Tyres "perished"

[jimmyybob]

Could a crack in the sidewall lead to water getting in and rotting the steel belts.?

[Wicksy]

Oh boy it gets worse.
Just looked at a site called carbibles.com and the tyre page in particular. Under age markings it says that the three digit mark was suffixed with a triangle symbol for the 90's decade - no triangle means 80's so my tyres were made in 1986
They are in fact 27 years old
The old girl is definately not going out until she has a new set of boots
If you think your tyres are getting on, check for the age code - 4 digits means after year 2000, three digits and a triangle means 90's and three digits on it's own means 80's.
To summarise, any tyre with a three digit code is well knackered and really should not be used
Didn't mean to start a panic but I guess this is an important safety issue for all owners of older classics

[BXBXBXBX]

If I may pop in a penny worth here. I dont think that it is necessary to spend huge amounts to get good tyres, my heap uses 195 X 60 X 14 and Uniroyals ( red label.) cost £26.00 a time + vat.Thats not trade and simply walk in - buy - walk out prices.
Over a 25 year period have only had one nasty and that was with a M++++++n that looked fine with no discernible damage and over 50% tread left. It was on a newly acquired vehicle and BOTH rear tyres exploded.
Believe me it is something that you never forget and scared the hell out of the driver.
Once a year then when the MOT is due then while the wheels are off to check the brakes etc. then tyres and wheels dont take that long to check. ANY surface cracking means that that tyre is condemned and all the others very carefully checked inside and out.
It's a small price to pay to make sure as much as possible that your car does not get written off but of course neither do you.
Cheers.
Geoff.

[TerryG]

Having just replaced my 14 year old Avons with brand new ones due to cracking on the sidewalls (all be it on a 4x4) the improvement is amazing, no more "skipping" from the back end if i am a bit agressive on corners, MUCH quieter (i never knew an old Range Rover could be so quiet!) and i don't have to worry about getting a blowout on a motorway.
£75 a corner, money well spent.

On the down side i blew the other head gasket on the way home. DOH!

[Talking Hoarse]

I too would not risk old tyres on my car, and I am scared of cheapies (ie tyres with makes I havent heard of) as the ones I have experienced gripped poorly in rain, adverse conditions etc. My trusted tyre dealer suggests that "quality makes" generally perish less & last better than cheap tyre makes.
What new, cheap tyre makes can people recommend?
For starters I use Avon's ZT5's on my 80's "classic" - they hang on well, but they are not very cheap - they replaced the OE 28 year old Japanese Dunlops!
I know many who vouched for Stunner Scudo's both for road and for track cars - but I think they are no longer available.
And as an aside - many classic rally pals use winter tyres on their old cars - for the grip everywhere - their favourites seem to be Vredestein Snowtrac's, but they are far from cheap.

[OneCarefulOwner]

Could a crack in the sidewall lead to water getting in and rotting the steel belts.?

In a word, yes. I had this on one of my Aggros this time last year & when it finally let go I thought the hub or even the driveshaft had bust! Turned out to "only" be a bulge in the tyre, but it had bulged on the running surface which led to the most amazing vibrations; not something you want to experience at 70MPH in the centre lane of a busy motorway!

[mr rusty]

I replaced the tyres on the Vitesse this year, and I went budget.......I wanted something similar in size to what it would have had when new so went down to kwakfit where they did me a set of Arrowspeed 165/80 x 13's...I have the 5.5J wheels which were an option on late GT6's. I wanted something period looking-most cars with 5.5 GT6 rims on tend to have wide low profile rubber fitted which just doesn't look right.But the main reason I went budget was because it's a car for fun use and I quite like the back end to step out and I like to do the odd bit of tyre squealing and the occasional semi-donut without wearing out expensive sticky rubber and mullering the diff trying to get it to unstick .

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