Tired Tyres (Tires)

[georgem]

I am a little embarrassed to tell this story but....

We  bought our 230sl about 4 years ago, in good condition with excellent tyres - Pirelli P44s with 17mm whitewalls - virtually no tread wear.

In that time we have taken her on some moderately long drives at highway speeds and during hot weather.

A couple of days ago I had a blow out - dvr side front. Not catastrophic as I was only doing about 80km.  I was able to stop quickly, but in the short time that it took to stop, the side wall was totally shredded.

In the process of trying to find a replacement, the Pirelli tech told me that they havent built that model FOR YEARS. We checked the code of off the damaged tyre, which was the same as the others and lo and behold, the tyres on our car  were made in 1992!!!  After 7 years Pirelli reckon that they should be pensioned off, but 17?.

I guess the lesson for classic car drivers is that most owners will never wear their tyres out. Therefore as I have learned, even if they look perfect, be wary of them if they are around 7 years old.

FYI, the code is found in a circle near the DOT code.  For a tyre made in the 2nd week of this year, the code would be 0209. or the tenth week it would be 1009. Mine was 332 ie the 33rd week of 1992. I thought about it being 1982, but 27year old tyres is just too much to think of.

I am now off to buy 4 new tyres (the spare is only 5 years old - whew.) Of course tyre size is the next question and the Tech Manual has some great info


Cheers


George
230SL
Brisbane

tires

[jameshoward]

George,

Sounds like a lucky escape. Clearly you're not spending enough time online, otherwise you'd have seen this post on the site a few weeks ago:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

Peter/Admin - given that a number of members drive their cars infrequently, I feel strongly that this link to the video, or at least a link to information on how to identify tyre age should be a sticky. Without wishing dramatic, it might save someone's live.

James

[Peter van Es]

Rather than making it a sticky, I suggest the section on identifying tire age, the warnings and the link to the video should be added to the Technical Manual... I prefer not to have too many sticky posts hanging around, and most people probably do as I do... and read only the new posts.

With regards to adding it to the Tech Manual... be my guest... this would be a good place: http://www.sl113.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=WheelsTires.Tires

Peter

[hands_aus]

Hey George,
I put some Michelin 185/80R 14 MX1 95T on my car in September 2005.
They did have a modern HR tyre but I couldn't see myself ever doing 210KpHR.

The old tyres were 205/75R14 and because of the extra width the car tracked very firmly. Also because of the width the rear tyre rubbed on the exhaust pipe and the front tyre rubbed on the RHS inner guard.

As soon as I put the correct sized tyres on the 250sl there was no more rubbing and it danced on the highway.

cheers

[jameshoward]

Peter,

Fair point.  Will do.

JH

[georgem]

Bob,

I didn`t realise that the original size was available anymore, although I`m making it harder for myself by wanting a thin white wall. Best I have found so far (with a whitewall) is a 195/75 which is a touch wider but it will get close to the original rolling diameter.
As I mentioned, there is some great info in the Tech manual. After reading that and talking to some tyre companies, I believe I could now be regarded as an Associate Professor of tyres at PUB (if I`m ever lucky enough to get the chance to attend).
I agree re your comment about speed rating. The best we can hope for is some highway driving at 105kph (63 ish mph) so paying for a tyre that is speed rated to a zillion kph is a touch over the top.


Cheers

George

[jameshoward]

Tyre ageing info and the link to the video clip now in the Wiki

http://www.sl113.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=WheelsTires.Tires