before 2000.

The three numbers read '083'. Translated from tyre language that means the rubber was produced in the eighth week of 1993

AA man spots nearly-new car fitted with a 23-year-old tyres | Daily Mail Online

[Shambles]

Wonder why he didn't take issue with the dealership

Wimp.

[AlanHo]

In the SUN newspaper it would have said that he was distracted by the page 3 calendar girls' big tits.

He decided to tread lightly .

[Phil №❶]

I've got 2 retread tyres on my trailer which was made i the 70's, is that bad 

[Surferdude]

I've got 2 retread tyres on my trailer which was made i the 70's, is that bad 

Yep.
Rubber ages and major failures are more prevalent in older tyres. People tended to blame retread failures on the retreading process and to some extent the type of work the original carcass might have been put to.

From the RACQ website.

"Can a tyre be too old?

Car tyres can deteriorate with age.  A tyre that’s been sitting in the spare wheel well for years, even though it’s never been used and has plenty of tread could be ready for retirement.

 Heat, sunlight, ozone and other environmental conditions can all cause deterioration of the rubber compounds.  In service this can lead to tyre failures.

 Some industry experts suggest that worn out or not, a tyre may have passed its useful life after about five years, however this is not recognized in law.

 A production date code is usually moulded into the tyre sidewall.  Consult a reputable dealer for further advice on interpreting this code."

[Phil №❶]

Hope I can get the nuts off 

They're the original tyres, plenty of tread, too. 

[Surferdude]

 

Hope I can get the nuts off 

They're the original tyres, plenty of tread, too. 

If you're not going over 60kph, not overloaded and not on a very hot day, you might be OK.   

[Phil №❶]

Have to do occasional freeway driving, so I'll start saving up, I think.

[The Gonz]

Back before my last war service I owned a Renault Fuego. Those of you well versed will recall it was the world's first production car to feature remote central locking. Unfortunately, it was based on Infra-red comms and anyone with a TV will know that this is quite limited outdoors on a warm sunny day. 20 years later, working systems were extremely rare, so I started up a cottage industry building fit-form-function UHF adaptations, boosting RC locking to a 300m range. 

Anyway, the point of this post is to relate that while I had Camira SLX rims on the Fuego, the spare was still the very odd metric wheel with an equally odd metric Michelin TRX tyre. I even had to drive around on it for a week or so when I got a flat tyre. All good. I've been in slightly more dangerous situations.

[rustynutz]

"Ingrid", my Suzuki Burgman still has her original tyres which are now around 9 years old.
While they are still in good condition and still seem to still grip perfectly okay I don't "trust" them 100%.

I really must lash out for a new set one of these days... 

[rustynutz]

From the article:

Combined age of all four tyres fitted to the 2013 model was 64 years

What an absolutely stupid comment! 

[The Gonz]

From the article:

Combined age of all four tyres fitted to the 2013 model was 64 years

What an absolutely stupid comment! 

I'm sure it was meant with full irony as to its validity as a metric.

[Phil №❶]

Sorry eye30 for hijacking your post