Tires, like any other rubber product, have a limited service life regardless of tread depth and use. The dangers of "aged" tires is a little known problem outside of the industry and one that is likely the cause of a significant number of tread separation problems. "Aged" tires are often unsuspectingly put into service after having served as a spare, stored in garages or warehouses, or simply used on a vehicle that is infrequently driven. In many instances these tires show no visible sign of deterioration, and absent any visible indicators, tires with adequate tread depth are likely to be put into service regardless of age. Tire date codes have been mentioned before on this blog. A video on this was done a while back. Pretty impressive if you have not seen it. Use the link below to see what ABC news did on the subject.
http//abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897
