Manufacturer Tire Aging / Service Life Bulletins
(Lea en español)While rubber's physical and chemical properties make it an ideal raw material to use in the production of pneumatic tires, extreme and/or long-term exposure to cold, heat, ozone, oxygen and sunlight will eventually rob rubber of its elasticity.
This means all tires will eventually age out, even if they don't wear out. The still unanswered question is when. Unfortunately, there is no scientific evidence that can confirm a "use by" date because there are indications a tire's environment and service conditions play at least an equivalent role as a tire's manufacturing recipe. Therefore, tire aging and tire service life depends on many factors in addition to simple chronological age.
The following tire manufacturers and organizations have issued tire age/service life bulletins: