By Mike Davis

Research conducted since the era of defective Firestone tires on Ford Explorers points to a hidden danger that could affect unsuspecting consumers: the natural aging of rubber.

According to consumer advocate Sean Kane, president of the Massachusetts auto safety research firm, Safety Research and Strategies, Inc. (SRS), crashes specifically proven to have been caused by older tires have resulted in 52 deaths and 50 serious injuries since 1999.

The Age of a Tire

Tire manufacturers have known for a long time that tires more than 6 years old pose a safety hazard to consumers. Like other rubber products, tires deteriorate with age. The internal structure degrades and causes treads to start separating.

Because degradation occurs, regardless of use and tread wear, never-used spares and tires stored on shelves will break down just like tires rolling down the road. A “like new” spare may be a very dangerous piece of equipment to install.

Consumer Awareness

Because more than 30 million used tires are sold in the U.S. each year, the problem goes far beyond the new tires on display at your local tire dealer.

Kane has petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to replace the fed’s current arcane identification system with an easy-to-read expiration date label. While the NHTSA continues to weigh Kane’s petition, it has left the issue of consumer advisory to the automobile and tire manufacturers.

Eurpose Leads the Way

Prompted by European research results, Toyota and several German vehicle manufacturers—including Audi, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes—started adding aging tire warnings in their owners’ manuals in the early 1990s. In April 2005, Ford became the first U.S. automaker to follow suit.

The tire industry, in the meantime, claims there is no data to support a specific age limit for tires. According to the Rubber Manufacturer’s Association (RMA), a tire’s performance and safety is determined more by such factors as climate and proper maintenance. But in fact, the RMA drafted a 10-year maximum service life tire recommendation in 2003 that was never disclosed to the public.

In 2006, NHTSA plans to unveil a tire-aging simulation test as requested by Congress. Until consumers can benefit from that data, Slack & Davis urges consumers to ascertain the exact age of any tire before buying it. Buying a “new” tire, only to have it fail because it is actually 6 years old, may be cause for claims against the seller and manufacturer. v

Mike Davis heads up the Slack & Davis auto product liability team.

How Old is your Tire?

A Department of Transportation (DOT)-mandated 10- or 11-digit U.S. identification number that includes a manufacturing date is molded inside the sidewall of every tire. But most consumers don’t know the DOT code exists—much less how to decipher it.

At the end of the DOT number, three or four numbers indicate the year the tire was manufactured. If those numbers are, for example, 0, 3 and 9, it would mean the tire was made in the third week of either 1989 or 1999.

For tires made in 2000 and beyond, look at the last four numbers. If they are, say, 0, 3, 0, 3 it would mean the tire was made in the third week of 2003.