New tires installed on a car rim comprise rubber materials and are efficient between the age of 8 to 12 months.
How Old Should New Tires Be When You Buy Them? New tires should be one year to 18 months old when you buy them, and less than one-year-old tires are best to buy. 5 to 7 years old tires are not recommended because of damaged rubber and cause accidents.
You should not buy a more than six-year-old tire because it is inefficient for the car’s performance. Also, it is challenging to find a wheel in the retail shop which has not aged a specific period.
What should be the age of new tires when you buy them?
You can buy new tires when they are 12 to 18 months old. However, they have a standard shelf life of about 5 to 7 years.
Also, never buy them when they cross the limit of 18 months. The one-year-old tires are best for different vehicles and their frames.
The six-year-old tire is extremely old and cannot perform at a standard level. Furthermore, less than one-year-old tires are most effective due to their intact rubber and overall tread.
The wheels have a lifespan of about 9 to 12 months when they come to the retail shops for sale. Moreover, wheels that are not one year old are one of the best options due to their stable condition.
However, you cannot buy a wheel that is 2 to 3 years old because it has less effectiveness and reduced efficiency. To select them, approach the retailers and check their tread and age according to their manufacturing date.
In addition, the 5 to 7 years older wheels are dangerous and cause fatal accidents. A few wheels remain unused due to infrequent demand, and the sellers store them in their retail shops, where they keep aging.
In such circumstances, they keep aging and can last for about 5 to 11 years. Their shelf life and aging patterns depend on their storage environment and exposure to various factors like heat and moisture.
According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the wheels remain safe for about 3 to 7 years. Fresh and new wheels are better for the high speed and long shelf life with minimum internal damage.
Furthermore, they start to wear once they leave the manufacturing assembly. Therefore, they can age when they assemble on the shelves of retail shops.
Due to their wear patterns, you cannot compromise over the tire age because it can lead to irreversible losses.
Why are old car tires dangerous?
Old tires are dangerous for the car frame and driver because they cause more accidents. In addition, due to old tread, they undergo more damage and cannot perform at their standard level.
More damages
Unlike new options, older wheels can undergo more damage. They have a short working span and can affect speed.
Moreover, it is unsafe to drive with them because they age and break faster than the standard limit. They cannot withstand standard inflation, and their center patch bulges out.
Furthermore, they can sag more than the limitations, which have not aged more than one year to 18 months. Due to their surface damage, they become ineffective on the curb.
Also, they undergo surface wear when the car strikes a curb. Finally, due to their old age, they have thin and malfunctioning side walls.
They can undergo frequent punctures in such conditions because their sidewalls cannot withstand the pressure.
Rubber decomposes quickly
The tires comprise rubber as their manufacturing material. However, their sellers store them in different storage units where the rubber exposes to environmental factors.
Due to their old age, their rubber wears due to heat and water exposure. Moreover, their tread cracks and reduces their performance.
The rubber cracks and damages approach the steel-based portion of the wheel. As a result, their tread detaches from the frame and deforms.
However, the environmental air can decompose them because oxygen impact rubber. In such circumstances, constant heat exposure can increase rubber cracking.
They undergo more oxygen damage with cracked rubber. Also, the temperature-regulated storage environment of the wheels cannot slow down their aging procedure.
More accidents
The older tires provide minimum control due to internal cracks and surface damage. However, they cannot support the steering system of the car.
As a result, you cannot drive the vehicle at a stable speed because the wheels provide minimum frame control. In such circumstances, the car becomes uncontrollable and bumps into other automobiles.
Moreover, the older wheels increase the accidental conditions due to a lack of standard control. Due to their incorrect control properties, the car frame undergoes various damages.
In such circumstances, damage repair is costly due to the severity of accidents. Moreover, these are dangerous because the driver and passenger can lose their life during life-threatening events.
Reduced performance
The wheels older than 6 to 7 years are unsafe due to their low performance on various roads. Moreover, they cannot achieve or maintain the standard speed limit of the vehicle.
Due to their low performance, they cannot support the driveshaft. As a result, the acceleration reduces, which decreases overall car efficiency.
Furthermore, they cannot provide optimized traction on slippery surfaces. Due to a lack of road grip, the car can roll forward or reverse.
The old wheels are incompatible with the car brake system. Moreover, they do not stop due to the input signals of hydraulic brakes.
How to check the age of car tires when you buy them?
Before buying a new tire, check its age to assess its control and performance properties. The manufacturing companies print their manufacturing date on their sidewalls, which indicates their age.
Due to the printed date, you can assess the exact manufacturing week of the wheel. Moreover, all the wheels manufactured from 2000 to 2001 have a 4-digit code.
It is the DOT (department of transportation) code, and you can assess it in the round blocks on the sidewalls of the wheels. Inside the blocks, you can read different alphabets and digits.
For reading the numbers, you can assess the first two digits because they indicate the manufacturing week of a specific wheel.
Furthermore, the second two digits indicate the year of its manufacturing. For example, you can read the number 4809 inside the round block.
It means the tire had manufactured in the 48th week of 2009. After assessing the four-digit code, you can compare the wheel manufacturing date with its buying date.
With this procedure, you can assess its age within minutes.
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