TR6 Original Tires

[Jim Ray]

The original Michelin red line tires for my '76 TR6 have been sitting in my basement for years.  Is there any reason to keep them?

[DRD]

44 minutes ago, Jim Ray said:

The original Michelin red line tires for my '76 TR6 have been sitting in my basement for years.  Is there any reason to keep them?

No I don't think anyone should risk using them. The max life of tyres is around 10 years.

[John McCormack]

If they look good then you could fit them for originality in a Concours. Otherwise ditch them.

 

[PodOne]

Hi Jim

Concourse only if you are trailering the car to shows.

Otherwise bin them there no use for the road, at best they will find you a ditch at worse your insurance will be null and void if someone gets injured or worse.

Just my opinion of course.

Andy

[CP26309]

Up until this Spring I had been driving around on 20 year old Michelins that still had 5mm tread and no sign of perishing. I even still have the original HR Dunlop SP Sport Radial factory fitted tyre on the unused spare wire wheel in the boot!  

[Jctr6EFI72]

My experience with old tyres is that they are ok on dry but they tend to slip a lot on wet roads. You have to adapt your program.

[John Morrison]

Hello Jim,

and welcome to our forum.

A lot depends on how tyres are treated and stored, I think 10 years is an arbitary number,

but 20 years or so, no, not for road use.

John.

[Keith66]

On 10/19/2020 at 6:30 PM, CP26309 said:

Up until this Spring I had been driving around on 20 year old Michelins that still had 5mm tread and no sign of perishing. I even still have the original HR Dunlop SP Sport Radial factory fitted tyre on the unused spare wire wheel in the boot!  

Hi

Trouble is they really do deteriorate with age, although the exact age they are “unsafe” is a bit of a lottery.

I acquired my project car with early 80’s tyres and mid restoration some time ago I decided to get my wheels shot blasted and powder coated as they were pretty rusty.

The car was not ready to go on the road so rather than putting new tyres on for it to sit in the garage for a couple of years I decided to put the old tyres back on until it was road ready. Similar to you there were no cracks or other signs of aging and they had plenty of tread.

But when one of them was refitted and inflated…. BANG!!!!.....the sidewall blew out.

Clearly not structurally sound and just the stress of refitting and inflating made the tyre fail.

Just glad I wasn’t cornering hard under power at the time it decided to fail.

Cheers     Keith

[JohnC]

I've found that after about 5-6yrs the grip deteriorates noticeably even if there's plenty of tread left and no sign of damage. At least, the new tyres grip noticeably better than the old. In particular I notice the car stopping in a much shorter distance. Of course I can't say in all honesty that I know how much worse the old tyres became compared with when they were new. 

My suggestion is to do yourself, your family and other road users a favour and ditch them. You may also be preserving a TR in the process!

JC

[Yarm 783]

I have a new set of Pirelli 165’s on the car, I have aN identical tyre as a spare, it is c7 years old.  If you directly compare the two, the rubber on the new tyres is pretty ‘compliant’, on the spare it is much harder. I will be replacing the spare before long.

[astontr6]

1 hour ago, Yarm 783 said:

I have a new set of Pirelli 165’s on the car, I have aN identical tyre as a spare, it is c7 years old.  If you directly compare the two, the rubber on the new tyres is pretty ‘compliant’, on the spare it is much harder. I will be replacing the spare before long.

There is talk in MOT circles of putting a time limit on tyres of under 10 years and this would become part of the MOT test and also become an endorsable offence on your license! Reason there have been a number of accidents where old tyres have played a major reason for the accident and insurance companies have not paid out?

Bruce.