# Should I buy three more new tires?



## bucksone (Aug 7, 2007)

My wife was traveling a month ago and had a flat tire on I-65 in Nashville. The vehicle is a 2010 Kia Sedona that had 34,000 miles on it at the time. Both the AAA roadside assistance guy and the tire salesman said the tires were dry rotting. She bought just one tire from Discount Tire and they put it on the left rear.

Here it is a month and 1000 miles later. I'm wondering is having one new tire and three old tires a problem? Also, the new tire is a Yokohama and the three remaining original tires are Bridgestone. Is that a problem?

We're driving this vehicle on vacation next week and want to be safe. Any advice will be appreciated.


----------



## RWolff (Jan 27, 2013)

bucksone said:


> My wife was traveling a month ago and had a flat tire on I-65 in Nashville. The vehicle is a 2010 Kia Sedona that had 34,000 miles on it at the time. Both the AAA roadside assistance guy and the tire salesman said the tires were dry rotting. She bought just one tire from Discount Tire and they put it on the left rear.
> 
> Here it is a month and 1000 miles later. I'm wondering is having one new tire and three old tires a problem? Also, the new tire is a Yokohama and the three remaining original tires are Bridgestone. Is that a problem?


I seriously doubt the tires are "dry rotting" after just barely 3 years unless they are absolutely just the worst Chinese junk made, check the country of origin on the sidewall, if it says "made in China" or not. Bridgestone doesn't sound good to me, I know Ford had issues with I believe it was Firestone tires on an SUV a few years back.



> NASHVILLE, Tenn. *(Oct. 29, 2008) –* *Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire*,
> LLC (BFNT) and Bridgestone Firestone Canada Inc. today announced they are initiating a voluntary field action in the United States and Canada to replace approximately 135,000 Firestone brand FR380 P235/75 R15 tires that were imported into the U.S. and Canada. As part of this program, BFNT will also replace approximately 27,000 LeMans Champion SE P235/75 R15 tires that were imported into the U.S. (not sold in Canada). The tires covered under this program were manufactured by Bridgestone Firestone de Costa Rica, S.A. (BFCR) at that company’s San Jose facility. Although no property damage or personal injury claims have been reported with respect to these tires, they fail to meet the companies’ internal standards and will be replaced for consumers free of charge. Specifically, the subject tires were produced with insufficient tread base gauge and continued use of these tires may lead to vibration and groove cracking.


I know from my scooter forums, everyone and their brother says that when you buy a scooter (most are made in China) replace both tires immediately- including the valve stems, and all rubber hoses because the Chinese rubber is garbage and starts to break down quickly.

Tires around 5 years old should be carefully checked for cracks, by 7 years of age they should be replaced even if they have good tread left as older tires can fail from the inside out, again due to breaking down of the rubber, especially from exposure to the sun's uv rays.

Generally accepted rules of thumb in the RV world for example- are that regardless of low mileage or low tread wear, tires should be replaced every five to seven years maximum. Exposure to sunlight, ozone, and ultra-violet radiation causes gradual loss of the plasticizers that keep the tires flexible. Sidewall cracking can often be seen but may not always be apparent.
So, for safetys sake and to avoid sudden catastrophic failure, replacement should be done on an age priority basis. This does not mean that obvious tread wear, sidewall damage, or any other physical problem with the tires should be ignored.

Here's how to read the date coding on your tires, on your 2010 car they should have a code with the month and year, which should be something like XX10 or XX09, if it shows something like XX06 then you got old tires sitting in a warehouse on your 2010 car:

Tires manufactured after July 2, 2000, specify a new 4-digit date code that must appear on all tires sold in the United States. The complete DOT (Department of Transportation) code is in the following format: DOT MMM SS TTT DDDD where MMM is a three-digit manufacturer ID; SS is a tire size two-digit code; TTT is an optional tire type code; and DDDD is the date of manufacturer code where the first two digits indicate the week of manufacturer and the second two digits are the year, i.e.: 2802 would indicate that the tire was manufactured the 28th week of 2002.

The date should be reasonable close to the date of purchase. Otherwise, you will be buying tires that will need to be replaced sooner than necessary.

For 3 tires were talking how much money? $125 each? $200? is it worth $600 to be sure your trip will be safer?

*How old is too old?*

This is a subject of much debate within the tyre industry and no tyre expert can tell exactly how long a tyre will last. However, on the results of experience many tyre companies, including *Bridgestone, warrant their tyres against manufacturing and material defects for five years from the date of manufacture.* Based on their understanding a number of vehicle manufacturers are now advising against the use of tyres that are more than six years old due to the effects of ageing.


There are three main mechanisms of tyre ageing. The first involves rubber becoming more brittle. Sulphur is used to link rubber molecules together during vulcanisation with the application of heat and pressure, giving the rubber its useful elastic properties and strength. As the tyre absorbs energy in the form of light, heat or movement the tyre continues to vulcanise. This ongoing vulcanisation causes the rubber to become stiffer and more brittle. 
The second mechanism of tyre ageing is oxidation involving oxygen and ozone from the air compromising the strength and elasticity of the rubber and the integrity of the rubber to steel bond. Basically heat and oxygen cause cross linking between polymer chains (causing the rubber to harden) and scission of polymer chains (leading to reduced elasticity). 
Thirdly, breakdown of the rubber to steel-belt bond will occur due to water permeating through a tyre and bonding with the brass plate coating on steel belts. This causes the steel to rubber bond to weaken leading to reduced tyre strength and reduced heat resistance. If compressed air used for inflation is not completely dry, tyre strength will be affected over time. Even unused tyres will become more brittle, weaker and less elastic with exposure to water, air, heat and sunlight. 
*Warning signs*

Regardless of their age tyres should be replaced* if they show significant crazing or cracking in the tread grooves or sidewall and or bulging of the tread face or sidewall.* All tyres, especially unused spare tyres, should be inspected periodically to determine their suitability for service;

http://www.bridgestone.com.au/tyres/passenger/care/age.aspx

This is what you should NOT see:


----------



## paintdrying (Jul 13, 2012)

Buck, as your budget allows. Dry rotting is not a problem. Original tires on a new car are total junk and should be replaced as soon as your budget allows. If it was my family in the car, most certainly all the tires would be replaced at the same time. NEVER PUT A CHINESE TIRE ON A CAR. Under extreme conditions different tires will preform differently. At a high rate of speed in the rain, if you have to brake rapidly, your vehicle will not work as it should, and that abs system will also become confused. Wolf posted seconds before me. That is a very good post he did. I wish more people knew what he posted.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

If they are made in China, they should have an indication on them as required by the Chinese government to avoid being confused with the cheap tires that could be put on a cycle assembled with tires from other countries. China has a problem with low cost labor trying to sneak in.

The U.S. does not require a "made in USA" and allows claiming merchandise that is was imported parts or pre-assemblies and can use made in USA if it is finished in the U.S.

Ultimately, the responsibility goes the company with its name on it and offeres a closely worded guarantee. The date of manufacture is an easy out. I bought a name brand water heater that had a made in date 4 years earlier because of dealers, distributors and contractors buying discounted items and often do not rotate inventory properly.

Dick


----------



## djlandkpl (Jan 29, 2013)

At a minimum you should change the opposite tire with the same tire as the new one and the new tires should be in the rear.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

The concept of replacing the opposite side tire with an identical match is a very important, especially if it is 4WD or AWD for handling and stability reasons including tire wear and keeping the ABS system working well.

I am lucky because I have 2 virtually identical SUVs and make sure I have all tires (same brand) in pairs. This actually suggests marking them as left and right to maintaining the same direction of rotation for all sets. I can usually get 70,000 miles before pushing them and relegating to being "newer" spares.

In an earlier life, for 15 years, I had a company car that was maintained by our 4 mechanics that also had to maintain and repair 40 heavy duty trucks ( 3 axle with pup trailers or tractor-trailer combinations). For the 6 cars, service, they took the factory supplied "rags" off before 15,000 miles and replaced with Michelins and and after that, swapped front to rear at the suggestion of the dealer/supplier of all vehicles (every 5,000-10,00 miles for the cars). Most of the cars went 35,000-45,000 miles per year and car tires were automatically replaced every 70,000 miles and were on 36 month leases. - the mechanics did not want to deal with car tire problems, so the front to back on the same side swap was easy when the car was up.

I had a Corvette that was hard on expensive tires and they were direction tires, so front to back style swapping was required. Fortunately. the front and back had the same size wheels, but the newer ones have different sizes on the front and rear.

Dick


----------



## bucksone (Aug 7, 2007)

So I checked the codes on the tires. The new Yokohoma tire was made in February 2013 in the USA. No problem. Of the three remaining Bridgestone tires, two were made in December 2007, the third's code was missing the part with the date made. All three were made in Japan. So I bought a new van in 2010 with tires that were three years old!

I believe I'm off to buy new tires tomorrow. Thanks for the valuable information.


----------



## cjm94 (Sep 25, 2011)

With an all wheel drive its very important all tire tread depth are the same or you will tear up your transfer case.


----------

