Expired Tyres? - Risks and Warnings! By ityfrank

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The tyres of a car serve as the only contact between us and the road when you are racing at 120km/h. This makes them a very important part of our cars. So we ought to make it a habit to make sure they are in good conditions always - just like we check the oil and make sure our cars ignites so we can go to work, we ought to check the tyres to be sure they're in good shapes so we can get to our destinations safely.

Let's look at the natural conditions every tyre faces in its lifetime:

• Oxidation: Reaction of the components of the tyre with oxygen
• Ozonolysis: Reaction of the tyre components with ozone
• Reaction with Ulta violet (UV) light
• Wear and tear, due to friction (slides and roles)
• Time

Manufacturers have, over the years, added chemicals to the tyres to removed or reduce the rates and impacts of these reactions, oxidation, Ozonolysis and reaction with UV light. These technologies make the tyres to be still very strong even when the treads have all worn out. However with time, just like every thing else, the tyres of a car will still degrade.

Do tyres expire? Yes, tyres just like most other products have a time frame they work optimally. Beyond that, they are no longer road worthy. The question now is where is this information on the tyre? Do we know how to read and decode it?

Well, we don't have expiry dates on tyres. What we have is the manufacturing date, the date your tyres were made. It is a series of code stamped on the side of the tyre, starting with the letters, "DOT" followed by letters and numbers. What you are looking for is the last four numbers. The first two represent the week the tyre was produced and the last two represent the year it was produced. For instance, let's look this tyre I found my compound.

The last four digits are: 0613. To get this date right, I mean the weeks, recall that the first four weeks makes the month of January, the remaining two weeks go into February, meaning the tyre was manufactured on the second week of February, 2013.

You need this so at the point-of-purchase you buy the one that has the highest shelf life. Also, so you use it to track when your tyre will no longer be roadworthy.
Tyres expire about six years after the date it was manufactured. This mean that after six years the components of the rubber that was used in making the tyre has changed, it is no longer going to be strong as it was meant to be, it will no longer hold a pressure it was meant to hold, it won't have the grip on the road it was meant to have; but it doesn't automatically mean that the tyre will explode, or cause accident when used, but it simply means that it is time for you to change it before a disaster happens.

There are people who go about buying old tyres, and then they turn them into "brand new" ones!
This is what they do: They will dig out the ridges so that the treads look higher and bigger again. While this looks good, the thickness of the tyre itself has been reduced to compensate for this. Tyres are often made with a knowledge of the pressure it is meant to carry, when this is tampered with, there could be disaster!
Another consequence is that a tyre which was very close to its expiry date or has already expired now looks like a good-to-go tyre.
Refurbishing a tyre is like patching up a quack doctor! Lives will be lost. Just like the quack doctor can save a few lives and make a few successful treatment, ultimately, disaster will happen at some point, avoid refurbished tyres like a lague.

Research has shown that when tyres are properly stored they do not degrade; they are as good as new!

• A study conducted by the Korean department of customer protection between in the store, ie, unused three-year old tyres and brand new tyres showed that, the wear and tear between them were identical! One was not strong then the other!
• Also, another study in Saudi Arabia indicates that tyres degrade twenty times more rapidly when in use than when stored even though when the conditions are not really favourable.
• It has also been proven that the rolling resistance in tyres that are brand new and those that have been produced three years earlier but not used were still the same

Should we just replace our tyres just because they are six years old?

• Yes if you can afford it, but if you can't, here are a few signs to look out for.
• Check for signs of degradation and aging. Such tyres will have a crack. A crack you can spot by just inspecting the sides of the tyre. At this point the tyre must be replaced.
• Don't go for long distance journey with them, and don't use high speed with them.
• So depending on the condition of the tyre, you can see use a tyre after 6 years.
• Irrespective of the conditions of the tyre, if a tyre is up to 10 years, please discard it.

I'll conclud by sharing this true life story with you.
Last year my friend and next door door told me how he needed to change the tyre of his car. The next day, he told me got a Tokumbo tire at a very cheap price of about sixteen thousand Naira (N16,000) and he was very happy about it. I celebrated with him; but told him the risk of buying cheap Tocumbo tires. I explain to him that these people, they get old tyres, that has worn out and they deapen the gutters, which makes the treads to bigger and look like brand new, but the thickness is what paid for the ridges, that such a tyre will be weak.

He took it carelessly and left. It wasn't up to two weeks later that he had an accident. That particular tyre just burst in the middle of the road on his way to Etinan, a nearby local Government Area around here, and the car swerved into a ravine and capsized many times! Thank God for the technology of airbag and seat belt, which he had used. He came out without a scratched! He said as he was trying to control the car before he entered the bush, he remembered the warnings I gave him! He, at least, lived to learn his lessons. Other don't. Don't gamble with your life by patronizing sellers of fairly used tyres, they are a death trap a bomb waiting to explode.
And always check your tyres, if you are not sure what to look for, take it to a tyre Technician.

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