In reply to 03Panther :
Tires made in the 33rd week of 2009. They old old.
In reply to 03Panther :
Tires made in the 33rd week of 2009. They old old.
If the 3309 on the tires is the date code, buy a set before taking it out of the neighborhood. Tires are only new when they are new.
Here in Florida, it's common to see someone's cream puff low mileage old car with very old tires with no wear on them.
One of my nurses bought the elderly neighbor's Buick with about 20,000 miles on it in 30 years. The tires were about 16 years old but looked new. She insisted they were fine, and actually got rid of the car after she started having blowouts and decided that it wasn't going to be a reliable car.
Tires made on late 09 
I HATE throwing away brand new tires. 
And 235/70R15 only seem available in the most expensive tires made.
16" rims are all either butt ugly, or expensive. 90% are butt ugly (well, at least on grandma's car) AND expensive!!!
No, I will not put the more available 235/75 15 on it. I'd love it if it handled better... I'm not gonna make it worse! And befor anyone suggests a 70 to 75 ain't much different, they are right in looks and diameter difference. Even with the factory 2:56 to 1 rear gear (yes, you read that right) the LT1 wouldn't notice.
But I've gone the other way, and the handling def. knows!
235/70R15 Radial T/A's with *raised white letters* from Discount Tire Direct's ebay store for $140 each with free shipping.
Summit has a couple flavors of Bilstein shocks for these things if you want to play around.
In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :
I saw the T/A's but had a bad experience with them. Back in the '80s, so I'm sure they are better; but not for me
My google-fu did fail me, though... financial manager found Kenergy ST for 120. 70,000 mile warrantee
Thatll work!
I'm glad to hear that you are going to change the tires. I almost didn't make my previous post, since I knew that other than my anecdote, I wasn't telling you anything you didn't already know. I've just seen it multiple times. There are a lot of low mileage cream puff old cars here in god's waiting room.
I love all original vehicles that have been well maintained. Take good care of it, it's a family heirloom. They are only original once.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
Oh, yea.
I do always forget what numbers are the date code, though. Ain't that hard, you'd think I could!
The '09 don't surprise me at all, knowing it's history. Considering it's a garage queen (never driven in that acidic white stuff, never saw sun for a full 16 hrs, never had a cigarette in it, ever) the sidewalls actually show zero cracking/crazing. For just our use they would probably be ok. Would not scare me at all, but I'd hate to see what a tire come apart did to this one's body! 'Specially that rear arch (or lack therein')
But the sams club deal will get bought and mounted soon... they are only gonna go up, and get harder to find. (When does this great economic improvement start helping?)
Did find a number of dings in the SS side moldings. Good that they are SS; next year was plastic taped on... it would not have survived, even on this, by the look of 'em. Being SS, a patient guy could straighten and polish - but I can't!
TJL (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to 03Panther :
Tires made in the 33rd week of 2009. They old old.
Thanks! Not surprised at all
In reply to Feedyurhed :
Thanks. That's definitely my wife's plan!
When I bought my cream puff 03 Merc. from my mother in law (bout 4 year ago, with 55K miles - I've been driving it since 35K!) we had that plan for it. But it's not really that special, and easy to replace, and life forced me to DD it to work (with an acid rain parking lot) and use it like a small truck. And I'm hard on DDs, sadly.
This one is not as common, and not replaceable in this condition at all... at least not at a price I'll ever afford!
The Merc was mine, anyway. I wish it had stayed nicer, but it's OK
This is my Wife's car... I can only drive it (or ride in it) with her in it too. Everything that goes in it, or gets bought while out - comes out as soon as it gets home. I'm even going to have to build walls in part of the 2 1/2 car carport, so it's back in a garage 
Anybody got a few dozen studs cheap? Wanna poor a concrete floor for her? 
Some new v old tire testing that we did over at Classic Motorsports: Testing the New Yokohama A-008P–And, Yes, Tires Do Stop the Car
Our old tires still looked new and actually performed well–up until they didn't.
I had seen that reverenced before, and great work!
on a beater or local trailer, I'd probably run 'em; sidewalls look good, between tread look, no sun damage...
if they blew out, change it. Stupid, but I'm cheap! (If your gonna be dumb, ya better be tough!)
But... and this is the big one... this ain't no beater! NOT gonna risk the damage to the car!!!
Found some nos (hah!) pre cut pine studs, for $4.00 each. It's scary that that's a good price these days. Guy with a wood wholesale store bought a semi trailer of 'em.
In the past, I've tried to look into metal studs (have helped install them, and like them), but the local box stores around here look at me like I've grown three heads!
The few "workers" that have even heard of them, have no clue where to try and find some.
My wife asked me the other day, why it took me so long just to slip in and buy some hardware; told her I made a big mistake, and said "yes", when one asked if I needed anything. Big mistake. Sadly, I'm not joking.
To consolidate some info., as soon as I get some income coming in, this fall, (least I hope!) We'll be getting Kenergy PT tires in 235/70R15 for stock replacement. Only availabile I black wall, but I have ALWAYS put black wall out, on everything. If I did have a Whitehall tire for this car, she might have talked me into it. Despite being yellow, now, the tires look ok on it.
I can't believe I just said that!
Also, plugs and wires. Oil change this winter, despite no miles on oil.
Hopefully that's is for a long time!
Had some steering parts put on at around 80K, but they ain't looking too good. The brand on the dealer invoice is moog. They did not put moog on.
There are guys on here that will defend the stealerships, but my experiences have not been positive, except a few exceptions.
Will probably buy all the parts this winter, but since no single ball is really bad, we'll get a bit more miles out of 'em, before throwing all the parts at her!
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