Posted on "Off topic" Check your tires!

[LeloSKYLANM]

Please read.

ABC News

[xmicro_Redline]

Holy Deja vu Batman!

[bamanick]

Just checked the tires on my Sky and couldn't find the code at the end (wth), and checked my wifes Maxima and two of them had a code of 2006 (about when I bought them), and the other two I couldn't find the code. Weird stuff.

[jnag698]

EXCELLENT information for everyone !!!!

It's great that people like you post important info like this. Hopefully, everyone will see it and pass the info along to family and friends.

[Bogie]

For the information provided, that's a decent piece. All owners should be aware of tire age.

However, I'm very disappointed in the depth of the investigation. It was couched too much as "hit piece". Time would have been better spent providing more safety information and data to the consumer.

Tire age....ALONE....is not sufficient. Tire integrity is as much a function of environment as it is of age. So you can have a one year old tire that is "aged" more than a six year old tire. If they really wanted to do some good investigative journalism, they would have addressed the following issues:

Tires in general:

1. Environment: "For Sale" tires stacked out in the sun, rain, sleet, and snow, or even a humid environment of a shop, are going to age very fast and fast (respectively) compared to those in a humidity controlled environment.

2. Longevity as a function of tire compound, and tire type.

3. Manufacturer's recommendation.

As for the real danger:

4. How about some statistics on accidents attributed to tire problems? Hell, this is investigative journalism....INVESTIGATE dammit!

5. How about a survey of a cross section of users....where the tire age is checked? INVESTIGATE dammit.

***************

As for SKY and Solstices, not to worry. The stock tires are OEM'd specifically for our vehicles, including specific tread and compound changes based on Solstice mule tests (although it's not clear if that was RSA or the GS-1). I would be surprised if any of our stock tires are over four years old, and that's for the 07 models.

Bottom Line: Tire age is important. Be aware. But also be aware of Tire ENVIRONMENT.

Garages not only protect our paint finish. They protect our tires. Same goes for car covers....those that extend almost to the ground....protecting the tire from the sun.

[MidniteBlues]

Same here, looked at my youngest daughters 3 month old 2008 G6 GT & my H2's tires, could not find any codes. On the GT, the oval circles were blank where the code is suppose to be after the lettered ovals.. Kinda odd, perhaps they quit putting on those codes.. or maybe OEM tires don't have them?

[LeloSKYLANM]

It was mentioned in the piece that the code is often mounted to the inside,... Only stamped on one side of the tire?

[Rustyknight]

I agree with bogie, the piece included abunch of speculation but not any statistics at all. Considering they are supposed to be investigative reporters, they provided no actual information.

Also note in less than five minutes of searching on the net , I found an interesting statistic from a published report by the nhtsa.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd...g_MacIsaac.pdf

This is a powerpoint presentation on research into creating a methodology for simulating tire aging and creating a standard tire aging performance test, slide 4 is interesting in that it says 1.1% of all light vehicle accidents are coded with tire problems.

Note I have to wonder how effective this research might prove to be in regards to actual safety improvements, while it may prove to be usefull in pre-production testing to help as part of the design process, this one statistic makes me wonder if it will actually translate to improved safety in real life on the road in the form of a tire age standard. If 1.1% of accidents have tire problem listed as a contributing factor, that means 98.9% didn't have tire related problems as a contributing factor, also tire problems is a wide open listing and not all accidents listed a having tire problems are goiing to be due to the age of the tire.

Also it is interesting to note that in 1997 there were 6,764,000 accidents in the united states, of those 37,280 resulted in a fatality, using the nhtsa tire problem % that translates into 410 crashes that resulted in fatalities.

For comparison purposes while tire problems were listed at 1.1%, roll over rate in fatal accidents was listed at 21.1%.

[Excelsior]

This is the ideal story for SHOCK MEDIA! And I hate SHOCK MEDIA with a passion.

[gijohn]

I checked codes on my RL ...... on the right side I easily found the codes (4907) .... left side tires the "oval" (as seen on the video) was there but no imprint .. just blank. Maybe it was on the inside. Didn't check.