I bought my 2008 Rubicon Unlimited in Feb 2011 with 22,000 miles. When I bought it, it had brand new tires. After getting them rotated yesterday, there was a very bad vibration/wobble feeling coming from the front end. I brought it back and got the tires balanced to see if that would fix the problem. They discovered that one of the tires had separated on the inside. This was due to the fact that the tires beginning to dry rot since they were made in 2007. So apparently the dealer had these laying around for 4 years before putting them on my Jeep. The tire shop I was at said the average shelf life of a tire is about 3 years. Does anyone know of anything I can do? Is there a certain period of time that a dealer has to use a tire before they're not allowed to mount it?

Any input is greatly appreciated!

 

The guy at the tire shop also said that since one has gone, the others might not be far behind it. Is he just trying to make a quick buck?

 

When I had my 07, I had the factory Wrangler SRA's. At 50,000 kms one tire separated, with 3 weeks, 2 more did the same thing. If you don't trust him wait and see. Or just buy new tires the whole way around.

 

Thank you!

 

If there are signs of dry rot replace the tires. Better safe than sorry.

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=11

That will tell you how to read the date codes on your tires.

If they're from 10-11 I would try to find a replacement for the one tire. If the rest are (relatively) vintage as well then I'd replace them all. Sucks but you've already seen one fall apart.

That said I've had excellent luck with tires well over 3-4 years old...but also seen them fall apart or get weird. YMMV.

 

They look fine from the outside, I didn't realize they could dry rot from the inside out.

 

Thanks for the link!

 

Sounds like a good excuse to get new and bigger tires.