Clip-- I would be hesitant to depend on old tires very far from home. I
recently got a car out of storage, it had about 10-12 year old Michelins
on it with *very* few miles on them. These tires had not seen the light
of day during this time, and even when they were new the car was stored
inside (it has currently spent a total of 6 nights outside). One was
flat, which is bad of course. --Clip
Thank you to nanoshark for posting his actual experience and the
conditions preceding the failures. This story will result in me taking
extra care in inspecting and maybe even replacing the older tires on my
BMW. That is all that I was trying to do as well with my experience,
which did not result in failures (Goodyear Sport tires BTW). I wonder
if the difference is that I try to drive my car ~10 miles or so per
quarter. With 10 cars, all on the road but 3 (in phases of
restoration), the rotation takes time. My post was not a recommendation
for anyone else to throw caution to the wind; I was just sharing my
actual experience, which was recent enough that I thought it to be
relevant.
Clip--There are many, many things that will degrade tyres. These range
from UV, through solvents, ozone and other gasses to swapping them round
the car and stacking them incorrectly to store them. Even the effects
of having arc welding near to them will reduce the effectiveness of the
tyre's structure. --Clip
I appreciate this post as well Guy, there seems to be good information
here that I was not aware of until reading your post, especially
regarding the arc welding.
I remember when no air-conditioner could be converted to R134 because
the compressor would certainly grenade from the increased pressure and
all of the hoses would leak. Now the conversions are done routinely
with a new dryer and a couple of quick-disconnect fittings (I just did
one on a Honda Civic last year). I also remember when DOT 5 couldn't be
installed in place of non-synthetic fluid (fluif?) without replacing
every brake pipe on the car and washing every seal with denatured
alcohol or brake failure was certainly going to result. This too turned
out to be a little bit of an overstatement, and at least one member of
this list has done the replacement successfully and has had no problems
for quite some time.
Really, I may be cheap and I may be asking for trouble, but I don't just
take anyone's folklore word for gospel. There are too many doomsayers
out there to suit me. Actual experiences speak volumes. This has been,
for the most part a good conversation. Sure beats politics and Cap'n
Bob bashing IMO.
Thanks to the offer for flowers/condolences too, I will keep the post
for my wife.
Ed Fisher
Dallas, Tx
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