How much Colorado weather exposure would ruin a set of tires

July 27, 2019 10:03 AM

My all season tires sat in the sun and rain and snow etc for about a full year, even more, approximately January 2018 through June 2019. The kids dragged them outside to make room and to play with them, a wee bit, like cleaning them and pretending to be a tire shop while I was in treatment for an extended period. I kept the snow tires on (Honda Odyssey) for way too long since it snows in May and blew a flat. My partner thinks it’s unsafe to put them back on. I think we should go to the place where we bought them and ask them to check each tire and make their own determination. Discount Tire is pretty good about catching damage I didn’t even know about and fixing it for free.

The vehicle also is missing its back window which I can have repaired for $300 without an insurance claim. It has 82k miles and the front body kit (hanging plastic crap) is shot to shit so local dealerships are only quoting $500 for trade in value. I’d like to just keep driving it a little longer and to get more resale by having all four tires functioning and the window fixed.

What say you, gearheads-o-the-filtre

posted by aydeejones to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

I think your plan to have them inspected and then put on makes sense.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:51 AM on July 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

Your tyres sit outside all the time when they are on the car - there is very little difference between being mounted and unmounted. There is no reason to believe they are now unsafe because of this storage style. None at all. UV degradation of tyres is real, and this can produce a 5 year or so life span in harsher sun environments. But that's 5 years in the sun, and the tyre will show signs of this UV wear so as long as there is no visible signs of dry rot (many small cracks in the sidewall of the tyre usually) they should be fine, but you don't mention how old they are. If they are more than 4 years old or so it's more of a risk than if they are 2.
posted by Brockles at 11:33 AM on July 27, 2019 [7 favorites]

I would look for dry rot and sun damage and if there's nothing visible, I'd treat them as though they were mounted on the car for the same amount of time. (So, if they're 5+ years old they might be questionable, but if they're newer than that, probably not.) Being unmounted and having your kids play with them probably doesn't matter that much.

If you trust the tire shop to treat you squarely, having them take a look is not a bad solution; I'd be suspicious a tire shop, being in the business of selling tires, would necessarily come up with a reason why you need new tires. That's my experience with tire shops, anyway. YMMV.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:21 PM on July 27, 2019

The place that mounts them will let you know if they are not okay. The kids are unlikely to have doe damage, sun possibly.
posted by theora55 at 4:09 PM on July 27, 2019

Inspection always good; one reason to try and find a good tire shop. But unless the kids were beating on the bead with a piece of angle iron or something I bet the tires will be fine.
posted by Mitheral at 4:34 PM on July 27, 2019