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MG MGA - Time for new rubber?

The tires on my car were put on by the PO during restoration in '96. There's still plenty of tread left on them and no noticeable cracks in the rubber, but I'm wondering if I should be thinking about replacing them since they're now 11 years old. What is the generally accepted life span of a set of tires?

When I do replace them, I've been thinking of going with a set of wide whitewalls as I really like the classic look they give these cars. Poking around on the web, I found that Coker tires carry 2 brands of wide whitewalls radials in 165R15 size - BFGoodrich Silvertown and their own Coker Classic. The BFGoodrich tires are a bit more expensive than the Cokers. Could anyone familiar with these tires suggest what the difference is between the two (asside from the obvious name on the sidewall) that would justify the higher price of the BFGoodrich.
Andy Bounsall

Andy, if they have not been exposed to the sun a lot (UV damage) and they are not cracked, I would use them. After all, you have inner tubes?
Art

Mine have been on my 1600 for 16 years. They are worn now. No cracking. Bias ply wide whitewalls. When new the bias plys worked fine and felt great in a slight drift occasionally. I wouldn't do that now. I am thinking of going with wide whitewall radials myself even though I didn't think I suffered any loss of performance out of the bias ply. No broken spokes either. Anyone breaking spokes with radial tires?
David Holmes

I still have Michelin XZX from the late eighties on my car, gets driven hard, no problems (yet!). No broken spokes.

One thing with the the old inner tubes, when I got a puncture, the tube was destroyed.

Neil
Neil McGurk

Andy
As an engineering manager from Bridgestone here in Europe I can say that 10 years is the accepted life of tyres. Over time the rubber hardens due to the ongoing vulcanization process each time the weather is warm. This will lead to much worse performance in grip, especially in the wet. If left in the sun or near to a source UV then ozone cracking on the surface will occur. These cracks less than 1mm deep are not a big problem for tyre performance but should be watched to ensure they are not coming from another source (overheating through underinflation for example).

My recommendation is therefore to change now and give yourself a better safety margin when driving.

In Europe we still sell Firestone F560 which I use on my MGA in 165R15 size. They work very well. I am not sure what is available in Canada.

Hope this helps

Best regards
Neil
Neil Purves

Neil,

I appreciate the advice, I just needed a good reason to go and spend some more cash!.

I also like the whitewall (white line) look and saw the BF Goodrich. These are quite a high price in the UK. Do you know of any good "white line" tyres available in UK?

Neil
Neil McGurk

When Neil with his Bridgestone engineering background says 10 years, I am willing to accept that as a comfortable fact. Means that I can keep the tyres on the MGB for another 5 years!

I would have thought tyre life was a bit shorter - perhaps 7 or 8 years for a classic that is reasonably carefully driven. BMW, for one, says in their drivers handbook that you should never use tyres that are more than 6 years old. But naturally they have to be on the safe side.

The big difference is of course in the wet. A few years ago I had a really nasty moment in my midget. It was a sudden, heavy rainfall, and the tyres were 13 years old. Plenty of thread, but it felt like driving on ice!

Tore
Tore

Att: Neil Purves
Neil - On Monday of this week I was told by Firestone (Ibiza, Spain) that F560 are obsolete. I was trying to buy tyres for my MG Magnette.- I saw the F560's on Lou Shortens car whilst visiting the U.K. the other week.I wonder if you could supply me with the information I would need to purchase these tyres in Spain.Many thanks! Brian Pollard
brian pollard

You menitoned Coker Tire... They are baised here in Chattanooga... their pres (also pres of SEMA) owns a red 58 MGA. I got a tour of his garage once...
TNGLENN
TNGLENN

Neil, thanks for that info. I had a vague recollection of reading about a 10 year life span for tires at some point. I guess that's what triggered my question when I realized the age of these tires. The fact is that they've been on the car for 11 years, but for all I know they could be even older than that.

Now I'm very curious to try and figure out just how old these tires really are. There's no DOT date code on the sidewall - it just says "Nokia Rollster A100", "165R15", and "made in Finland". PO lived in NY so I assume that's were he purchased them.

I've sent an email to Nokian Tyres to see if they can identify when this type of tire was last produced. I read that Nokian Tyres was split off from the parent Nokia Corp in 1988, but I assume they continued to market tires under the "Nokia" brand name for some time before rebranding them as "Nokian". Anybody know when that happened?

Neil mentioned about the rubber hardening due to vulcanization. I did a quick finger nail comparison with the nearly new Dunlop tires on my daily driver and there is a marked difference. These old tires are much harder. I guess I'll be replacing them sooner rather than later.
Andy Bounsall

I ran across a fellow driving an MGA today. Chatted for a couple of minutes, and really liked the Coker Classics that he had on the car. They are radials, but look like bias plys. Just wish they had them in 14".
Emmanuel Kafant

I recived some info from Coker late this afternoon. For anyone else who's interested, they said that the Coker Classic and BF Goodrich Silvertown are essentially the same tire, made in the same factory. They have a slightly different tread pattern, but that the price difference is really for the BF Goodrich name brand. They said both tires are great quality and are covered by the same life of the tread warranty.
Andy Bounsall

Brian
I suggest to go in to an "Autodisco" store in Spain to get the best advice on Firestone range tyres as these stores are owned by us :-)
What many people do not realize is that most tyre shops are somehow affiliated to the big brands so if you are not in the right shop you may end up being told something just so you buy what is best for them!!

I checked in our SAP system and there are plenty in stock in Spain so they should be a next day delivery to the dealer (or perhaps 2 days being Spain!!).

ANDY - A DOT code has been a mandatory item for many years now, even in Finland!!! I think that the tyres must be quite old indeed!!
As another "not many people know that" fact in the same mail - Although there are many tyre brands sold globally there are only a few big players who control many brands through full or part ownership. For example Bridgestone fully own the Firestone, Dayton, First-Stop brands, and partially own Nokian (19% share) and Lassa (50% share in production).
The big 3 (Bridgestone, Michelin and Goodyear) own almost 60% of the global tyre market.

Hope this is interesting for you.

Best regards
Neil
Neil Purves

Neils most recent post made me nervous so I did a more thorough search for a DOT code on the old tires. Finally found it on the inside sidewall after taking a wheel off the car. The date code shows that they were manufactured March/95 so they are actually a bit over 12 years old.
Andy Bounsall

I purchased 4 new tires on my MGA last year, and kept the best 10 year old tire for a spare. Then a problem developed with the left rear wire wheel. The spare looked good, and the wire wheel was much better than the one on the left rear, so I swapped them. What a mistake!!! I had recently installed a 5 speed Datsun transmission, and on a return 200 mile trip, had a blowout on the interstate @ 80mph. No one was hurt, excepting the rear fender that tucked under approximately 3 inches. I immeidately purchased a new replacement tire and 4 chrome wire wheels. My tire guy said that the life of a tire is 7 years. Several of our club members immediately checked the age of their tires, and some were 15 years old!!! Needless to say, they were replaced. I purchased Nankang tires, made in Korea, for a resonable price of $66 / tire.
cliff hughes

This thread was discussed between 25/06/2007 and 27/06/2007

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