Travel Blog


Old Tires Sold as New

I just watched an ABC report about new tires sold by all of the major retailers that are old tires sold as new when they are actually many years old. Apparently there is a code on the tire that will tell you when it was manufactured and thus how old it is. ABC did this report that looked at tires sold by Walmart, Sears , Good Year and others that were more than 6 years old. They were brand new, but had sat on the shelf for over 6 years!

Old Tires Sold as New – Exploding tires

Now some of you may be saying so what. I can get a great deal with tires on sale at all of these stores! Apparently rubber like everything else will dry out over time and this makes the tire  more unstable and capable of tearing apart at high speed when it gets hot. Tires will get hot if driven at high speed or even at normal speed when they are under inflated. Add to this a dried out tire and you get something like some of the pictures on the left that we uploaded to this post.

When we were looking for pictures of tires that had exploded, there were Old Tires Sold as Newalso pictures of some really grizzly looking accidents that we did not think appropriate to show on this post. Let us just say that the pictures showed mangled cars and trucks, with people killed or hurt very badly. We are showing three pictures that really demonstrate what happens to a tire when it comes apart at high speeds.

Tire Explosions

The ABC video also showed what happens to people driving a vehicle when the tire explodes. They were anticipating the tire to explode and even those the drivers were also skilled test drivers, many had a very difficult time keep control of the vehicle. In fact one person in a test vehicle could not get control of the car and veered off into the side of the road and overturned the test vehicle.

They were ok, however can you imagine what it would be like for you or I driving at highway speeds and your tire exploded! Many people are killed every year just because of this, so if your tires are older than 6 years which is the recommended age for tires, you may want to consider having them replaced before you go on any long trips or drive on the highway at high speeds!

Examine Your Tires

Take a look at your tires to check just how old they are. I just purchased a new car last year in 2009 and I would expect the tires to also be 2009 tires. Not so! My tires were made in the 24th week of 2007. So now they are 4 years old which is not too bad.  I purchased snow tires two years ago in 2008 for another car. I checked those tires and they were made in January of 1997! Wow , these tires in my mind were only 4 years old and the tread is still excellent on them!

So how do you tell how old they are? Look for the DOT symbol on your tire. It could be either on the inside or outside of the tire. There is a long string of numbers after the DOT symbol. At the end of the string there is a group of numbers which give the week and year of manufacture. My new car had the following 2407, which means the 24 th week of 2007. My older cars tires showed 027 which means the 2nd week of 1997! These tires are 13 years old and I just bought them new 2 years ago.

Tires are Expensive

Tires are expensive, but then so is your life. If you decide not to change your tires for whatever your reason, at least you know the risk. You can manage this risk some what by making sure that the tires always have the proper inflation. They will not over heat( this will also help with your gas mileage as well) and drive at reasonable speeds. If you tend to over speed, your tires will get hot and could deteriorate at the worst time. Change your tires if you drive at high speeds!

For more thoughts about traveling on vacation by vehicle, click here.

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One Response to “Old Tires Sold as New”

  1. next time i go to renew my tires on my car, i will ask my mechanic to show me how old the tires are that they are installing on my car.

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