So I ordered (4) 235/45-18 Conti DW summer tires. They came in the other day and they're manufactured 2109 and 2009. Basically two years old. I know it's a relatively odd tire size but curious if I should keep them or return them.

I put very few miles on my car so I don't want to run into an instance where I have to replace them due to age first or to have an issue with dry rotting.

Last time I got a tire that was two years old, I had an issue with sidewall separation after about a year. Granted, I bought that one from a local tire shop but still have a bit of a sour taste.

Any thoughts? I'm not going to be tracking the car at all. When I searched on other forums, people were typically split to either keep them and wear em out faster or purchase from somewhere else.

 

i would say yes for now. i had my stock wheels for 2 years and had no problems. If you drive pretty crazy, you'll go thorugh those tires pretty quick.

 

you are fine. if they are brand new tires never driven on or mounted then it's fine.

If the tires are older than 6 years then you should be worried. even if they have never been driven on or mounted tires over 6 years old have some kind of corrosion in them that may cause seperation, etc.

 

You're fine as 2 years isn't crazy old. But that's weird for tirerack, I hope they are buying old stock like wal-mart has been doing for years.

I'll let Neil chyme in on this.

 

I notice the last pair i got from them were on sale and i beleive this was the reason why.

OP. did you get these cheap realtive to their normal prices?

 

I spoke to Neil in PM but still waiting for him to respond on warranty status. If something does happen with these, I don't want to be left out.

These seemed to be comparable to other tire websites and nothing was noted about them being a closeout or special pricing or anything.

How old were your tires?

 

I guess my tires werent that old. I bought them in Oct 2009. Manufactured date 2608. So newer than yours. They were some pretty low quality good years so that couldve been the case why they were cheap and I wanted a matching set to roll on for a short time.

 

Our experience has been that when properly stored and cared for, most street tires have a useful life in service of between six to ten years. And while part of that time is spent as the tire travels from the manufacturing plant to the manufacturer's distribution center, to the retailer and to you, the remainder is the time it spends on your vehicle. We sell tires manufactured in North and South America, as well as Europe, Africa and Asia, it's common for us to receive new tires directly from manufacturers that are already six to nine months old. The Conti you purchased are made in France or Portugal so manufacture and ship time from Conti to us would probably be longer than most. Using the tires will be no issue as they have more than enough "shelf life" left in them.
You're welcome to ship them back, however, I cannot guarantee you would get anything newer than what you have already. Perfectly fine to run them.

 

So what are you going to do? keep them or sell them?

 

I'm not sure. Part of me says to do it, other part of me says I'm going to be paranoid when pushing them.

I was hoping more people would respond to this thread.

 

As I've said earlier, my own personal opinion and I am a tire tech if that helps.

Tires can be stored on the shelf for up to 6 years and then be sent back to the manufacturer, in the case of a good retail store.

As long as they have never been driven on they are considered new still even if the dot date is a couple years back.

On your own personal car, you can keep the tire mounted on between 6-10 years, but no more than 10 years even if its 100% tread life it should be changed out.

Possible reasons for an older dot date is as said above it could be the shipping time or if the tire is not popular in the brand or size then it might sit on the shelf a little longer than say falken 452 245-35-19 tires which are constantly bought so the dot date might be more recent.

Hope this helps you.

 

Thanks again. That does help. The only thing that's holding me back a bit is 2-3 years ago on my old car I had a Continental tire installed and it just happened to be 2 years old as well (purchased from a local shop, not tire rack.) It ended up developing sidewall cracks after 6 months of very light driving. I know it can happen to any tire really but just puts a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

 

^That sucks, but in reality even if the tire was only a year old if the tire was left in the sun to dry up a lot while sitting there then it will develop cracks etc.

I am pretty sure tire rack keeps their tires away from the elements by storing them in a warehouse or similar... at least I hope.

 

Very true. I just hope the tires I have were well kept. In addition to ordering (4) DW, I also ordered (1) DWS as my spare tire. That manufacture date was a few weeks ago.

 

All six of our locations are temperature controlled warehouse sealed up tight from the elements