The Lemon Fool

Garage has reported front tyres are "3.5mm perished". At 3.5mm I'd get them replaced very soon. However I'm not sure what they mean by "perished". Does that mean they are damaged in another way or just that they are worn. The rear ones are 5.5mm and are described as "perished recheck".

Thanks

My 3 year old car passed it's first MOT recently with an advisory for all four tyres stating "slightly damaged/cracking or perishing".

As far as I can see, any tyre over a year or two old starts to develop insignificant cracks, usually in the outer sidewall, especially if the car lives outside, where the UV from the sun can affect it.

I think if it were to the point of being a serious issue, it would be an MOT fail, and on a service, the garage would be somewhat more insistent you need to change it rather than giving it a passing mention on a health check.

How old are the tyres? I wouldn't normally expect anything less than six years old to perish unless there'd been chemical contamination - and indeed most tyres don't get the chance to perish because they wear out first.

Secondly, is this a service or an MOT? (Or both?) Garages sometimes report "perished recheck 3,000 miles" (for example), but "perished recheck" on its own doesn't seem to mean much.

Bro-in-law managed to get deep sidewall cracking in his Jeep's newish tyres, because he didn't keep his pressures up. Although they weren't a fail, he was well advised to change them asap.

Beyond that, I'm out of ideas.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:How old are the tyres? I wouldn't normally expect anything less than six years old to perish unless there'd been chemical contamination - and indeed most tyres don't get the chance to perish because they wear out first.

Secondly, is this a service or an MOT? (Or both?) Garages sometimes report "perished recheck 3,000 miles" (for example), but "perished recheck" on its own doesn't seem to mean

It was a service. First MOT due in a few months time. Original tyres on car. Done just over 17,000 miles.

My wife’s car was warned re tyres perishing and I was also told that it was due to the car being in full sun all day. There were small cracks all over the outer tyre walls which they termed ‘perishing’.

Cheers, OLTB.

I've just replaced a front tyre at 16,500 miles, the outside edge was quite cracked and had significant wear on it. I only bought the car with 15,000 miles on it, though it's 5 years old.

(The other front tyre had obviously been replaced recently).

Scott.

swill453 wrote:I've just replaced a front tyre at 16,500 miles, the outside edge was quite cracked and had significant wear on it. I only bought the car with 15,000 miles on it, though it's 5 years old.

Significant wear on the outside edge? And the other tyre had been replaced by the previous owner before 15,000 miles? Don't take this the wrong way, but how's your tracking?

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:

swill453 wrote:I've just replaced a front tyre at 16,500 miles, the outside edge was quite cracked and had significant wear on it. I only bought the car with 15,000 miles on it, though it's 5 years old.

Significant wear on the outside edge? And the other tyre had been replaced by the previous owner before 15,000 miles? Don't take this the wrong way, but how's your tracking?

To be honest I don't know, and that might be a good call. But I was tending to think it was probably owned by a boy-racer type before me.

Scott.

How many years do tyres last if you don't wear them out ?

richlist wrote:How many years do tyres last if you don't wear them out ?

Various people will say 5 years, or 10 years, or something in between. I replaced my campervan tyres at 10 years despite having loads or wear left, and no visible cracks or perishing. Others might say I was already pushing it.

Scott.

swill453 wrote:To be honest I don't know, and that might be a good call. But I was tending to think it was probably owned by a boy-racer type before me.

LOL, without knowing the car I couldn't possibly comment. Might indeed be a donut specialist. But I did once view a Focus Ghia, with all the expensive toys, and with the geometry all knocked to boggery by an old guy who'd done 3,000 miles a year and who should probably have gone to Specsavers before he tried to park the thing. (I pitched in a lowball offer and the dealer told me to sod off. )

I am a great fan of Hunter four-wheel alignment systems, which are a bit pricey (£80-ish a time) but which can make a hell of a difference to both tyre wear and handling. Did the people who fitted your new tyre remark on the wear pattern? Normally they're very keen to sell you an alignment check?

BJ

richlist wrote:How many years do tyres last if you don't wear them out ?

MoT has introduced ...

...Faiilures for tyres over 10 years old on the front axle of any vehicles with 9 or more passenger seats, and any single wheels of a minibus (9-16 passenger seats). These vehicles will also fail if they do not display a legible date code on in scope tyres.

https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/ba ... d-coaches/

...but nothing for cars (yet).

Clariman wrote:Garage has reported front tyres are "3.5mm perished". At 3.5mm I'd get them replaced very soon. However I'm not sure what they mean by "perished". Does that mean they are damaged in another way or just that they are worn. The rear ones are 5.5mm and are described as "perished recheck".

Thanks

Regardless of use tyres degrade due to solar gain. If they are not inflated correctly they will also degrade much faster. And if you have "low profile" both these issues are magnified. And let's not forget that power steering at low speeds put additional pressures on tyres.

I buy tyres to suit the 20,000 miles a year I drive. I get between 40-44,000 out of the front pair and much much more from the back. My good lady does 3-5,000 miles per year and she has less tyre and more wheel than my car. The tyres we buy for her car are less expensive than mine (per tyre) but cost more per mile to run. It's pointless buying hard tyres that can do 40,000 miles on motorways for a car that does 10 miles trips around town. The side walls will perish before the tread is worn.

We learned that one the hard way of course

AiY

swill453 wrote:

richlist wrote:How many years do tyres last if you don't wear them out ?

Various people will say 5 years, or 10 years, or something in between.

Our now departed Silver Shadow came with a fresh MOT and tyres over 25 years old.
Oddly, the outer walls were fine, the inners proved to be so cracked that the tread was detaching. Possibly they had been turned around.

It was a wedding car.
Never buy a wedding car.
They are ruthlessly botched to keep them in service.

To answer the question, on a performance car I'd say 5/6 years would be the outside. Tyres harden and lose their dry grip.
On a garaged shopping trolley I still wouldn't go beyond 10 years.

And I would never change just one front tyre.

V8

On an MoT I will often advise tyres being "perished".

The relevant part of the MoT Manual is section 5.2.3 here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspect ... tion-5-2-3

When I advise I am looking at not just the usual cracking/mottled effect on the sidewalls but also the area between the tread blocks. Some manufacturers are more susceptable than others to cracking both between the blocks and circumferentially in the primary and secondary grooves around the tyre, Avon in particular in my experience. These cracks can become deep enough to reach the cords/plies and thus fail an MoT, even at as young an age as 2 years on occasion.

Sidewall cracking can look like it may be nothing but you must remember that the tyre is fully inflated and very hard to move around to open the cracks up, indeed some I have advised on have turned out to be seriously stuffed when removed from the wheel and the sidewall can be flexed properly.

Tread wear being uneven, or more on one edge than the other, I will also advise on as this can point to possible tracking issues (as mentioned elsewhere in this thread), but also potentially under or over inflation or even suspension set-up problems.

Please note that "Slightly damaged/cracking or perishing" also covers a multitude of sins often caused by the tyre sidewall being rubbed along kerbs, especially on the "parking tyre" (nearside front in other words )

Tread depth I advise on at 3mm or below, but note that this is just my own personal choice as there is no set point at which an MoT Tester has to advise on tyre wear other than the fail limit of 1.6mm.

MoTMork

I just checked a few of my records.

Wife's Suzuki Wagon R new 1998, 2001 2 front tyres at 17k, 2003 1 at 25k (Probably put on rear with unused spare), 2004 2 front at 28k, 2008 all tyres at 42k, so life variable.

Wife's Suzuki Splash new 2009, 2020 2 front tyres at 21k, 11 years on.

My works Lancia Dedra, new 1990, 1991 2 front at 24k, 1992 2 front at 54k and 2 rear at 63k, 1993 2 front at 92k and sold 1994 at 112k.

My works Rover 620i, s/hand 1994, 1 rear tyre at 6k, front tyre at 21k, 1995 2 front at 48k, 1996 1 front damaged at 52k, 4 tyres at 72k, 1998 2 front at 108k.

Works cars had a lot of motorway driving.

TJH

The Maserati had an advisory a couple of years ago of cracked sidewalls - on the inside! Tyres had little wear do to low mileage, but were 7 years old.

I bought them from Black Circles, checked the date code on the tyre and the date I bought them, and discovered they were 2 years old when they arrived

Paul

I think I'm gonna need to get a couple of new front tyres. Mercedes 9 years old, 26K miles. One of the fronts has been fitted from new.
It looks ok but after reading this thread .......

Not exactly comparable, but since it has been on my mind today. Caravan tyres should be changed every 5 years, and certainly not used at more than 7 years old. Advice from the Caravan & Motorhome Club.