Tyres and time

[biggrim 0]

Ok peeps,

 

hopefully someone can answer this one for me.

 

Even if a car tyre has plenty of tread and the rubber is cracked, does the rubber harden/deteriorate over time?

 

The reason I ask is that my car has been very tail happy in the slightest damp conditions which makes driving unpredictable at best. I had a pair of T1-S tyres fitted to the front about a year ago - these have decent tread and are not the problem (I think and hope). The problem is the rears.

 

I've had the rear tyres fitted to the rear of the G60 for about 2 1/2 years mabye more and before that they were fitted to the rear of my Golf GTi for a year. Between the Golf and the Corrado, they sat in my garage for circa 16 months.

 

Tonight, I waved hello to my boot going round a roundabout, thankfully there was no one else on the road. So as an experiment, I swapped the front and rear tyres over thinking that I'll wheel spin to soften the tyres up a bit.

 

Didn't work in the slightest. Now the front of the car grips the road about as well as a man with no hands grips a greasy pole.

 

So the old tyres are fooked. But why?

 

Thanks in advance and apologies for the long story.

[MattWilde 10]

rubber naturally degrades over time and therefore the grip they give deteriorates too. as a rules i tend to put my rear tyres on the front when the fronts need changing, so my tires are never get too old before they are changed. also i'd be cautious about any high speed on degraded tures, can't imagine they'd hold together at any high temps.

hth

[biggrim 0]

Cheers Matt,

 

Looks like I'll be getting a new pair of boots to replace my dodgy old ones that are now on the front.

[MattWilde 10]

no probs dude :D

[G60Jet 1]

cracked rubber needs replacing, nothing like a blow out at speed.

 

The roads are very greasy at the mo due to the whether, however, get new rubber, check the tracking, if it persists then look into the shocks and other suspension components.

[dinkus 10]

Once tyres are over 18months old, they do start degrading quite noticably (both grip-wise and start developing the cracks you're talking about after a while)

 

If they're 5+yrs old then throw them out because they'll be dangerous and could disintegrate :?

[Furkz 0]

bigg u still running the steelies ?

[biggrim 0]

Indded I am Furk. Can't afford tasty rims yet and I might be turning to the dark side in the summer.

 

Right then, looks like I'll be throwing the old tyres in the bin and getting some new ones. I'm hoping it's not anything like the suapension cause that = £££££ to sort out. Cheers for the advice and tips guys. I'll keep y'all posted.

 

Grim

[Supercharged 2]

If they're 5+yrs old then throw them out because they'll be dangerous and could disintegrate

 

In theory they are out of date by then I think and should fail an MOT, all tryes have a manufacturing date stamped on them...

[Kevin Bacon 5]

What tyres are at the rear out of interest?

 

Tyres can be unpredictable. If I leave my car standing for a week, I get a lovely bobbing up and down sensation when cold for the first 100 yards, which is where the weight of the car over time deforms the tyre (I assume) until they rotate enough times to sort themselves out..... interested to see if anyone else has found that?

 

My mate's Dad had a MK1 cavalier from new and the original tyres were still on it 10 years later, which he was very proud of.......until it failed the MOT because they'd started perishing :-)

[biggrim 0]

The old rear tyres (that are now on the front) are Vredestein Sportac or something like that. The drive to work tomorrow is going to be great fun.

[Furkz 0]

bigg ur a nutter

[Tom B 0]

No matter what tyres I've ever had, I've always had cars oversteer on me.

 

I found it was down to my driving. I was going too fast or I wasn't driving to the conditions of the road. My Polo has budget tyres all round and I've only had one oversteer incident in it this winter. My Ibiza, shod with BF Goodriches, oversteered many more times!

[biggrim 0]

Even when I tipo toe round roundabouts and corners though, the back end is happy to swing round and say hello.

 

Running 15" steelies with 195/55/15 at the mo. Could I use 205/50/15 instead or will that lead to speedo over/under read?

[vr6storm 0]

should be OK Grim.............205/50's are VR6 std fitment

[biggrim 0]

But are the Speedo's and Solitudes not wider than the steelies? Or am I talking sihte and have no clue about tyres?

[vr6storm 0]

6.5J width on the solitudes but that wouldn't really affect the speedo...........its the profile(and gearing of course) that do........205/50's should be OK for a G60 it might just affect the speedo a tiny bit but nothing to be too concerned about

[dr_mat 0]

The move from 195/50/15 to 205/50/15 means the rolling radius will increase by 10/2 mm - 5mm .. i.e. the difference between a brand new tyre and a part worn tyre.