Shelf life of street tires

[Rob]

The story seems to be that the tires were manufactured in 2001....what is the shelf life of a tire?

My understanding is that R comps tend to start getting pretty hard after two years...and these are three years old? :sigh:

True, and they have to be stored properly to get 2 years out of them as it is

This is all news to me and makes me worry all over again about my garage queen. What's the shelf life of street tires? (Didn't want to hijack the r-compound thread.)

[lip277]

I'm probably the poster boy for setting a bad example, but.....
I've had the same set of Pirelli P6's on my 2002 since 1990 or so.
:shock:
They look brand new as I've probably only put 10,000 miles on them. The car is ALWAYS garaged as far as that making a difference.

:dunno: if I will be replacing them any time soon. If I drive the car down to CA or somthing like that, I probably will want to do something just for peace of mind....

Either way though, they still hold their own and (since they are old) look more 'period' than a new tire would.
(That's my cheap excuse and I'm sticking with it! :lol: )

[clyde]

My understanding (again, as faulty as it may be) is that street tires are lot more robust than R comps and that's part of what makes them more appropriate to street use. :D

There is a guy here that autocrossed his old 3.0 CS on 15+/- year old Bridgestones a couple summers ago and they did fine (his driving notwithstanding :paranoid: )

OTOH, tires on a car that isn't driven often can develop flat spots which can be a real problem. The tread compound, though, should be okay for quite some time.

[Rob]

My understanding (again, as faulty as it may be) is that street tires are lot more robust than R comps and that's part of what makes them more appropriate to street use. :D

There is a guy here that autocrossed his old 3.0 CS on 15+/- year old Bridgestones a couple summers ago and they did fine (his driving notwithstanding :paranoid: )

OTOH, tires on a car that isn't driven often can develop flat spots which can be a real problem. The tread compound, though, should be okay for quite some time.

Flat spots are a differnet issue and one that is entirely within my control (obviously). Thanks for the help from both of you.

[ayn]

just place the car on jack stands and u should be fine.

[Rob]

I would rather drive it every weekend. All weekend. Hard. :D

[Doug]

Sunlight will degrade rubber and many heat cycles will harden them. As pointed out a street tire is designed to be run for much longer than an R Comp. I don't know what the street life of a given street tire is, I can hunt around for some info, my guess is that it varies by tire.