WARNING: This Article Could Save You and Your Families Life Call US for a FREE INSPECTION, Your Safety Means the World To US! Tire Aging Report from the NHTSA

ABC Investigation:
PART 1: "Click Here to Watch Video"
PART 2: "Click Here to Watch Video"
Aged tires being sold as new!
By Michael Finney

PART1:
The new tire on your car may not be as safe as you think. A 7 On Your Side/ABC News investigation has found tires being sold as new may actually be too old -- and too dangerous -- to be used on the roads.There are no laws or regulations prohibiting the sale of tires manufactured more than six years ago, but both safety experts and many vehicle manufacturers recommend against using any tire older than six years. The results, they say, can be catastrophic.Jack Crane of Danville can't forget that fateful day in 2002. His sons, Joey and Bobby, were driving through the Central Valley on Highway 5 when, without warning, the right rear tire blew, the Ford Bronco flipped and rolled into the medium strip.

"Bobby was still inside the car and without getting too graphic, Bobby was dying," said Jack Crane of Danville. Nothing could be done to save Bobby. He died. The teens put the spare tire on the Bronco the day of the accident. They didn't know that spare tire was 14 years old. "It looked like it was in great condition. It had lots of tread. It had more tread than the other tires," said Crane. The tread totally separated from the tire. The Crane's said at the time, the tire had only 2,000 miles on it. They sued Firestone and eventually settled. "Even if a tire has been unused, has never been on the road, and is in perfect condition, it is degrading just sitting there," said Mike Danko, a product liability attorney based in San Mateo. We found a warning in an owner's manual by Chrysler: "Tires and spare tires should be replaced after six years, regardless of the remaining tread." We found similar recommendations in an Audi manual and in another by Ford-Lincoln Mercury. Video from a consulting company, Transportation Safety Technologies, hired by an attorney filing auto liability claims, demonstrates a tread tearing from a tire, something safety experts say tires six years or older are more prone to do. 7 On Your Side also obtained demonstration video from another consultant also hired by an attorney, Safety Engineering and Forensic Analysis.

The video shows what can happen after the tread separates from a tire. We got a first hand look at what can happen when the Alameda County Sheriff's Department put Michael Finney on a simulator. He was going 60 miles an hour when the front tire blew. He hit the brakes and narrowly missed the center divider. "That's one of the main problems people have. They get on the brakes, and like we said, that causes a weight transfer," said Deputy Brian Frazer from the Alameda County Sheriff's Department. Safety Research and Strategies has been documenting accidents blamed on old tires which have lead to law suits. "We've identified more than 140 serious crashes that have resulted in fatalities or serious injuries," said Sean Kane of Safety Research and Strategies. He says even tires sitting in a store's warehouse degrade over time, and despite that, still end up being sold on the retail market. Investigative journalist Brian Ross of ABC News found retailers nationwide selling tires older than six years. We wanted to see for ourselves, so we took our hidden cameras to tire retailers in San Francisco, the Peninsula, East Bay and South Bay. The last few digits of a code on the tire represent the manufacturing date of the tire. The "459" on one tire means it was manufactured the 45th week of 1999. We found it at a Good Year store in San Mateo. Two other tires we saw at the same store were six years old.

Our investigation also found tires older than six years being sold at used tire shops. We found a 10-year-old tire at Tires and Brakes for Less in Oakland; a nine-year-old tire at Hillside Tires and Brakes in Daly City; and a seven-year-old tire at Rolling Stock Custom Wheels in San Francisco. Rolling Stock called it a ploy to get people to buy more tires; Hillside told us this was the first they've heard that tire aging might be a problem; and Tires and Brakes for Less says they only sell tires in good shape. All three stores declined an on-camera interview. Good Year also refused to answer our questions on camera, but a corporate spokesman told us: "Proper storage, maintenance and inflation of tires, not the age of tires, are the primary factors in tire performance." A spokesman for the Rubber Manufacturer's Association (RMA) agreed. "Our association does not recommend a removal date for tire based on age because there's no scientific information to back it up," said Dan Zielinski of RMA. That claim is true. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is studying the issue right now by artificially aging tires in a lab. Selling old tires of any age is legal, but safety experts have pushed for requiring expiration dates on tires and for simplifying the codes on the tires. These are changes federal regulators and tire companies have so far resisted. "Why would the tire companies object to that? I do not understand and I have a dead son. There's just no excuse for that," said Crane.

PART2:
7 On Your Side took hidden cameras into tire retailers around the Bay Area to find out just how old some of the tires being sold really are. Then we visited a laboratory on the outskirts of Silicon Valley for a look at a possible solution. The next time you buy a tire, you might want to ask when it was made. We went to a Goodyear store in San Mateo and found several tires made six to nine years ago. The "459" on this tire means it was manufactured the 45th week of 1999. Selling an old tire is not illegal, but many auto manufacturers warn tires older than six years could suddenly fail and cause a catastrophic accident. Jack Crane of Danville agrees. The right rear tire on his son's SUV blew out. The Bronco rolled over, killing his son, Bobby. "As you might imagine, I got a little angry. I lost a son," said Jack Crane from Danville. Federal researchers are now studying tire aging and hope to release standards on tire performance soon, but the tire industry says tire age is a non-issue. "There's no information that can tell you exactly when, just because of its age, that a tire should be removed for performance reasons," says Dan Zielinski, from the Rubber Manufacturers Association.

A Goodyear spokesman told us "Proper storage, maintenance and inflation of tires, not the age of tires, are the primary factors in tire performance." Some safety advocates think part of the solution may be in a little bottle filled with RFID chips. They're already being used by airports in Las Vegas and Hong Kong to track luggage and they're also in use by WalMart to keep track of inventory. The chips are read by a reader which works much like a scanner. Sean Kane is a consultant hired by attorneys filing auto liability claims. "The RFID chip can help us identify the important safety issues that we need to identify, whether the tires part of a recall, and the age of the tire," said Sean Kane, from Safety Research & Strategies. The chip would be embedded inside a tire, but civil libertarians are concerned. "We all want tires to be safe. But the solution here is to make serial numbers that are easier to read so that the tires can be quickly checked and recalled, not to put an RFID tag in tires that will enable us to be tracked and monitored," said Nicole Ozer from the American Civil Liberties Union. Alien Technology in Morgan Hill has been developing RFID tags since 2001. "In the end, what really matters is does the technology provide you with more benefit or not. If it does, it will be adopted by people, and if not, people won't want it," says Scot Stelter of Alien Technology. A push in Congress to force better disclosure about the age of a tire was defeated a few years ago under fierce industry opposition.

Determining the Age of a Tire

When it comes to determining the age of a tire, it is easy to identify when a tire was manufactured by reading its Tire Identification Number (often referred to as the tire’s serial number). Unlike vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and the serial numbers used on many other consumer goods (which identify one specific item), Tire Identification Numbers are really batch codes that identify the week and year the tire was produced. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires that Tire Identification Numbers be a combination of the letters DOT, followed by ten, eleven or twelve letters and/or numbers that identify the manufacturing location, tire size and manufacturer's code, along with the week and year the tire was manufactured.

Tires Manufactured Since 2000

Since 2000, the week and year the tire was produced has been provided by the last four digits of the Tire Identification Number with the 2 digits being used to identify the week immediately preceding the 2 digits used to identify the year.

Example of a tire manufactured since 2000 with the current Tire Identification Number format:



In the example above: DOT U2LL LMLR 5107 DOT U2LL LMLR 5107
DOT U2LL LMLR

51 Manufactured during the 51st week of the year

07 Manufactured during 2007

While the entire Tire Identification Number is required to be branded onto one sidewall of every tire, current regulations also require that DOT and the first digits of the Tire Identification Number must also be branded onto the opposite sidewall. Therefore, it is possible to see a Tire Identification Number that appears incomplete and requires looking at the tire’s other sidewall to find the entire Tire Identification Number

The use of a partial Tire Identification Number on the one sidewall (shown above) reduces the risk of injury to the mold technician that would have to install the weekly date code on the top sidewall portion of a hot tire mold.

Tires Manufactured Before 2000

The Tire Identification Number for tires produced prior to 2000 was based on the assumption that tires would not be in service for ten years. While they were required to provided the same information as today’s tires, the week and year the tire was produced was contained in the last three digits. The 2 digits used to identify the week a tire was manufactured immediately preceded a single digit used to identify the year.

Example of a tire manufactured before 2000 with the earlier Tire Identification Number format:

In the example above: DOT EJ8J DFM 408 DOT EJ8J DFM

DOT EJ8J DFM

408

40 Manufactured during the 40th week of the year
8 Manufactured during the 8th year of the decade

While the previous Tire Identification Number format identified that a tire was built in the 8th year of a decade, there was no universal identifier that confirmed which decade (tires produced in the 1990s may have a small triangle following the Tire Identification Number to identify the decade).

And finally, hold on to your sales receipt. Most tire manufacturer's warranties cover their tires for four years from the date of purchase or five years from the week the tires were manufactured. So if you purchase new tires that were manufactured exactly two years ago they will be covered for a total of six years (four years from the date of purchase) as long as you have your receipt. If you lose your receipt, your tires' warranty coverage will end five years from the week the tire was produced (resulting in the tire manufacturer's warranty coverage ending only three years from the date of purchase in this example).

 

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