New spare tyre but 8yrs old

[mabaudi]

Hi. I need to replace the front tyres on my A6(2006) The spare wheel is brand new never been out of the boot. Is it still
safe to use or would it have deteriorated sat in the boot. My plan is to get a new tyre to match it and keep one of the old ones as the spare
Any help much appreciated.

[Sam]

Rubber perishes and so tyres have a shelflife.

Check the date of manufacture on the tyre wall, it starts with DOT and ends with 4 digits. The 4 digits are the week number and year of manufacture.

[mabaudi]

Thanks for coming back. The tyre was made in the 20th week of 2006. Whats the approx shelf life. side walls all look ok with no cracks etc

[Sam]

6 years is the suggested maximum but it depends on the visual condition.

As you need to replace two, I'd buy two new tyres and leave the spare on the spare wheel, giving it a quick once over before putting it back in again.

Chances are you'll never need to use and if you do, you won't be racing anywhere on it now that you know it's 'old'.

[johnsimcox]

If it has spent its whole life in the spare wheel well then it will have not been exposed to sunlight and thus the rubber will have not started to break down in the way it would have if it had been on the car. As already suggested, keep it as the spare and replace the other two

[ruggedscot]

I had an issue with the tracking - its rubbed the inner edges of the rear tyres, anyways I think keep one as a spare bring out the spare its never been used and buy a similar tyre for the other wheel..... Hmmm the OEM price was about the same as two decent normal tyres. So I kept the spare as a spare and will replace the two other tyres hankook or falken seem to do the job and wear reasonably well.