JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Checking the tires on your car is crucial for safety.
We've told you about the penny test before: You put the penny upside down in the tread of the tire and as long as you can't see the top of Abraham Lincoln's head, your tires are OK. If you do see the top of his head, that means there is not enough tread to safely ride on the tire. Firestone Complete Auto Care's website offers easy to follow directions on how to check your tires.
The next thing you may not know to check is your tire's age. Your tires may have plenty of tread, but as they age, what's happening on the inside can be the real, hidden danger.
"The tire is what keeps you on the road," said Tony Mossuto, owner of Everything Automotive in Jacksonville. "It's one of the most important safety items you can have."
Mossuto has seen his share of tires that look new, but are far from safe.
"I personally bought a '90 Olds off a little old lady and the tires looked wonderful," Mossuto said. "Not even very cracked, and I was driving it home and had to hit my brakes and the tread came off the tire and it separated and blew."
Over time, the material on and inside tires can dry out, rot and lose elasticity. This leads to a possible catastrophic tread separation.
"You're at risk for a blowout and blowouts have caused tens of thousand of crashes every year," according to William Bishop with AAA.
Bishop adds that these wrecks result in thousands of injuries and hundreds of deaths each year. Among them, actor Paul Walker.
The horrific crash that claimed Walker's life was due in part to the tires on the car he was riding in. The Porshe was brand new, but the tires were nine years old.
So why would you have nine-year-old tires on a brand new Porshe? That's what we asked Mossuto.
He explained, "Because they look good, they look nice. You can't tell. Rubber rots from the inside out. So you get people coming in complaining of a problem and then when you investigate it, you find out it's a very old tire."
Finding out the age of a tire is very simple. You just decode the numbers on the sidewall. But very few people know how.
We hit the streets to see just how many were unaware of the way to read the age.
"I just know how to do the tread test," said Kevin Zaring. "Not really the age."
Chris Selm didn't know how to decode the tire either.
The way to tell the age is to look for the four-digit DOT number. It's on the sidewall of each tire. The first two digits are the week the tire was made, the last two digits are the year. For example, the number 3513 would mean the tire was manufactured in the 35th week of 2013.
While there is nothing legally preventing anyone from selling you an older tire, car manufacturers now warn against it, whether the tire was ever driven on or not.
"Ford, Honda, you can see it in their driver's manuals. They say don't have a tire over six years on the road," according to Mossuto.
Tire manufacturers say the tires are good for 10 years, but according to AAA, it really depends on how you care for the tire once it's yours.
"Tires can go bad in a year," Bishop said. "They can last 10 to 12 years. It all depends on maintenance on your tires and whether or not they are being used, because they will dry rot faster if they are just sitting there."
While Selms now knows that the tires on his car are just a couple years old, he says he will never look at tires the same way again.
"It is something I will look for in the future. Definitely something beneficial to know," Selms said.
By the way, tires in warmer climates like Florida and Georgia can go bad a lot faster, especially if they are left out in the heat. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a new campaign this year to help the public make informed tire purchasing decisions, but the agency decided against putting a specific age limit on tires. They have also performed numerous tests and studies on aging tires. You can find links to all of those by clicking here.