Tyre Treatment?

Taiwan seems to be tough on tyres. I think ozone, along with the sunlight and the heat, attacks them.

Mine are showing sidewall cracks, though I don’t do many miles and keep them on the high side of the recommended pressure.

Low mileage may actually be worse, since I’ve read that there’s a wax incorporated in the compound which is forced to the surface by flexion, so an idle tyre dries out.

If that’s true, waxing your tyres might be worthwhile. Whitewalls might be advantageous too, though they’d look a bit silly on my car. Subaru Casa Blanca, perhaps.

Anyway, what I actually tried was, of course, sunflower oil, the idea being that it’ll form a semi-flexible coating on the surface of the sidewall.

I’ve read a couple of (US DOD, I think) refs to SO as a rubber-protectant. OTOH, there’s debate in the diesels-on-veg-oil “community” as to whether veg oil attacks rubber seals, so the literature is inconsistent, as they say.

Pictures show outer tyre sidewalls about 10 mins after the sixth (and probably final) daily treatment with sunflower oil.

I treated the NS front tyre and the OS rear, with the other two as “controls”, selected because a dog had pissed on the OS front, so more-or-less at random, but with an uncontrolled variable, unless I can get it to piss on the other tyres as well.

The treated tyres look better subjectively, but the tyres probably varied anyway, and I neglected to take “before” pictures, which might have been informative.

The oil can be seen to be “drying” patchy, and in fact seems to soak in, which I didn’t expect. If I had, I wouldn’t have used SO, since its relatively unstable. My best guess is that, medium term, it’ll stiffen the tyre internally and actually accelerate the rate of deterioration.

Of course there is some potential for dangerous loss-of-grip here, but I think its limited. I don’t drive the car while theres visible oil sheen on the sidewall, and not usually the same day, so any migration to the tread surface should be minimal. Emergency stops tests pre and post treatment show no noticable difference.

After I did this I read that one of the big tyre producers was using SO to enhance grip, but I think that’s irrelevant either way, since they’ll incorporate it into the compound.

Front OS untreated

flickr.com/photos/31043052@N06/6900646920/


IMG_0113 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

Front OS untreated detail

flickr.com/photos/31043052@N06/7046744391/


IMG_0114 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

Front NS tyrewall 10 mins after the sixth daily treatment with sunflower oil
flickr.com/photos/31043052@N06/6900651372/


IMG_0115 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

Front Nearside treated detail
flickr.com/photos/31043052@N06/6900653460/


IMG_0110 by ed_lithgow, on Flickr

Cracks in the tires are mainly from sitting to long and drying out in the sun. I have never had this problem with my cars, because like most americans, I drove my cars everyday, however, I had sail boats for may years and this was common with the trailer tires which would would have little or no road wear and sat for long periods (entire winter). We used Armour All tire protect which besides making tires shiney, supposidly nouishes the rubber. Not sure if it is availble here but likely so, or something similar.

Mike

Yes, I agree that my tyre cracking is probably a combination of underuse and the climate here.

I think I’ve vaguely heard of that Armor-all stuff. There was also something called, IIRC, Aerospace (?) Protectant 303, recommended in a marine context, I think for inflatable boats.

Things are difficult to find in Taiwan, though. If it conferred “shinyness”, there might well be a market for it, but if it was just a maintenance product with a matte finish, Taiwanese wouldn’t be interested.

I also have a weakness for half-assed ghetto improvisations, and the experiment is now underway. If I buy new tyres, which I might have to do fairly soon, I’ll look-into designer solutions

Any car valeting place or scooter repair place will have it.

I can only pick out the production date clearly on this tyre:

This states it was produced in October, 2005, which makes the tyre potentially dangerous and outside of any manufacturer’s recommended usage period. The fact that it is cracking up now suggests that the rubber and carbon black compound it is produced from has become unstable and prone to failure. You will also notice that running this tyre as opposed to a new tyre will result in much greater road noise. This is because the rubber compound is now relatively brittle and will not flex or grip as well as it was designed to.
Continue using this tyre at your own risk, but I would recommend a new replacement.

I’ve seen various claims that “leading” showroom tyre valetting products contain silicon oil and organic solvents that attack the rubber, so “pretty” may not be the same as “protected”.

I suspect the target includes Armour-all, though of course they aren’t specified.

The makers of Aerospace 303 protectant make this claim particularly forcefully, though of course they would, having a vested interest in talking down the competition.

A sample:-

autoeducation.com/carcare/tires.htm

303products.com/techinfo/tires1.htm

and a recipe:-

scprod.com/formularies/Tire%20Protectant.pdf

You takes yer choice, and you pays yer money.

Or you dont.

[quote=“Ducked”]I’ve seen various claims that “leading” showroom tyre valetting products contain silicon oil and organic solvents that attack the rubber, so “pretty” may not be the same as “protected”.

[/quote]
But your tyres are already death traps! I don’t expect that even ArmorTheEntireUniverseAnd Beyond is going to offer much in the way of protection for those particular shoes! :laughing:

[quote=“sulavaca”]I can only pick out the production date clearly on this tyre:

This states it was produced in October, 2005, which makes the tyre potentially dangerous and outside of any manufacturer’s recommended usage period…etc, see above

Continue using this tyre at your own risk, but I would recommend a new replacement.[/quote]

Thanks Mr S. Duly noted.

(Thought that might happen).

Discussion of tyre age:-

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=138
EDIT : The article refers to two tyre industry associations that have made recommendations

“The British Rubber Manufacturers Association (BRMA) recommended practice issued June, 2001, states “BRMA members strongly recommend that unused tyres should not be put into service if they are over six years old and that all tyres should be replaced ten years from the date of their manufacture.”

The British Tyre Manufacturers Association current recommendation, in contrast, says bugger-all, referring the reader to the vehicle owners handbook.

http://www.btmauk.com/data/files/Tyre_service_life_recommendations_31_May_2011.pfd

Mine is in Chinese. I’d bet the price of a new set of tyres that it says bugger-all too, but then its 25 years old.

Perhaps more relevantly for local conditions, they also refer to The Japan Automobile Tire Manufacturers Association (JATMA) who’s recommended practice issued May, 2005, is quoted as stating:-

" it is recommended that all tires (including spare tires) that were made more than ten years ago be replaced with new tires." though they also attempt to pass the buck to the owners handbook.

So both these recommendations, including the one from the famously anal Japanese, [EDIT: That should perhaps be now be “famously (at least until Fukushima) anal Japanese”] are for 10 years.

These are of course general recommendations and not necessarily best current practice.

Bridgestone-Firestone has apparently adopted the Japanese recommendation, with the caveat that there is/was no specific technical basis for it.

http://www.safetyresearch.net/2006/01/01/number-of-tire-age/
“we believe it is appropriate to follow the JATMA recommendation in the interest of further encouraging consumers to focus on the importance of maintaining and properly replacing their tires.”

They also defer to the owners handbook.

Ford and Chrysler apparently recommend 6 years regardless of tread or use. They get sued a lot, as you might expect.

This gives them a vested interest slightly different to that of the tyre producers, who don’t want to get stuck with ageing inventory.

http://thesafetyrecord.safetyresearch.net/2010/11/18/tire-age-issue-still-languishing-in-us/

[quote=“sandman”][quote=“Ducked”]I’ve seen various claims that “leading” showroom tyre valetting products contain silicon oil and organic solvents that attack the rubber, so “pretty” may not be the same as “protected”.

[/quote]
But your tyres are already death traps! I don’t expect that even ArmorTheEntireUniverseAnd Beyond is going to offer much in the way of protection for those particular shoes! :laughing:[/quote]

So its a separate issue.

As I said above, I’ll look into “designer solutions” when I have to buy new tyres, which will probably be quite soon.

safetyresearch.net/safety-issues/tires/

Animation on tyre ageing/failure mechanism.

Apparently air-permeation from inside the tyre is a significant contribution to oxidative degredation of the material.

Didn’t know that, though it makes sense.

Wouldnt be that hard to inflate with CO2. Bit of yeast and sugar… :ponder:

Nitrogen.

In my experience it is not terribly necessary to treat most tyres in Taiwan as the vast majority of users will wear them out before they become dangerous.
Also I have no knowledge of any, single compound which can protect a tyre’s tread well enough to extend considerably the time which it takes for it to become brittle over time. This reaction can be slowed slightly in some cases, but almost never significantly enough as tyres are made from vulcanized rubber, and this process is an irreversible process which causes the rubber and carbon black element to combine and become ever stiffer over time. Its a process which both offers advantages, i.e. the rubber in the tyre doesn’t fall apart and separate readily, and also disadvantages, i.e. that the compound always gets harder over time and causes distortion of tread, hardening and splitting of rubber and separation from the internal wire framework.
In fact this process is so irreversible that so far no technology has been found to separate the rubber from the carbon black compound. This is why to this day tyres are non-recyclable.

Nitrogen.

.[/quote]

That’d be better, and is cheap to produce industrially in bulk (by fractional distillation of air) but there probably wouldn’t be payback for setting up a system in petrol stations, even if you could prove it worked.

I don’t know of any cheap supply of pure N readily available to individuals.

Methane or propane might be all right, though the slight fire/explosion hazard would be a deterrent. One would have to purge all the air from the tyre, which would be difficult.

costco.com.tw/eng/products_services.htm

They offer a nitrogen service.

[quote=“sulavaca”]http://www.costco.com.tw/eng/products_services.htm

They offer a nitrogen service.[/quote]

Knock me down wiv a fevva!

I get the tyre life bit, not so sure about the fuel economy and handling. Is it expensive?

Keeping your tyres inflated properly increases handling, fuel efficiency and tyre life.

[quote=“sulavaca”]I can only pick out the production date clearly on this tyre:

This states it was produced in October, 2005, which makes the tyre potentially dangerous and outside of any manufacturer’s recommended usage period. The fact that it is cracking up now suggests that the rubber and carbon black compound it is produced from has become unstable and prone to failure. You will also notice that running this tyre as opposed to a new tyre will result in much greater road noise. This is because the rubber compound is now relatively brittle and will not flex or grip as well as it was designed to.
Continue using this tyre at your own risk, but I would recommend a new replacement.[/quote]

I thought I’d better check the codes on the other tyres. Allways meant to but never got around to it. :blush:

There are two shallow lozenge-shaped depressions each side of a “C8FH” moulded into the outside sidewall. One of them seems to be empty, the other contains a very faint alphanumeric code, which I assume is the date stamp. These are, if I’m interpreting them correctly:-

Front OS : JDJ0905 : Week 9, (i.e. Feb) 2005
Front NS : JDJ1005 : Week 10 (ie Feb) 2005
Rear NS : JDJ1105 : Week 11 (ie March) 2005
Rear OS : JDJ1005 : Week 10 (ie Feb) 2005

They are all Bridgstone 175/70R13 SF-226 radials. There are lots of other codes on the tyres but the only one that varies seems to be WK154941-2 (FOS) and WK154941-1 (other three wheels). I’ve no idea what that means but suspect it might be a mould number.

So they were fitted as a matched set, and are still well within the manufactures advised 10 year lifespan. OTOH, they are outside the 6 year lifespan apparently advised by many car makers.

That seems to be a blanket advisory that has to cover some very heavy and high performance vehicles, which my sub-litre car isn’t, especially when driven by me. A lot of the impetus for it seems to have come from Germany, where high speed driving is legal, and some high profile US litigation involving a Ford Explorer rollover.

So I wouldn’t personally scrap them on an age basis, but I don’t like the look of them much, so I’ll probably at least replace the two with the most obvious sidewall fissures.

I’m told part-used tyres are pretty cheap here, (though I dunno where you get them) so I’ll look into that.

The spare, which I’d expect to be older, but looks better, is a Chengshin 831 155SR13 (different nominal width and aspect ratio, same rim diameter).

It has an 11-digit code (42707105610) in a shallow lozenge, which seems to be using a different system which I can’t interpret at present.

Nearby there’s DOT UYE5 HEO427 moulded in relief. Dunno what all that means either, (apart from DOT, probably) but if I had to guess I’d say all the alpha stuff was secret manufacturer jive, and it was made in week 42 of 2007. A youngster!

The last three digits match the first 3 of the numeric code above, so maybe its a mirror, to go with all the smoke?

Yes, of course. But why would keeping your tyres inflated properly with nitrogen [strike]increase[/strike] improve handling and fuel efficiency?

(These are in conflict in any case, though thats a seperate issue.)

Edit, yes, sorry that’s the tenth week of 2005, not October. My mistake.

Nitrogen per se does not improve any of those things much within normal use over normal air. They have simply mentioned those things in order to serve as an advertisement.

Read more here: lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/ … -3606.html

In my experience, nitrogen does little to nothing to improve the experience and the effectiveness of typical passenger vehicle tyres.
Personally I don’t use nitrogen and can’t really be bothered in squeezing out just that little, tiny bit more performance from a good set of tyres.
Personally, I would recommend accepting that tyres will simply deteriorate over time, and that there is little you can do about it.

The best piece of advice I can offer is to keep the vehicle garaged. This will not only reduce weathering to the vehicle’s tyres, but will reduce all issues overall.

[quote=“sulavaca”]Nitrogen per se does not improve any of those things much within normal use over normal air. They have simply mentioned those things in order to serve as an advertisement.

Read more here: lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/ … -3606.html

In my experience, nitrogen does little to nothing to improve the experience and the effectiveness of typical passenger vehicle tyres.
Personally I don’t use nitrogen and can’t really be bothered in squeezing out just that little, tiny bit more performance from a good set of tyres.
Personally, I would recommend accepting that tyres will simply deteriorate over time, and that there is little you can do about it.

The best piece of advice I can offer is to keep the vehicle garaged. This will not only reduce weathering to the vehicle’s tyres, but will reduce all issues overall.[/quote]

I know you didn’t write it, Mr S, or explicitly endorse the content, but I have to say that article appears to be mostly bullshit.

Eg “The moisture content of nitrogen leads to a cooler running tyre” :aiyo:

I asked one of my private students, who runs a Ford dealership, and they do nitrogen tyre fills, so I guess most of the main dealers might.

(There was me thinking I’d invented something, “They all laughed when Edisson discovered sound” stylee.)

Apparently they have a “club”.

(Dunno what its called, I fancy “The NInert Club” but I guess that might not work in Chinese, if indeed it works in English ).

IF I understood them correctly, 100NT (I’d guess a year, though they seemed to be saying it was a one-off payment) buys you all the N you want. Doesn’t seem too bad.

Ducked -
If & when you decide on new tires, you might look into the tire package offered by CostCo here on the island.
It looks to be a pretty comprehensive plan with good after buy service included.

Also, they do offer that ‘nitrogen’ inflation. Although, IMO, the jury is still out on actually how much of an advantage that is for non-commercial users. Still, if it has a good side and its part of the package - good for them.