Tire Age and Safety

[Merlin_83]

Important Question - tire age

So what is the limit on how old a set PSS or Cup2's can be left on an M car ? I bought new PSS's about 2 years ago, maybe have 3K miles on them. Car is in temp controlled and reasonably dry garage. Got me thinking will these tires as a set age and degrade to an unsafe level at - 4 years? Or 6 ?

I drive my E92 MW ZCP sparingly - and for the last 15 months especially since I've been working from home. That's about to change I think soon with our team converting to a hybrid situation - i.e. work at office 3-4 days a week then work from home on Fridays or some variation of that.

This question comes up from me re-reading several stories and reports from the Paul Walker and Roger Roda's Porsche GT accident 7.5 years ago.

Thank you,
Merlin

[pedro2u]

reading CarandDriver, they say

"There is a general consensus that most tires should be inspected, if not replaced, at about six years and should be absolutely be swapped out after 10 years, regardless of how much tread they have left."

I know I had a set of low mileage Michelin's a friend gave me that sat in my basement for 6 years. They looked perfect. When I went to install them on my 745i, the shop refused to mount them because the date code exceeded 10 years....... The tires were perfect with no visible cracking or wear

[pbonsalb]

Your 2 year old tires are fine.

[tbuck]

Yeah, there is a life span to tires, but I don't think it is a cut and dried number. I think it is situational up to a point. 10 years, yeah, likely not safe regardless of appearance. But 5 or 6 years should be fine.

Personal experience. Was looking at tires for my Mini and found a really great deal on a online tire wholesaler. Like REALLY good, like 1/2 price good. Reading the fine print I see they have a 2015 DOT date. So at the time, 2020, that was only 5 years so I said ok, I will roll the dice. To date, the tires are fine, show absolutely no sign of odd wear or cracking of any kind. They are about 6.5 years old now and I have about 10k miles on them. Now these were a top name brand and their top Max Performance Summer tire, so I think maybe that also has something to do with it. Would I buy some of Joe's Tires 6 year old stock? Not likely. YMMV

[nrubenstein]

The basic answer is that the higher the performance of the tire, the shorter the life.

One of the absolute worst tires in my experience is the Michelin PSS. After 24 months in my experience, they get hard and you have to really put heat in them to get them to work. Most tires aren’t *that* bad. My wife’s 993TT has a set of ancient Yokohama AD08s on it that are around a decade old. We barely drive the car, so I’ve been putting off buying tires.

Almost any typical all season will be good to ten years if it’s not in constant direct sun. Most performance tires have a life that’s more in the 5-7 year range where they grip well.

Garaging matters. Not exceeding the limits of a tire matter, too.

The reality of the Paul Walker accident is that the combination of old ass tires, driving like a moron, and a car that requires advance skill combined into a fatal situation.

You can eke out the lifespan of the tires as long as they hood air as long as you drive as though they could fail at any time. You just have to decide what it’s worth to you. Can you drive on 15 year old tires? Yes. Will they have anything like the original traction? No. And, in particular, they will really suck in cool/cold days.

[pbonsalb]

I try to use them up within 3 years so I don’t have these problems. I agree with Michelin PSS getting hard after a few years.

[Route 16]

I'm about to roll the dice on some never used 2012 Michelin tires as a daily driver 50 mile commute, no tracking.

[Idfkman]

Just recently replaced my PSS's that were from 2014. They still had pretty decent bite even with low tread.
Swapping to a brand new set of tires didn't make a significant difference in grip, that I can tell anyway.
I concur that PSS's were noticeably hard to the touch.

[PACarGuy]

Tire Rack's feedback is that most manufacturers say tires are good up to 8-10 years as long as there is enough tread and there is no cracking or dry rotting. Obviously higher performance tires have a higher sensitivity and risk if you're going to push them hard.

[BeaterM3]

Originally Posted by Merlin_83

Important Question - tire age

So what is the limit on how old a set PSS or Cup2's can be left on an M car ? I bought new PSS's about 2 years ago, maybe have 3K miles on them. Car is in temp controlled and reasonably dry garage. Got me thinking will these tires as a set age and degrade to an unsafe level at - 4 years? Or 6 ?

I drive my E92 MW ZCP sparingly - and for the last 15 months especially since I've been working from home. That's about to change I think soon with our team converting to a hybrid situation - i.e. work at office 3-4 days a week then work from home on Fridays or some variation of that.

This question comes up from me re-reading several stories and reports from the Paul Walker and Roger Roda's Porsche GT accident 7.5 years ago.

Thank you,
Merlin

I've had my BFGoodrich Comp2 A/S for 4 years as a daily driver between my 335 and M3 - granted I only use them from March/April to Oct/Nov and are kept in a control controlled storage room for the winter. I put about 5/6k on them. They are 100% good for the rest of this summer and possibly for next. But, by next summer, I'll probably replace them because I want a full square set up.