Do tires on a car with low mileage need replacement after 10 years?

Question

I own an 8 year old Lexus NXt that has only 18500 miles on it. Car is garaged, and almost all driving is for short trips in LA in normal traffic. We live in an area of LA that has more temperate temperatures that other locales. Tread is still very good. Do my tires on a car with low mileage need replacement after 10 years?

Answer 1

Yes, those tires need to be replaced before driving that vehicle.

It may be tentative, but tires do have an expiration date. There is a general consensus that most tires should be inspected, if not replaced, at about six years and should be absolutely be swapped out after 10 years, regardless of how much tread they have left.

Source:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15339994/how-long-should-a-new-set-of-tires-last/

Note that all tires have a manufacture date stamped on them. If you get in an accident with tires that old on your vehicle, you may be found liable regardless of the situation. A flatbed tow truck or a mobile tire installation service is your friend.

Answer 2

Some tires have a manufacture date stamped on them, such as the agricultural tires shown on this page which is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Tire Safety: Expiration Dates

The fact is that all tires have an expiration date. Surprisingly, many consumers and sellers of tires do not know about tire expiration dates.
. . .
Every tire has a birth date—the day it was manufactured—and an expiration date that is six years from that manufacture date.
. . .
Expiration dates for tires manufactured before 2000 were based on a 10-year scale because the expected life-span of a tire was 10 years. Current guidance suggests that tires should be expected to last a maximum of only six years.
. . .

A tire manufactured-date code, shown in the yellow box, may appear on the outside of some tires. The 11-character DOT code, shown in the red box, appears on the inside of tires.
. . .
The last two digits refer to the year the tire was produced, and the first two digits identify the week number within that year ... was manufactured on the 36th week of the year 2001. That tire was on a trailer that had been sitting in a field unused for 10 years, and it showed signs of dry-rot cracking. It is unclear whether trailer tires should be replaced every six years since they do not receive the same daily punishment as automobile tires. However, automobile tires should be replaced every six years.

Answer 3

I recommend replacing, but if you're careful you can continue driving, provided that the tires are carefully inspected to not have any catastrophic integrity failures.

I have 9 year old summer and winter (studded) tires on my car. I already notice degradation of traction on both. Tread is still fine on both, although some studs have failed (not lost but failed due to lost tip), but the proportion of failed studs is equally distributed to all tires, so they are legal (where I live, the max stud count difference is 25% and a failed stud is counted as a missing stud). I plan to replace both soon.

I also have driven on very low mileage 22 year old winter studded tires. Traction was poor, but they were still driveable. In worst conditions (ice), traction probably was helped by intact and good low mileage studs, but on packed snow the reduced traction was markedly apparent.

My opinion is that you should weigh the risks and costs. If you drive very little, in areas with low traffic and no poor road conditions, drive carefully, and have a good recent car that has traction control (like your Lexus surely has), the cost to replace the tires is still the same but the risk of accident is lower due to low mileage, good car, good road conditions, low traffic and careful driving. If you replace, then you have expensive good new tires and the problem that due to your low driving, you get only maybe 20% of their useful tread life and then your car is so old you can't get important spare parts anymore, every rubber gasket and hose is starting to disintegrate in your car, and your car starts to rust.

However, if you have a very old car with no traction control (and maybe not even ABS!), that was historically driven very little, and your plan is to actually start driving on it a lot, so much that by the time you plan to scrap the car the new tires have fully worn treads, then yes, definitely replace those tires after 10 years.