Tire Replacement Timing

[Kpt112]

Greetings,


i built my MK4 back in 2015 and was wondering what the general opinion of the time to replace tires. For 2020 I will have my tires for 5 years. They look good and my vehicle is garage kept and has about 5,000 miles of use. I was wondering is the life of a tire 5, 6 or 7 years? I heard tires can dry rot and can be unsafe if not replace. Since the car sits most of the time i just do not want to get stuck with a blowout or tire failure on the side of the road. Any insight would be appreciated.


Thanks
Kevin

[Papa]

Maybe this will help answer some of your questions:

https://www.discounttire.com/learn/w...-replace-tires

Dave

[Wbauman]

I just took mine off. BFG’s has 13k on them and 12 years. The looked fine but i was worried about the age.

[Avalanche325]

Most manufacturers go with 7 years. That is from the time of manufacture, not the time of mounting. There are dates molded into them.

Here is when you should replace them:
1. Tread is down to the wear indicators or extreme uneven wear.
2. 7 years old
3. Physical damage.
4. Tires are "hard". This is usually from heat cycling and / or age. UV exposure has a big effect. If you notice that they don't grip like they used to, time for new ones.

You are being smart to ask.

[j.miller]

Sorry, looking at the title I thought you were timing your tires. Personally I time mine at 5 degrees advance. It gives the car an aggressive "pulling" look even when it's standing still. The down side is the tires wear out sooner because, well, they are always pulling. When you build a "sleeper" you need the auto advancing 8* neg to 6*pos tires (really pricey) so yo can go from …...sorry, I needed to pull some chain and this post just happened to be handy...da bat

[Papa]

Sorry, looking at the title I thought you were timing your tires. Personally I time mine at 5 degrees advance. It gives the car an aggressive "pulling" look even when it's standing still. The down side is the tires wear out sooner because, well, they are always pulling. When you build a "sleeper" you need the auto advancing 8* neg to 6*pos tires (really pricey) so yo can go from …...sorry, I needed to pull some chain and this post just happened to be handy...da bat

Looks like a new case of fermented sugar cane found it's way to Da Bat cave.

[NAZ]

I've had several tread separations on older tires, even tires "only" 6-years old. The only tires I let go more than 6-years are tractor tires and a trailer that never leave the rancho. Any vehicle that makes it to the highway gets replaced NLT 6-years for the manufacturing date. Tires are expensive but cheaper than a catastrophic failure of one at speed.