Tire question

aprazer402

I took my SUV to a local Discount Tire today to have my tires rotated. Tires are Michelin LTX M&S 17" manufactured in 2013. They refused to rotate them.

They stated that, "according to the DOT, they cannot perform any service on tires that are ten years or older." They could be only nine years old if made in December 2013. The tires only have about 45K on them, tread in usable range yet.

I guess I'll have to find a non-tire shop that will do the rotation.

Anyone else experience this?

Thanks.

VR3

Liability issue for the shop

Clipdat

I've heard of places doing this, or if the tread is too low.

Any signs of dry rot? Usually 10 year old rubber is getting brittle and cracked by this point.

They should also have a date code on the sidewall that shows the week # of the year they were made, so you can see exactly when they were manufactured.

aprazer402

No visible signs of any issues, never had a flat etc... Always stored overnight in a warm garage.

smartie_panta

Did they try to sell you four new tires instead?

Emlyn

Agree, corporate policy to avoid litigation after accidents. Only 45K miles after 9 years sounds like the vehicle doesn't have to be driven often. That could also cause problems with the tires that aren't visible.

Manufacturers recommend replacing the tires around that age. It's not just because they want to sell more tires.

skipshot12

^ Exactly….

Jstas

Are you up for rotating them yourself?

pitdogg2

Even if you never use them carcass life on a tire is 5 years from date of manufacture. I worked at a Brigestone plant in a former life. They are generous with 5 extra years. Discount tire is one of the worst sticklers for tread and dates. My 03 F150 has a tire size that is not a popular tire size. Every tire I've ever put on it in that tire size they're easily 3yrs old before it ever sees my truck. I've had two sets replaced under warranty for bad cracking in the tread sipes and delamination of the sidewalls within 2 yrs of use, it's frustrating. The only thing I can do is go over sized or undersized in a very popular tire size.

As John @Jstas says rotating them yourself or go to a different garage and pay to have them rotated.

Jstas

Yeah, 10 years is generous for tire age.

At the diesel shop I worked at, NHTSA and NJDOT had rules that trucks over a certain GVW (I think it was 55k pounds) were not allowed to install new tires that were more than 3 years old. Also, for anything with an 80K+ GVW, tires could not be more than 5 years old. Under that we could stretch to 7 but if one of our trucks hit a weigh station and had dated tires, BIG fines and the truck would be required to be parked until the tires were replaced. Not a fun proposition. Especially if it was packed out on it's way to the dump and tipping the scales at 80K pounds.

Passenger tires have a life of 5 years before stuff like dry rot and tread block delamination start becoming a real thing. NHTSA recommends that passenger car tires get replaced at 7-8 years despite remaining tread life.

Does that mean you are in imminent danger? No, not really but, there are concerns. The tires may not be able to adequately support their rated weight ratings as they get past the 7 year mark. They are more susceptible to spontaneous catastrophic failure and that could create a life threatening event when vehicle control is lost because of the catastrophic failure of the tire. That doesn't mean it's going to happen tomorrow. It just means that the odds of it happening get way better when the tires reach a certain age.

Additionally, old tires lose flexibility and pliancy as the rubber ages, dries out and gets harder. This affects not only rolling resistance which impacts fuel mileage but it also means the control surfaces are not working as designed anymore so things like wet weather performance or cold weather performance is reduced significantly making vehicle dynamics more unpredictable with more extreme reactions that can be harder to avoid or recover from because of the reduced grip of the control surfaces.

So, yeah, it sucks but ya got 10 years out of them, dude! They don't owe you anything!

Speaking of which, I bought the tired on my Lincoln in 2012! I better find me some new tires soon!

Jstas

Oh, yeah, I used to sell tires when I was in college to help pay for school.

If you need new tires, Bridgestone makes a few nice ones and I believe they are still running a promotion that gets you a steep discount. We just put new Potenzas on the Escape. Should have been about $1600 installed but with the sale price and BJ's Wholesale Club membership discount, we paid $800.65

So worth a look.

mantis

On a car or truck with the same size tire and wheel all the way around should be rotated every 5k miles. Now when tires get 10 years old or older, you really need to pay attention to dry rot . Safety is key here. You don't want to have a blow out at 70 mph on the highway and wreck your vehicle, wreck someone else's vehicle or more or even possibly worse, kill someone over old tires.

This might make common sense but your tires are the ONLY thing that meets the road. It's your ONLY connection. They always need to be in tip top shape and getting new tires of high quality is very important. Having the right tire for your vehicle is very important.

I believe tires are the one thing you should never try to save a bunch of money on. Sure get the best deal you can, everything in life right now is so damn expensive, but tires are not a good place to buy the cheap ones.

I suggest getting 4 new tires man. I use to be a Technician decades ago.

mhardy6647

I sense a trend in this thread...

rebelsoul

Finding my Goodyear r mt 33 inch keflar I had to get two shops to order them and one wouldn't put them on because of that. Went to the other shop and they put them on.

nooshinjohn

Went to discount tire yesterday and they refused to put air in a tire because it had less than ten pounds of pressure. They told me I could pay to have them re-mounted but that was the only way they would touch them.

VR3

We live in a society with no personal responsibility. Everyone wants companies and governments to tell them what to do and what not to do.

What you are seeing at discount tire is the direct result of the entire nation lacking said responsibility.

bcwsrt

Can't imagine the legal trouble they must've gotten into in the past to prevent them doing these basic services ...

VR3

One of our local discount tires permanently closed because someone murdered the manager over a tire dispute.

The general public is crazy and I can only imagine what they deal with.

I buy all my tires from them due to their free balance, rotate and tire repairs.

ken brydson

Funny DT keeps being brought up. I took my wifes 2017 CX5 in to a local store the other day for a low pressure light. All of the tires were a couple lbs low, probably due to a change in weather. Less than 24K miles on the car and the dude went into a schpeel about them being past their useful life and balked at airing me up. I insisted, listened to his pitch, got air and headed on my way. CYA, maybe. Wonder how many unsuspecting (females) get sucked into buying an unnecessary set of tires...

aprazer402

I bought Pirelli P6's for my Avalon at Discount Tire. Great tires, good price.

mhardy6647

Do you guys not have compressors and pressure gauges? Even a bicycle pump?!?

Hermitism

My '96 Miata tires were purchased summer of 2000. 50% tread left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1uX6VliMpw

audioluvr

I do all my own rotations because I always have summer and winter tire/wheel sets and it's not uncommon for them to outlive their "useful life". Worst things for a tire is sunlight and not being used while on the vehicle. I bought a 78' Holiday Rambler 5th wheel for restoration (still have it) and while towing it home one of the "HD Trailer tires" that were only 5 years old, disintegrated from being in the sun and under load but not in motion. In a pinch (it was Sunday) I pulled the original factory spare that was mounted underneath and mounted it and drove it the remaining 80 miles home. That was many years ago and to this day has still held the original air from 1978. Good times.

heiney9

VR3 wrote: »

Liability issue for the shop

Yep, they are doing you favor because even though the mileage is low, the time is not. Rubber is finite and the older the tires get the better chance to have an unexpected issue. Those rubber compounds are only designed to last so long regardless of use.

heiney9

VR3 wrote: »

One of our local discount tires permanently closed because someone murdered the manager over a tire dispute.

The general public is crazy and I can only imagine what they deal with.

I buy all my tires from them due to their free balance, rotate and tire repairs.

I have been a Discount Tire customer for a long time. I already know what tires I want and I order on-line and have them shipped to my store and make an appointment. The guys here are top notch, honest and have the customers best interest at heart. The sign of a good local shop is very low employee turnover.

I've been using my local DT for atleast 15 years and many of the same guys are still there. That tells me 2 things, the guys that work there are very good at their jobs and the company is a good company to work for which means happy workers which mean they care about the job they do.

Last time I was in for a free rotate. I listened to several sales transactions going on. I came away impressed because each time they weren't pushy, they listened to the customers issue and really tried to help beyond just selling them new tires. Giving them alternatives and one manager even offered to drive to another store in the suburbs on a Sunday (his day off) to pick up a single tire for the customer, so it could be there first thing Monday morning.

H9

sucks2beme

I was just in Dicount tire to get a couple of cheap rims and tires
to replace the idiot spares in both cars. It interesting how few
modern cars even have any spare tire. Great way to get stranded
somewhere.

heiney9

sucks2beme wrote: »

I was just in Dicount tire to get a couple of cheap rims and tires
to replace the idiot spares in both cars. It interesting how few
modern cars even have any spare tire. Great way to get stranded
somewhere.

New cars give you a can of pressurized tire sealer. What most don't know, is that has to be replaced like every 3 years or something like that. At one point you could order and pay extra for either space saver or full sized spare. Not sure if you can still do that. They have to get the fleet MPG as high as possible, so ditch the extra weight of the spare tire. Not a great idea, I agree.

H9

motorstereo

I still have the original tires on my boat trailer from 2005. Cracked, dry rotted and look like hell but still hold air. Perhaps this will be the year I'll change them .

CGTIII

Agree about DT.
I used another local chain that had good reviews. Turned out the closest store to me was poor and got worse before I finished that "lifetime" R&B.
Back to DT. VG service. Good prices.
I had them put the latest set on my Traverse. Found an amazing deal on takeoffs on NextDoor. There was no question who I wanted to put them on and "lifetime" R&B.

Jstas

For those wondering how to rotate your tires at home, you need, at the minimum, your spare tire and a jack of any kind.

Preferably a floor jack, makes life simpler and faster and at least one pair of jack stands aids in the simpler and faster thing. Two pairs of jack stands is ideal and then you don't need the spare tire.

So, here's how you do it:

Step 1: Get your spare out of the trunk. If you don't have a spare, this is where those jack stands or a second jack come in handy.

Step 2: Jack up driver's side, front wheel and remove the wheel.

Step 3: Install the spare tire on the front driver's side. If you don't have a spare, use a jack stand or less desirably, a second jack. Do not use blocks as the vehicle can easily fall off a stack of blocks when you are jacking up opposing corners.

Step 4: Lower the driver's side front corner then take the jack and jack up the passenger rear wheel and remove the wheel

Step 5: Install the driver's side front wheel on the passenger side rear location. Tighten down lugs nuts to proper torque and lower the car

Step 6: Jack up driver's side front again, remove spare tire.

Step 7: Install passenger side rear tire on driver's side front location, tighten down lug nuts to correct torque setting and lower driver's side front

Step 8: Jack up passenger side front wheel and remove wheel

Step 9: Install spare tire on passenger side front and lower vehicle

Step 10: Jack up driver's side rear location and remove wheel

Step 11: Install passenger side front wheel on driver's side rear location. Tighten lug nuts to correct torque spec and lower vehicle.

Step 12: Jack up passenger side front location and remove spare tire

Step 13: Install driver's side rear wheel to passenger side front location, tighten lug nuts to correct torque spec and lower vehicle.

Step 14: Return spare tire to the storage location making sure to check pressure and inflate properly to specified pressure on the driver's door jamb sticker if necessary before storing.

Step 15: Check all 4 tires pressures and inflate to the specific pressure on the driver's door jamb sticker if necessary.

Step 16: put your jack and lug wrench away. If you used the ones that came with your vehicle, return them to their storage point before you forget! As always, take care of your tools and they will take care of you!


If you have directional tread on your tires, do not follow this process. Your tire's sidewall will have indication if the tread pattern is directional. You typically only see directional tread on high performance sport tires. To follow this process with directional tread, you will need to unmount and remount the tires so that the directional tread is pointing in the correct direction when installed at the opposite corners. Installing directional tread tires backwards severely reduces the performance of the tire. Without remounting and balancing of the tires, you can only do front to rear rotation which is not idea but it's adequate for ensuring enough even wear to get appropriate life out of your tires.

nooshinjohn

What if you have 19’s on the front and 20’s on the back?