Don't store your classic car on old tires, even if they look fine.

I see people at car shows all the time with their '68 Mustangs or whatever sitting on tires from 2005. In my experience, rubber dries out from the inside, not just the outside. I had a set of BFGoodrich tires that looked perfect, no cracks, plenty of tread. After three years of storage, I went to move the car and found a flat spot the size of my hand on each one. The sidewalls had gone soft and the belts shifted. Now I swap tires before any long storage, even if they pass the visual check. Has anyone else had a tire fail like that after just sitting?

2 comments

2 Comments

patriciaellis24d ago

Well, that's actually not quite what happens. The belts shifting is more of a construction defect than a storage issue. What you saw was probably the rubber breaking down from ozone and UV exposure even inside a garage. The flat spots you found are from the tire sitting in one position for too long, not from the sidewalls going soft. I've had a set of tires on my old Corvette for four years of occasional driving and they're still fine. The real risk with old tires is tread separation at speed, not the flat spotting you describe. You can usually drive off flat spots after a few miles once the tires warm up. Honestly, the bigger danger is cracking in the sidewall area that you can't see until the tire fails on the highway.

ellis.victor24d ago

Right about the flat spots warming out, but I've seen tread separation happen from old rubber that looked fine on the outside.