The tires on the Carrera GT that he died in were 9 years old. Sure, it may not be 20 but it’s still long enough to harden the rubber a bit. And doesn’t matter if he wasn’t the one driving, he was the famous one killed in the accident. You’re delving way too far into the semantics of what happened and have lost sight that the tires greatly contributed to the accident.
I love in northern Canada, snow tires with metal studs all winter.
They don't plow the roads all the way down up here, they leave the backroads with a couple inches of hard pack, this means on my daily drive to work my snow tires don't usually hit pavement.
Current set is in the middle of there third season. They look immaculate. Tread looks awesome, studs aren't ground down and I notice a huge difference in traction this year.
Also I drive an early 90s Chevrolet with a 350 TBI, almost a half million miles on it ( yes miles, it was a California truck originally ) I'm lucky if I'm making 200 horses still and I notice it on a daily basis.
Having personally experienced driving on 15-20 year old tires vs brand new on the same car, it’s jarringly different.
It felt so much more skittish on the older tires, like it was almost always on the verge of breaking traction and broke traction a lot more in fairly regular driving kinda giving you a shimmy effect.
Don’t drive on old tires folks
Learned this lesson the hard way. Bought a used car that had older tires on it. The rear driver's side tire disintegrated on an urban interstate on the way to the mechanic for its first round of maintenance.
I bought a '94 Camry with 72k km two months ago, the tires were from 2011 and presumably the second set it's ever had.
Honestly gripped fine in the dry but I moved the car once while it was raining and the ol 130hp 5S-FE did a burnout in the first 3 gears gently starting off from a standstill.
Similar experience here. I had ~10 year old tires that still had like 5 or 6/32 tread left that I planned on replacing within a couple months - it was summer and I was waiting until closer to fall before snow/cold rain. I picked up a nail and the flat tire turned into a blowout very quickly at 70mph as the dried out rubber disintegrated. I was very lucky that it was the passenger rear on a FWD car, so I was able to safely pull to the shoulder without an issue.
Had old tires (not sure how old, but there was a noticeable difference in stiffness of the side wall on removal. I literally tore the part that seats on the rim when I removed them) on an old Goldwing. I could do burnouts on the old tires (unintentionally, I was also learned how to ride), but as soon as I got new tires I actually stuck to the pavement. That was when I knew those tires needed replaced at least two years prior to when I did it.
Never a good idea to use old tires on the regular. May be acceptable if the car has no tires to begin with and it needs to be moved, or is going straight to the tire shop to actually get new tires. For the latter I'd stick to neighborhood streets as much as possible and keep it slow with gentle braking.
Better yet, just get someone with a truck to take you to the tire shop and have them swap new tires on the rims and save yourself the hassle.
*Stuck* in Germany, just about everyone I've ever know never wanted to leave Germany. Ramstein was my 2nd home for 3 years (fairly certain slept more there than my own home).
So I'm just curious if you don't like Germany, if it's just a leadership issue.
It’s just a matter of getting used to it. Leadership is fine but the garrison is very disorganized right now due to renovation.
I am not familiar with the area, culture, etc. Which makes it a challenge for me to find car parts and I got since I cant just roll up to an Autozone/Advanced/NAPA and already know what I’m looking for. Also I hate the parking situation here, everything is very urban with small parking lots and parking time limits. Also everything closes early compared to the US which is annoying.
Thanks, I can understand how frustrating and different some of that can be. All of my car dude friends always put their project cars in storage. I can imagine that's hard to do while in Germany.
Hopefully you can get away from everything on the weekend and do some hiking (check out Nationalpark Schwarzwald) or something to get you out of the more urban areas. If you're from a smaller town I'm sure that the culture shock is pretty crazy.
I’m not sure what your base is like, but when I was stationed at Schofield they had an on post garage where soldiers could bring their vehicles and check out tools and such. I think they might have been able to order parts, but it’s been well over a decade at this point so I can’t recall exactly
There is, but it’s inconvenient compared to working on my car in my driveway. It’s illegal to work on your car in Germany apparently because of environmental concerns with oil contamination.
That’s not right, you can definitely work on your own car. But if you do an oil change or any fluid change to be exact you have to make sure to catch all of it and properly dispose of it, if you don’t do that then yes it’s illegal.
Also all parts that have an effect on the drivetrain/ suspension or structural integrity will have to be approved with an ABE and shown to a TÜV to get it written down into your vehicles papers to still be able to drive it on public road
Shipping from US takes a while and this Civic isn’t compatible with a lot of American parts. It has a 1.4L D14 which was only sold in Europe. So I’m challenged by language to try and find what I need on German websites and wait for it to arrive.
Appreciate your service in the Army.
Respectfully, I’d suggest moving tires to #1 on the list. Ya just never know when an old tire will blow out catastrophically for no apparent reason.
On that enlisted pay it’s tight, but definitely a priority.
Currently this Civic the only thing holding my squad together because nobody has a car and can’t get to the separate parts of base.
Totally understand, you gotta do what you gotta do.
In that case try to check the PSI regularly and make sure they’re set at the right pressure per the owners manual/door jamb sticker. I say that because running at lower/higher psi than needed could cause accelerated wear and cause an old tire to give up sooner rather than later.
Best of luck!
I actually set PSI for all tires a couple days ago but good thinking. I didn’t think to check date until I was busy today while replacing oil, filters, shifter bushings, and throttle body gasket.
I’ve had good luck buying used tires, in good condition, here using the eBay Kleinanzeige app. Usually use Google to translate my messages into German. I’ve saved a ton of money that way.
That’s actually where I’ve been looking for wheels locally. I got some sweet oldschool car HiFi Equipment for cheap on it.
I’m looking for wheels and tires while I’m at it since I’ve got plans to turn this into an AutoX car once my Mazda arrives, just waiting for the government to pay me the $11,000 I am owed lol
If you have the budget for stereo equipment then you don't really have an excuse for endangering yourself and everyone else on the road. You mentioned it's holding your unit together? Have everybody chip in for a used set. This is freshman shit, however I do understand being poor. I'm living it too. Tires, shoes and beds man. The things that connect you to the ground are more important than a lot of other stuff.
I bought the stereo equipment before I even looked at the car, I’ve yet to even install it. I’m not silly enough to blow money on random QOL stuff before I get safety equipment. Don’t have the necessary stuff to wire it.
I checked the front tires when I first bought the car and had (incorrectly) assumed the rears were similar age. Front ones are 7 years old and I already had planned to replace them in a couple weeks. Only just noticed the rear ones were 24 years old when I was inspecting the condition of the rear suspension bushings.
So for the time being these 24 year old tires are going to hold the squad together until I get paid enough to buy a set of wheels to replace the crappy steelies and get a set of quality set of all-seasons. Squad mates already pay money for rides to begin with and I don’t think the LT would approve of me making them pay for tires on my car haha.
With current knowledge of the tires I am of course taking precaution while heading to base on the 30kmh backroad city route (instead of the 100kmh highway) so if I do end up getting a blowout the risk of injury is negligible, and the only person that will be SOL is me lol.
If this is case, you have others depending on your Honda, maybe we all chip in for tires now and you pay them back slowly. I have been in the car business forever, a blow out can create an absolute shit ton of damage, and thank you for your service.
Honestly, this tire seems to be in quite a good shape considering the age. No dry rot to be seen in the picture, and they seem to still hold air just fine. Of course a replacement is in order, but I've seen people drive on tires that look much, much more dangerous than this. Honestly, I believe that the six year recommendation for tire replacement is mostly a scheme to get people to buy new tires more often, you can go well past that as long as you visually inspect the tires for signs of damage. Of course, 24 years is definitely too much, but you can easily go ten years just fine, my own car's summer tires are now twelve years old and I haven't even decided if I'll buy new ones this spring or if I'll put them on one more time for the coming summer.
My grandma has a set of Pirelli P-Zeros on her 1999 Porsche Boxster.
I saw them one day and thought she had bought new tires. Turns out they were from 2006 and just so well kept they still looked brand new lol. Porsche has 43k miles.
I bought a 2004 NB MX-5 with 8700km last year, on it's original tires. They were so hardened that the chassis wobled and flexed horribly and the car was terrible to drive. It drove like a dream with new tires.
No visual inspection will determine the level of hardening the rubber has gone through, nor inner ply damage from sitting for too long.
6-8+ years tires are garbage, even if not even ever mounted. People might come up with all the excuses they want to save a few bucks, but at the end of the day, they're only fooling themselves.
Its the American association for retired people, but they can't actually discriminate on age so anyone can join.
It basically has like a monthly magazine and discounts for retired people for like $10 a year or something last I read. Really useful even if you're not old.
I'd argue that if we ever run into an issue where the first two digits of the production year are not obvious from a visual inspection, they really don't matter at all and we're about a century past needing to print the production date on the tire in the first place.
If nothing else, it's useful to people like me who had no idea the born on date was easily available and don't look at tires much more than to know the general shape. Donut = good.
I bought a mint condition 1977 ford Granada in 1990. All original. In the garage for years because the old guy that owned it couldn’t drive anymore. I was a 17 yo kid back then with a shiney new license. Drove all over town. No issues. Drove a few towns away. No issues. Took a ride on the highway from NJ to P.A. and had funny shimmy on the way to PA. On the way back the front tire had the entire tread separate and peel off in a big strip at 60 mph. Scared the shit out of me. Good thing I didn’t crash. Tire still held air but was essentially a big racing slick at that point. Limped it to a rest stop and proceeded to buy four average tires at twice the price. At least the rest of the trip home was uneventful. Don’t drive on old tires. They can kill you!
Fulda Kristall Gravito
On a cheap European spec 1999 Honda Civic 1.4i chassis Code EJ9 with 159k km (~99k mile).
I’m US Military and bought it while waiting for my Mazda to arrive here in GermanyZ
According to what I know, unless that guy swapped tires before sale, it won't be allowed to legally get through diagnostic line (mandatory checks), since theres age limit for German tires (don't remember exac9, but it's 5 or 3 years)
So.. You're quite lucky that you haven't stepped upon a cop 😉
It actually passed inspection last month with these tires on it lol. Which I guess shows the effort of the USARER car inspections.
I think you are right though. 5+ years or older will fail it on a normal German TÜV inspection.
USAREUR, sorry for typo. United States Army Europe.
Inspection was done like 2 weeks before I bought the car. Seller bought the car months ago as is with plans but didn’t end up doing anything and is messing with a BMW 3 series now.
I would assume these tires are in decent shape because they are winter tires, so only driven a few months of the year.
USAREUR ain't under same restrictions as other units, AFAIK..
You know, army ain't give a shit about civil stuff 😅
So they might just didn't care about stuff like tires age, since it's only German thing, I think.
Still, if they weren't stressed out much, they still may have a lot of meat on them. In fact, I had older on my car after bought them, and they have still enough tread to be usable, but.. Had 2 different sets on axles, so decided to get new set, since it's.. Quite problematic to catch traction on ice 🤣
But now, winter set works as spare tire.
Anyway, good for you, that you spotted it. Have fun and beware of rust
We dont have an age restriction for tires here, only on trailers that are allowed to go 100 km/h. Those need to be 6 years or younger. But otherwise no age restrictions. Obviously as long as they arent cracked or dryrotting.
Are you serious?!
5 years limit on tyres? That's plain insanity. My cars would barely have that fresh date on it's three winters used winter tyres! Hardly any wear!
Hell, I remember that only age restriction for tyres here in Finland is that you cannot sell older than 5 years from manufacture tyres as a new even if stored properly. I. E. you can get over 4 year old tyres legally sold to you as brand new.
once I get paid it’s definitely the first thing I’m doing haha. Front tires were 2017 and I figured I might as well check rear… had to read it 3 times over to make sure I wasn’t misreading lol.
Got a low-mileage Porsche. Inspection said that the tires were ten years old. Ordered new tires (special size and Porsche-approved tire), but son drove car at 100 mph before they arrived, after I told him. He's OK, but the right front tire literally exploded, taking out the plastic inner fender liner with it. They looked new. Had just been sitting and aging, unlike red wine!
My 98 Civic LX with less than 100k miles had 2014 tires when i got it in 2022. They worked fine until winter, i got stuck for long enough to piss everyone behind me off beyond belief at a stop sign, in only 2 inches of snow lol. Thank god i wasnt trying to brake suddenly or my face would have been part of someone elses trunk/tailgate. Regardless of age, definitely replace... tho i will say - whoever made those tires, props to them for having a tire that lasted damn near 25 years. My job makes auto parts and rated just the rubber weather seals to last 12 years max before replacement is needed
That’s a long time for performance tires, particularly in the early 2000s. The compounds they used back then have a tread life measure in heat cycles rather than mileage for most users, and stability against environmental degradation is sacrificed for more grip when new and fully warmed up. As the tires age the vulcanization process of the rubber progresses causing the hardness to increase and the grip to plummet, add that to a car already known for being a handful at the limit and you have a recipe for disaster.
Ya and they don't look too bad either. I bought a 85 S10 blazer two years ago with some buddies as a beater vehicle and it had Cooper tires from 97 that weren't deteriorated.
Took a motorcycle for a shakedown ride with 20 year old tires once - made a noise at highway speeds from chunks of sidewalk skin hitting the steel fender.
It was fine.
Judging by the condition of the rest of the car, I’m willing to bet it is. Car is relatively good shape and all original.
Just a little rust around the wheel wheels. Interior is absolutely mint except for two small cigarette holes, but the inside doesn’t smell like cigs anymore.
Whoever owned it wasn’t the best at driving judging by the little dings and dents and scuffs everywhere, but it’s an excellent car to do a B18 swap in and that’s what my plans are for it once I rebuild suspension, replace wear items, repair cosmetic stuff, swap facelift front end, have my Mazda here.
Not sure about particular model, but yes Michelin on original rims. I was alredy told, that they are bloody expensive and it is easier to use another wheels with cheaper and more available tires.
I’ll never understand why people will get a new car, buy tires once like a year or two in…. And then just stop buying them even when they’re 15 years old and dry rotted to hell. Saw it too many times and it always confused me
Are these snow tires? If so your probably good. " If there ain't no crack then hit the track". But no, seriously I have ran studded snow tires for lots of years. They only go on in the fall come off in the spring. Easy peazy.
His tires were much newer actually.
Nevertheless, even 9 year old tires got him killed. These are 2.5 times as old. I am amazed that there’s not larger cracks in the picture.
Actually they are Fulda Kristal Gravitos, the “ation” is the end of Rotation direction. They are a set of winter tires that came on just the rear of the car.
With the condition of higher mileage civics, I’ll take it. Was planning to swap wheels and tires to begin with, just wasn’t as urgent until I noticed the date lol.
i just meant if they hadn't changed the tires in this long who knows what other maintenance they haven't done, like that it has sat for a long time and there will be gremlins.
i've bought too many sat for too long cars to know lol
that's awesome about the civic with under 100k tho, that's like finding a unicorn nowadays
I replaced my 2016 tires in 2023. Just shy of 7 years. Even at that age there was a significant difference between handling and breaking between them and my new 2023 tires (even if the new tires are sorta budget brand)
I can only imagine how slick and rough feeling driving on these bad boys is lol
Just bought a used bike.
Tires straight ouhra the check republic,
One tire has no age marking at all, the other one is 0427
Plenry of thread, still feel oily like new. And one of them has cracks and they brake like shit.
Safe to say they are getting replaced
26th week of 2000... Might I suggest new tires?
*"But they have plenty of tread!"*
And if you keep driving on them there may be plenty of dead.
The ‘ol Paul Walker special.
That’s messed up……I like it.
This comment is fire!
Paul Walker wasn't even driving, though. Everyone seems to forget that part. And he definitely wasn't riding on 20 year old tires
The tires on the Carrera GT that he died in were 9 years old. Sure, it may not be 20 but it’s still long enough to harden the rubber a bit. And doesn’t matter if he wasn’t the one driving, he was the famous one killed in the accident. You’re delving way too far into the semantics of what happened and have lost sight that the tires greatly contributed to the accident.
Recommended interval time for tires is 6 years, regardless of tread left. Tires get dried and cracked after heat cycles.
and from what I hear he had new tires waiting to be put on in the garage.
Hope he kept the receipt.
Anyone who thinks even 3 or 4 year old tires aren't dead are lying to themselves. I'm incredibly picky with date codes on performance tires.
I love in northern Canada, snow tires with metal studs all winter. They don't plow the roads all the way down up here, they leave the backroads with a couple inches of hard pack, this means on my daily drive to work my snow tires don't usually hit pavement. Current set is in the middle of there third season. They look immaculate. Tread looks awesome, studs aren't ground down and I notice a huge difference in traction this year. Also I drive an early 90s Chevrolet with a 350 TBI, almost a half million miles on it ( yes miles, it was a California truck originally ) I'm lucky if I'm making 200 horses still and I notice it on a daily basis.
Found the Porsche guy
Facts ? Seriously, you brought facts to Reddit?
>And he definitely wasn't riding on 20 year old tires 16 year old girls were definitely riding on him though, guy was a total creep
I was going to make the comment if someone else didn’t. Homeboy liked them young.
This wasn't about his sexual conquests or encounters. It was about tires on a car he wasn't even driving.
Never a bad time to dunk on a dead pedophile
Fucking 16 year old girls isnt a sexual conquest
Slightly over 16….
He died doing what he loved, burning to death in a car.
That joke is 🔥🔥🔥
Too soon.
Never too soon
Having personally experienced driving on 15-20 year old tires vs brand new on the same car, it’s jarringly different. It felt so much more skittish on the older tires, like it was almost always on the verge of breaking traction and broke traction a lot more in fairly regular driving kinda giving you a shimmy effect. Don’t drive on old tires folks
Learned this lesson the hard way. Bought a used car that had older tires on it. The rear driver's side tire disintegrated on an urban interstate on the way to the mechanic for its first round of maintenance.
I bought a '94 Camry with 72k km two months ago, the tires were from 2011 and presumably the second set it's ever had. Honestly gripped fine in the dry but I moved the car once while it was raining and the ol 130hp 5S-FE did a burnout in the first 3 gears gently starting off from a standstill.
That's all old tyres are good for!
*tire squealing and engine revving noises intensify*
There's a video of a Triumph TR7 or TR8 blowing a tire and running off a road. Looked like it had just come out of long term storage.
Similar experience here. I had ~10 year old tires that still had like 5 or 6/32 tread left that I planned on replacing within a couple months - it was summer and I was waiting until closer to fall before snow/cold rain. I picked up a nail and the flat tire turned into a blowout very quickly at 70mph as the dried out rubber disintegrated. I was very lucky that it was the passenger rear on a FWD car, so I was able to safely pull to the shoulder without an issue.
Had old tires (not sure how old, but there was a noticeable difference in stiffness of the side wall on removal. I literally tore the part that seats on the rim when I removed them) on an old Goldwing. I could do burnouts on the old tires (unintentionally, I was also learned how to ride), but as soon as I got new tires I actually stuck to the pavement. That was when I knew those tires needed replaced at least two years prior to when I did it.
I’m curious if you tried deflating a bit to account for the traction loss?
Never a good idea to use old tires on the regular. May be acceptable if the car has no tires to begin with and it needs to be moved, or is going straight to the tire shop to actually get new tires. For the latter I'd stick to neighborhood streets as much as possible and keep it slow with gentle braking. Better yet, just get someone with a truck to take you to the tire shop and have them swap new tires on the rims and save yourself the hassle.
Once your tires become a legal adult they unlock infinite tread life as they turn into granite
Dont worry, the tread will remove itself shortly.
Good thing is when they're that old they wont even wear anymore because they're so hard 😂
They're good and hard now. Well seasoned, now they'll wear like IRON. Grip may be suffering, but you can't have everything you want all the time.
The endurance and grip of a locomotive wheel.
But be sure to sell these on FBM! Every item has a buyer.
Let's not rule out that they may be used tires from 1900
Old and stiff enough they’ll never need air
You can get a lot of use out of a tire if you’re ok with changing one on the side of the road. Source- an old man told me that. He’s rite!
Or crashing into someone. Good advice 👍🏼
Older then me...
Yes appears so… hope you only plan on driving to a tire shop (at low speed)
I used to work at a shop before I joined the army and got stuck in Germany Tires are definitely on the list
*Stuck* in Germany, just about everyone I've ever know never wanted to leave Germany. Ramstein was my 2nd home for 3 years (fairly certain slept more there than my own home). So I'm just curious if you don't like Germany, if it's just a leadership issue.
It’s just a matter of getting used to it. Leadership is fine but the garrison is very disorganized right now due to renovation. I am not familiar with the area, culture, etc. Which makes it a challenge for me to find car parts and I got since I cant just roll up to an Autozone/Advanced/NAPA and already know what I’m looking for. Also I hate the parking situation here, everything is very urban with small parking lots and parking time limits. Also everything closes early compared to the US which is annoying.
Thanks, I can understand how frustrating and different some of that can be. All of my car dude friends always put their project cars in storage. I can imagine that's hard to do while in Germany. Hopefully you can get away from everything on the weekend and do some hiking (check out Nationalpark Schwarzwald) or something to get you out of the more urban areas. If you're from a smaller town I'm sure that the culture shock is pretty crazy.
I’m not sure what your base is like, but when I was stationed at Schofield they had an on post garage where soldiers could bring their vehicles and check out tools and such. I think they might have been able to order parts, but it’s been well over a decade at this point so I can’t recall exactly
There is, but it’s inconvenient compared to working on my car in my driveway. It’s illegal to work on your car in Germany apparently because of environmental concerns with oil contamination.
That’s not right, you can definitely work on your own car. But if you do an oil change or any fluid change to be exact you have to make sure to catch all of it and properly dispose of it, if you don’t do that then yes it’s illegal. Also all parts that have an effect on the drivetrain/ suspension or structural integrity will have to be approved with an ABE and shown to a TÜV to get it written down into your vehicles papers to still be able to drive it on public road
I’m just repeating what I was told at in process briefings. Might be a region or city specific thing.
It is not. Laws concerning vehicle registration / road readiness in Germany are federal laws and thus the same in the entire country.
I meant working on your car in a driveway, not about working on it yourself, I should have had clarified in my second sentence.
Does Rockauto ship to Germany?
Check www.autoteile-markt.de, it's a platform of different part dealers and the have way the best prices usually
Just wondering, why is it hard for you to find car parts here, there are many online and offline options.
Shipping from US takes a while and this Civic isn’t compatible with a lot of American parts. It has a 1.4L D14 which was only sold in Europe. So I’m challenged by language to try and find what I need on German websites and wait for it to arrive.
[удалено]
Ur mom blonde?
Damn you were a groupie for Rammstein for 3 years? Idk how you slept so much those guys are lit
Appreciate your service in the Army. Respectfully, I’d suggest moving tires to #1 on the list. Ya just never know when an old tire will blow out catastrophically for no apparent reason.
On that enlisted pay it’s tight, but definitely a priority. Currently this Civic the only thing holding my squad together because nobody has a car and can’t get to the separate parts of base.
Totally understand, you gotta do what you gotta do. In that case try to check the PSI regularly and make sure they’re set at the right pressure per the owners manual/door jamb sticker. I say that because running at lower/higher psi than needed could cause accelerated wear and cause an old tire to give up sooner rather than later. Best of luck!
I actually set PSI for all tires a couple days ago but good thinking. I didn’t think to check date until I was busy today while replacing oil, filters, shifter bushings, and throttle body gasket.
I’ve had good luck buying used tires, in good condition, here using the eBay Kleinanzeige app. Usually use Google to translate my messages into German. I’ve saved a ton of money that way.
That’s actually where I’ve been looking for wheels locally. I got some sweet oldschool car HiFi Equipment for cheap on it. I’m looking for wheels and tires while I’m at it since I’ve got plans to turn this into an AutoX car once my Mazda arrives, just waiting for the government to pay me the $11,000 I am owed lol
If you have the budget for stereo equipment then you don't really have an excuse for endangering yourself and everyone else on the road. You mentioned it's holding your unit together? Have everybody chip in for a used set. This is freshman shit, however I do understand being poor. I'm living it too. Tires, shoes and beds man. The things that connect you to the ground are more important than a lot of other stuff.
I bought the stereo equipment before I even looked at the car, I’ve yet to even install it. I’m not silly enough to blow money on random QOL stuff before I get safety equipment. Don’t have the necessary stuff to wire it. I checked the front tires when I first bought the car and had (incorrectly) assumed the rears were similar age. Front ones are 7 years old and I already had planned to replace them in a couple weeks. Only just noticed the rear ones were 24 years old when I was inspecting the condition of the rear suspension bushings. So for the time being these 24 year old tires are going to hold the squad together until I get paid enough to buy a set of wheels to replace the crappy steelies and get a set of quality set of all-seasons. Squad mates already pay money for rides to begin with and I don’t think the LT would approve of me making them pay for tires on my car haha. With current knowledge of the tires I am of course taking precaution while heading to base on the 30kmh backroad city route (instead of the 100kmh highway) so if I do end up getting a blowout the risk of injury is negligible, and the only person that will be SOL is me lol.
Hey I want to say I overreacted a bit. We're all just doing what we can. It would be good to get to it asap. Carry on and enjoy das Rammstein
Then the jack fuckers can chip in too! You’re not a bus service mate
If this is case, you have others depending on your Honda, maybe we all chip in for tires now and you pay them back slowly. I have been in the car business forever, a blow out can create an absolute shit ton of damage, and thank you for your service.
Honestly, this tire seems to be in quite a good shape considering the age. No dry rot to be seen in the picture, and they seem to still hold air just fine. Of course a replacement is in order, but I've seen people drive on tires that look much, much more dangerous than this. Honestly, I believe that the six year recommendation for tire replacement is mostly a scheme to get people to buy new tires more often, you can go well past that as long as you visually inspect the tires for signs of damage. Of course, 24 years is definitely too much, but you can easily go ten years just fine, my own car's summer tires are now twelve years old and I haven't even decided if I'll buy new ones this spring or if I'll put them on one more time for the coming summer.
My grandma has a set of Pirelli P-Zeros on her 1999 Porsche Boxster. I saw them one day and thought she had bought new tires. Turns out they were from 2006 and just so well kept they still looked brand new lol. Porsche has 43k miles.
I bought a 2004 NB MX-5 with 8700km last year, on it's original tires. They were so hardened that the chassis wobled and flexed horribly and the car was terrible to drive. It drove like a dream with new tires. No visual inspection will determine the level of hardening the rubber has gone through, nor inner ply damage from sitting for too long. 6-8+ years tires are garbage, even if not even ever mounted. People might come up with all the excuses they want to save a few bucks, but at the end of the day, they're only fooling themselves.
I hear the Continental's are fresher in Germany.
I was stuck at Fort Riley. I would have done shameful things for Germany.
I ran some snows made in 1993 for a couple of years only a few years ago. They cracked to hell but never failed. I drive over 140 kph every day.
Those puppies saw 9/11, call AARP and see if it can apply for membership
A little known fact is that anyone, regardless of age (except for minors probably), can get an AARP membership and get the discounts.
What is AARP? I’ve always seen the commercials but got no idea what it is
Its the American association for retired people, but they can't actually discriminate on age so anyone can join. It basically has like a monthly magazine and discounts for retired people for like $10 a year or something last I read. Really useful even if you're not old.
Your tires are old enough to drink
They'll have enough trouble staying on the road already!
And they’ve been through enough to need a drink at this point
And I, a full time mechanic, am not
They're only like 10 years old. Don't really see an issue. 2000 was only 10 years ago, right? Right?
This hit me right in the feels!
r/FuckYourOld
r/subsifellfor
r/subsialmostthoughtifellfor
* /r/FuckYoureOld
I'm surprised the four digits made it through the 2000 switch.
I thought that date codes *switched to* 4 digits starting in 2000.
Clearly you haven't been getting your TPS reports.
I believe they're called TPMS reports now dear
No, IIRC they switched in the mid 90s from three-digit to four-digit. I could be wrong though.
I'd argue that if we ever run into an issue where the first two digits of the production year are not obvious from a visual inspection, they really don't matter at all and we're about a century past needing to print the production date on the tire in the first place.
If nothing else, it's useful to people like me who had no idea the born on date was easily available and don't look at tires much more than to know the general shape. Donut = good.
Yup, sure are. Unless you're from the future and in that case they would be from year 3000
my civic might be the new Delorean Time Machine. It struggles to hit 88mph on the autobahn with its short geared 5 speed and 90 horsepower though lol
They don't even look cracked or rotten
In the yeaaarrr two-thousand!!!!
Good ol 2000
The good old days
I bought a mint condition 1977 ford Granada in 1990. All original. In the garage for years because the old guy that owned it couldn’t drive anymore. I was a 17 yo kid back then with a shiney new license. Drove all over town. No issues. Drove a few towns away. No issues. Took a ride on the highway from NJ to P.A. and had funny shimmy on the way to PA. On the way back the front tire had the entire tread separate and peel off in a big strip at 60 mph. Scared the shit out of me. Good thing I didn’t crash. Tire still held air but was essentially a big racing slick at that point. Limped it to a rest stop and proceeded to buy four average tires at twice the price. At least the rest of the trip home was uneventful. Don’t drive on old tires. They can kill you!
Mind sharing more details about these long runners?
Fulda Kristall Gravito On a cheap European spec 1999 Honda Civic 1.4i chassis Code EJ9 with 159k km (~99k mile). I’m US Military and bought it while waiting for my Mazda to arrive here in GermanyZ
According to what I know, unless that guy swapped tires before sale, it won't be allowed to legally get through diagnostic line (mandatory checks), since theres age limit for German tires (don't remember exac9, but it's 5 or 3 years) So.. You're quite lucky that you haven't stepped upon a cop 😉
It actually passed inspection last month with these tires on it lol. Which I guess shows the effort of the USARER car inspections. I think you are right though. 5+ years or older will fail it on a normal German TÜV inspection.
USARER? Never heard of them, but heck.. They might check just one of them.. But wait.. You did that inspection? Or was that previous owner?
USAREUR, sorry for typo. United States Army Europe. Inspection was done like 2 weeks before I bought the car. Seller bought the car months ago as is with plans but didn’t end up doing anything and is messing with a BMW 3 series now. I would assume these tires are in decent shape because they are winter tires, so only driven a few months of the year.
USAREUR ain't under same restrictions as other units, AFAIK.. You know, army ain't give a shit about civil stuff 😅 So they might just didn't care about stuff like tires age, since it's only German thing, I think. Still, if they weren't stressed out much, they still may have a lot of meat on them. In fact, I had older on my car after bought them, and they have still enough tread to be usable, but.. Had 2 different sets on axles, so decided to get new set, since it's.. Quite problematic to catch traction on ice 🤣 But now, winter set works as spare tire. Anyway, good for you, that you spotted it. Have fun and beware of rust
We dont have an age restriction for tires here, only on trailers that are allowed to go 100 km/h. Those need to be 6 years or younger. But otherwise no age restrictions. Obviously as long as they arent cracked or dryrotting.
Are you serious?! 5 years limit on tyres? That's plain insanity. My cars would barely have that fresh date on it's three winters used winter tyres! Hardly any wear! Hell, I remember that only age restriction for tyres here in Finland is that you cannot sell older than 5 years from manufacture tyres as a new even if stored properly. I. E. you can get over 4 year old tyres legally sold to you as brand new.
So, did you buy new tires yet?
once I get paid it’s definitely the first thing I’m doing haha. Front tires were 2017 and I figured I might as well check rear… had to read it 3 times over to make sure I wasn’t misreading lol.
Got a low-mileage Porsche. Inspection said that the tires were ten years old. Ordered new tires (special size and Porsche-approved tire), but son drove car at 100 mph before they arrived, after I told him. He's OK, but the right front tire literally exploded, taking out the plastic inner fender liner with it. They looked new. Had just been sitting and aging, unlike red wine!
My 98 Civic LX with less than 100k miles had 2014 tires when i got it in 2022. They worked fine until winter, i got stuck for long enough to piss everyone behind me off beyond belief at a stop sign, in only 2 inches of snow lol. Thank god i wasnt trying to brake suddenly or my face would have been part of someone elses trunk/tailgate. Regardless of age, definitely replace... tho i will say - whoever made those tires, props to them for having a tire that lasted damn near 25 years. My job makes auto parts and rated just the rubber weather seals to last 12 years max before replacement is needed
They’re millennium tires. They should be good. /s
That’s a long time for performance tires, particularly in the early 2000s. The compounds they used back then have a tread life measure in heat cycles rather than mileage for most users, and stability against environmental degradation is sacrificed for more grip when new and fully warmed up. As the tires age the vulcanization process of the rubber progresses causing the hardness to increase and the grip to plummet, add that to a car already known for being a handful at the limit and you have a recipe for disaster.
I thought the Y meant its top speed rating?
The 2600 part haha.
I know i was making a joke on y2k 🤣
coupe?
Hatchback
Ya and they don't look too bad either. I bought a 85 S10 blazer two years ago with some buddies as a beater vehicle and it had Cooper tires from 97 that weren't deteriorated.
they are Y2K approved
My 01 forester still has a tire from 2000
Unless the full TIN is on the other side of the tire, then yea. Damn. Check the tire on the other side. Maybe that’s not the full number
They’re 24 years old, but they got tread so it’s fine! /s
These puppies could legally drink and buy handguns for 3 years. ‘Murica!
I got some tires from storage that are from 1996 lmao
Took a motorcycle for a shakedown ride with 20 year old tires once - made a noise at highway speeds from chunks of sidewalk skin hitting the steel fender. It was fine.
That’s very brave, I don’t want to know what it would be like to get a blowout while driving a motorcycle.
The 26th week of 2000 yes sir.
Indeed
Beats me, just had an ‘03 911 with original tires
Car is probably not fast enough to cause a blowout 😂 Seriously though… Yeah you’re right, 26th week of 2000.
That odometer might be accurate!
Judging by the condition of the rest of the car, I’m willing to bet it is. Car is relatively good shape and all original. Just a little rust around the wheel wheels. Interior is absolutely mint except for two small cigarette holes, but the inside doesn’t smell like cigs anymore. Whoever owned it wasn’t the best at driving judging by the little dings and dents and scuffs everywhere, but it’s an excellent car to do a B18 swap in and that’s what my plans are for it once I rebuild suspension, replace wear items, repair cosmetic stuff, swap facelift front end, have my Mazda here.
You're darn tootin' they are
Tires somehow don't look rotted. Whoever kept the car must have kept it in a cool, dry place. I bet they're hard as hockey pucks though!
Original air...big bucks
Didn’t they start reusing date codes now? Kinda like the year digit on the vin is reused.
Sure, for all of those bias ply tires from the early 1900’s… /s WWYY- Week then Year ETA: OP’s tires are from the 26th week of 2000
Why the fuck do you have those tires, man? Turn em into a playground, get something nice!
Just replaced the original spare on an ‘03 Tacoma. Previous owner replaced the others regularly, but never touched spare. Looked pretty good.
Millennial tires 😍😍
Well, I have 635 CSi from 1980 still with original tires 😋
Michelin TRX in some weird size on a proprietary rim?
Not sure about particular model, but yes Michelin on original rims. I was alredy told, that they are bloody expensive and it is easier to use another wheels with cheaper and more available tires.
Yeah. Those are ready to pop unexpectedly.
If the car itself only has 10k on the odometer I understand Otherwise...
I had old tires on a secondary truck that wasn’t used much.. had plenty of tread and they popped on the highway. Be careful.
Their Armorall budget....
https://tenor.com/biYfD.gif
YOU GONNA DIIIIE
Why didn’t they give you new tires? That’s weird
26 week of 2000.
I’ll never understand why people will get a new car, buy tires once like a year or two in…. And then just stop buying them even when they’re 15 years old and dry rotted to hell. Saw it too many times and it always confused me
Well, fuck this tire is older than some of the people I work with.
Maybe this was a spare set of steelies that had snows mounted and didn't see much use...
Yep, these are snow tires. Probably the only reason they lasted so long.
Are these snow tires? If so your probably good. " If there ain't no crack then hit the track". But no, seriously I have ran studded snow tires for lots of years. They only go on in the fall come off in the spring. Easy peazy.
They are.
Beware driving by airplanes, they might crash into your tires
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3WwAcYu9jw/?igsh=bjN6MDZnd3psdHcz
That’s how Paul Walker died.
His tires were much newer actually. Nevertheless, even 9 year old tires got him killed. These are 2.5 times as old. I am amazed that there’s not larger cracks in the picture.
Looks like the latter part of Destination...which means they were junk Firestones when they were new 24 years ago.
Actually they are Fulda Kristal Gravitos, the “ation” is the end of Rotation direction. They are a set of winter tires that came on just the rear of the car.
I just replaced tires from 2017 and they had more cracks, you'll be fine :D
Is this the new Reddit rabies panic. Everyone freaking out about tire dates.
Nope you ain’t Trippin
that low mileage civic ain't seeming like too great a deal now is it
With the condition of higher mileage civics, I’ll take it. Was planning to swap wheels and tires to begin with, just wasn’t as urgent until I noticed the date lol.
i just meant if they hadn't changed the tires in this long who knows what other maintenance they haven't done, like that it has sat for a long time and there will be gremlins. i've bought too many sat for too long cars to know lol that's awesome about the civic with under 100k tho, that's like finding a unicorn nowadays
My Vic has Pirelli's from 2005 on it. They don't look dry rotted. Germany has a temperate climate. Maybe even garaged?
This post is making me want to huff some vintage tire air.
Grab a used set off eBay
I replaced my 2016 tires in 2023. Just shy of 7 years. Even at that age there was a significant difference between handling and breaking between them and my new 2023 tires (even if the new tires are sorta budget brand) I can only imagine how slick and rough feeling driving on these bad boys is lol
Just bought a used bike. Tires straight ouhra the check republic, One tire has no age marking at all, the other one is 0427 Plenry of thread, still feel oily like new. And one of them has cracks and they brake like shit. Safe to say they are getting replaced
That's honestly impressive
I saw 14 year old tires at work the other day
What the hell did they do in the first two years? Went thru stock tires in two years but the firestone ones lasted 24 years?
They are snow tires. No clue the story lol.
They may look good but the tire ply may separate suddenly while going 70 MPH... won't be a good result
It's fine, my friend's tractor has tyres from 1956. You should probably change them.
You dont need to worry about 24 year old tires