How long I can safe use my tires?

[VILSIS]

I have an 18 FFH with 10'730 miles on it. My tires are Michelin XGREEN Energy Saver A/S 235/45 R18 with a Tread Depth 7/32 on all 4 tires, the DOT is 3917. When I was this week for 4-wheel alignments, Firestone Complete Auto Care would me sell 4 new tires because the tires are 5 years old. My car is always garaged when not in use and the tires have no cracks or other damages. I live in the hot and sunny South Arizona. My question is: How long I can safe use my tires? Thanks for your answers. Ray

Edited November 19, 2022 by VILSIS

[Semi]

4 hours ago, VILSIS said:

I have an 18 FFH with 10'730 miles on it. My tires are Michelin XGREEN Energy Saver A/S 235/45 R18 with a Tread Depth 7/32 on all 4 tires, the DOT is 3917. When I was this week for 4-wheel alignments, Firestone Complete Auto Care would me sell 4 new tires because the tires are 5 years old. My car is always garaged when not in use and the tires have no cracks or other damages. I live in the hot and sunny South Arizona. My question is: How long I can safe use my tires? Thanks for your answers. Ray

Good tires after 5 years practically do not lose their performance characteristics and tread ok. Yes, they worse than new, but still pretty good. I think you can drive one more year.

Edited November 19, 2022 by Semi

[Cobra348]

On 11/19/2022 at 12:05 PM, VILSIS said:

I have an 18 FFH with 10'730 miles on it. My tires are Michelin XGREEN Energy Saver A/S 235/45 R18 with a Tread Depth 7/32 on all 4 tires, the DOT is 3917. When I was this week for 4-wheel alignments, Firestone Complete Auto Care would me sell 4 new tires because the tires are 5 years old. My car is always garaged when not in use and the tires have no cracks or other damages. I live in the hot and sunny South Arizona. My question is: How long I can safe use my tires? Thanks for your answers. Ray

In general I agree with Semi but the tires have wear bars and you should look to see how close the tread is to exposing them.  They are there to advise when you should get new tires.

 

Also, the tires on you car - Michelin Energy Saver - are low resistance tires and will supply better mileage than tires not LRR.  If your mileage is not a concern, by all means go with the Firestones when you need to.  But you will lose several MPG when you do switch.  My mileage dropped 3 MPG when I shifted from the 17" version of the Energy Saver to Goodyear ComfortTread (allegedly as good).

 

The local Goodyear Manager insisted those tires were as good as Michelins.  Nope ... and I showed her the figures from a couple tanks as compared to generally same mileage tanks.  My next tires will be Michellins ordered from TireRack and drop shipped to my Goodyear store for mounting. 

 

 

[VILSIS]

Thanks Larry - aka Cobra,

I know the wear bars; I have 7/32 thread depth and only 10,730 miles on it.

I'm interested to know how many years the tire is safe for use them. With my low miles the age from the tires is more imported. 

I heard Michelin tires could safe driven 10 Years with minimum 4/32 thread depth, but I'm not sure this is correct.

Thanks,

Ray

[Waldo]

13 hours ago, VILSIS said:

Thanks Larry - aka Cobra,

I know the wear bars; I have 7/32 thread depth and only 10,730 miles on it.

I'm interested to know how many years the tire is safe for use them. With my low miles the age from the tires is more imported. 

I heard Michelin tires could safe driven 10 Years with minimum 4/32 thread depth, but I'm not sure this is correct.

Thanks,

Ray

 

There is no real answer to your question.  It depends on so, so many factors, that the range is probably from 4 to 20 years.  I've still got tires on my Miata that I installed in 2004.  Are they "safe"?  I drove it around a little bit this year - burned off about 1/4 tank of gas total.  Nothing happened, so what does that mean?  They certainly don't have the grip they did when they were new, but these are ultra high-performance tires, so when their grip is 50% of what it was when new, it's still about average for a regular tire.

 

Of course the real danger is having a blow-out.  But blow-outs result from more factors than just age.  Tire pressure and temperature are just as big or bigger factors than tire age.  So if you overinflate your 10 year old tires and drive at lower speeds in the winter, you're probably "safer" than driving on 5 year old tires at lower pressure on the highway crossing Arizona in the summer.

[ethermion]

A little late to this thread, but,

 

just changed the tires on my 2010 fusion, purchased in the fall of 2009. Plenty of tread, a bit over 30k miles.  But, serious dry rot. Temperature, moisture, lack of moisture, and UV, all will age tires even if you don’t drive on them.  Leave a set of nice tires out in the sun and weather on your back deck for 10 years, they will become worthless, with zero miles on them. 

 

never forget what connects your car to the road is tires.  Without tires, you cannot go, or stop, or turn. And never forget that your FFH has no spare tire. 

[MeeLee]

My 2019 ffh se had 30k miles on when I purchased. The stock tires lasted about 50k miles. Hot weather causes premature wear.

 

As far as age goes, your 5 year old tires now are better than brand new tires we drove in the 80s and 90s. You'll know when your tires need changing, when the rubber starts cracking on the outside.

 

If you're just driving safely, your tires may last you another 5 years. If you plan on racing with it, swap the tires, and put the old ones back on when driving at normal (legal) speed limits.