10 year old spare tyre - still ok to use?

[Manicminer]

Simple question, 10 year old unused spare. No damage or visible perished rubber.

Is it ok to use as a fresh tyre and put the worn one in the boot (other side has new same make due puncture). OR do I just bin it and buy another new one?

Ta!!

[sparks_E39]

If it looks ok it will be fine. Mine is 11 years old from 2001, looks fine.

[rohrl]

The spare in my boot is the original from new so 9 years old.

If I have a puncture I'll use it to get me to a tyre place within a day or two then put it back in the boot.

I don't know anything much about tyres and maybe it's fine having been sat in the dark but rubber will perish and I'd rather not risk it.

[NiceCupOfTea]

As a "get you home" measure, OK, but in theory you're supposed to replace all tyres every 5 or so years!

[jon-]

NiceCupOfTea said:

As a "get you home" measure, OK

This.

I wouldn't use it full time, but a careful drive home after a puncture no problem.

[McSam]

It isn't really okay to use as a permanent replacement, no. As an emergency measure it would do you fine, so you could keep it as a spare if you wanted, but the shelf life of tyres is officially six years and you will get rubber degradation when you start trying to double that lifespan!

I wouldn't use it full-time, get new tyres to replace the worn ones.

[RDMcG]

My wife's 2003 SL500 gets very little use, with only about 10,000 miles from new. It has never been driven hard and about 7000 miles were on a few long weekend trips.
The tires looked perfect.
I was driving it on the highway in AZ, and had already mentioned to her that we probably should think about new tires when I had a complete blowout on the left rear tire. There was no damage to cause this. Needless to say, we changed them all next day.

[Chrisw666]

McSam said:

It isn't really okay to use as a permanent replacement, no. As an emergency measure it would do you fine, so you could keep it as a spare if you wanted, but the shelf life of tyres is officially six years and you will get rubber degradation when you start trying to double that lifespan!

SWMBOs KA has the same rear tyre that it left the factory with, 44,000 miles and 6 years (+ however long it spent on the docks) into its life.

It passed an MOT last week and I also took it to the tyre fitter that I've used for years and he assures me there is nothing wrong with the tyres and at the moment there is no need to replace them due to age.

I'll take the word of a man who has a vested interest in selling me tyres over anything I read on the internet.

[Manicminer]

Thanks, some reassuring answers there, seems a shame to chuck it but on the same hand I dont want to risk things for the sake of £100.

[projectgt]

I have heard that if you were involved in an accident, an insurance company (yours or another driver's) can refuse to pay out if the tyre is older than 6 years.

[mat777]

projectgt said:

I have heard that if you were involved in an accident, an insurance company (yours or another driver's) can refuse to pay out if the tyre is older than 6 years.

How does this work if you have just bought "new" tyres but it turns out they arent? I've just bought a set of new tyres for classic mini wheels and the date stamps say 4409 (44th week of 2009) - yet they were the best "new" tyres I could find without paying for track-biased ones (somewhat overkill for a trailer), because demand is so low that they only make a batch every few years

does this mean I have to throw away a perfectly good set of <1000 mile £40 tyres every 3 years? bks to that!

Edited by mat777 on Wednesday 25th April 03:24

[Manicminer]

I've done some more reading (the joys of night shifts) - Bridgestone recommend 10 years max and most other manufacturers are saying 6 years.

I'm slightly sceptical as they are all trying to flog new tyres after all.

Haven't found any evidence of insurance companies causing problems due to tyre age so far.

I'm going to email Yokohama tyres when I find a decent email address and get their opinion as the car has effectively been stored in a cool, dry and dark place out of sunlight for ten years so the rubber I feel should be ok.

Any more opinions or experience would be welcome though.

[XVar]

As long as it doesn't look like the spare on my Z3 when I bought it, it should be fine. Turns out hanging underneath a car for 15 years doesn't do steel wheels much good

[sawman]

in 2009 When I bought my 1988 morgan it has its original tyres on. they still had plenty of tread and no signs of damage, but I swapped them out for new ones, the way the car drove was transformed. I still have the original spare tyre on the back of the car, when I replace my rear tyres this year I'll put one of the old ones on the spare.

[Leins]

Recently replaced the spare tyre on mine. Was the original from 1990, and was all cracked on the sidewall

For what it's worth, I'd change it even at 10 years. A blow-out, despite driving carefully, may not be much fun

[Snowboy]

I had a spare tyre on my hilux that had been there since new.
About 10 years old.

I put it on the car when I changed tyres and made one of my old tyres my spare.

200 miles later while doing 70 on the M5 about 2 foot of the outer tread separated from the inner tyre and, as the end was still attached, it whipped round the wheel arch destroying the back quarter of my car and showing the cars behind with bits of car trim.

Older tyres that have been stored correctly are OK to use to a degree.
(opinion on specifics vary).

Old tyres that have been stored in (or certainly on or under) a road car haven’t been stored correctly and have probably perished. 10 years of weather changes, rain, sun, salt and so on doesn’t do the rubber any favours.
Tyres need to be used on a car to keep the lubricated and supple – otherwise they harden up, crack and separate.

This is why ‘old man wisdom’ is to rotate the spare tyre onto the car every time you change tyres and put the most recent part worn as the spare.

I personally would not use old tyres on my car.
If I was in your situation I’d just swap the spare for the best of my old tyres when I next got the tyres changed.

I’m pretty sure in the UK it’s law that tyres have to be under 9 years old to sell.
This is why you get so many old premium brands being flogged cheap by discount car companies.
I think in Germany and other Euro countries it’s 3 or 6 years old.
Lost of older tyres are imported from these countries to the UK and sold cheaply.

I’ve read a lot of people saying old tyres are fine.
I have first hand experience of old tyres almost killing me.
I tend to avoid old tyres now.

[OldSkoolRS]

XVar said:

As long as it doesn't look like the spare on my Z3 when I bought it, it should be fine. Turns out hanging underneath a car for 15 years doesn't do steel wheels much good

Thanks for that headsup...I've been meaning to check on my Z3 spare as I haven't figured out how to lower it down.

Back on topic, I have a 33 year old Pirelli CN36 tyre in the boot of my RS2000. There are some concours guys who would pay good money for it apparently, but then I guess they would the ones that don't drive their cars as I doubt I'd trust a 33 YO tyre. The tyres on the road wheels, I bought maybe 4,000 miles ago, but that was 16 years ago, so will be replaced once the restoration is complete. They are probably mishapen through not being moved much during the last 13 years or so.

[lowdrag]

I visited MWS for new wheels and tyres for my E-type and they showed me a set of 10 yr old Dunlops that a client had kept from new and insisted they put on his car. They made him sign a disclaimer due to the age of the tyres. Two days later they had the wheels back with two tyres delaminated and he was apparently very lucky to avoid an accident. So, OK for a short journey home, but don't whatever you do just leave it on and forget it. I guess most of us have possibly the original spare still in the boot - I do and it's 12 years old now, and used but once. Luckily it's a steel wheel and looks lousy on compared to the alloys, which is why it never stays on!

[Changedmyname]

sparks_E39 said:

If it looks ok it will be fine. Mine is 11 years old from 2001, looks fine.

Ditto .never used spare tyre.

[Studio117]

Recently got a puncture on my car, luckily it has a full size spare. Even though the spare is probably 10 years old there was no noticeable difference. Did over 1000miles of hard driving before i swapped it back after getting new front tyres.