New Tires

[JerBear]

Well, after much trepidation, I finally replaced my tires. I wanted to try and get a better ride and someone here recommended the Continentals. They are harder to find than Hens Teeth! I had to go on-line to get them from tire buyer but I really like the grip and they are somewhat softer than the OEM (Goodyear) rubber so that part was right on track.

Funny thing I had 49000 miles on the OEM Goodyears and they still had plenty of tread left but the side walls (Only on the inside) were crumbling and bulging so I really needed to change them. Even the installers wondered why I was getting new tires until they took the old one's off. The sidewalls just disintegrated. They were however 6 year old tires. Is this situation common?

[lannvouivre]

Yes, 6 years is the general end of a tire's lifespan. If you don't drive on the tires often, it will be shorter because driving lets them stay lubricated from solutions mixed into the compounds they're made from. I'm not 100% sure about that last part, as I read it on a tire dealer's site, but it sounds legit to me.

Also, I feel like you'd have to try pretty hard to do worse than those GY Eagle RS-As that the cars come with.

[tpollauf]

After so many years (not so much the mileage) some tires rubber will break down & dryrot. I found this out on my '92 F-150 when I had a blowout in 2006 Only 42000 miles on them at that point but the "old age" took it's toll on them. This is probably true on almost every tire out there

[ColonelPanic]

We just replaced a set of 7 year old Kumhos... They were just now getting down to the wear bars (the car doesn't get a lot of miles on it.) The sidewalls had been getting more and more cracked as the years progressed, they were pretty nasty at the end.

I think some tire shops won't even touch a set of tires past a certain age for rotations and such.