Anyone ever try oiling the sides of tires with engine oil to keep them from drying out?
Jim
CYWG

 

I have never heard of puting engine oil on tires, but i use to work at a landscaping yard and they put this stuff that was thicker than glue all over ther tires on the disels, it kept them shiney and they said that it helped keep them from drying out, sorry don't know the name maybe someone else will know what i am talking about.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 11-Jun-02 AT 06:13 AM (EST)]Do you mean for storing tires ? sounds like it would work to keep the sidewalls from dry rotting but if your driving them, Im thinking they would be a mess once you got into the dirt or sand.

 

For driving. Have you ever noticed how fast some tires seem to absorb the oil ?

Jim

CYWG

 

I think there are some aftermarket tire shine & protection liquids that are oily.

This would NOT include old-school Armor All (that stuff is crap for preservation).

Perhaps the ones I'm thinking of were mad eout of silicone like this Black Jack Tire SHine:
http://hartwellinternational.com/staticpages/northamericanoil.htm

I know from being in the car business that like Armor All, there are other finish liquids that make nice looking car parts, but really hurt them in the long run.

I'd like to know if silicone really would help preserve tires?

I wonder what Finish 2001 is like as far as protection?

Then there's :

"BLACK MAGIC® PROFESSIONAL PROTECTANT
Revitalizes, protects and nourishes vinyl, rubber, leather, and plastic. Contains Trimflex® protectant which helps keep your car's vinyl interior trim and dashboard flexible and Fadeblok® UV sunscreen protection. Contains no water for durability and a deep shine."


& after bashing old-school Armor All, the reviews on their newer Tire SHine product seems pretty good. Oily, long lasting... it's probably silicone and other stuff. I'm going to look into it.
http://www.epinions.com/content_27317341828

 

If you're talking about motor oil, it will shorten the life of the tire. Petroleum products cause the natural rubber compounds in tires to deteriorate (many tire-shine formulas contain petroleum products).

Tires don't really "dry out," because there are almost no volatile compounds in the rubber. They do oxidize however, and that's what causes the cracking. Modern tires have lots of UV inhibitors in the rubber; UV is ususally not the cause of cracking.

Silicone compounds don't harm rubber, and there are lots of synthetic polymer products that are ok too. Basically you want something that will keep the surface of the rubber from being exposed to the air, and that will slow the oxidation and make it last longer.

 

Good points, LW555.

To those doing it - don't forget to protect the insides of the tires. (and, i guess, if used on higways only, between the tread blocks as well - that's the other major place I see dry rot.

When at the shop, for some reason it almost seems like tires that don't get used a lot have dry rot worse. But this could just be owners who underestimate the actual ages of their tires to me since they really don't want to buy new tires.

 

I read the Ford service manual about how to rebuild a power brake booster and it mentioned using rubber dressing or silcone lube to coat the rubber parts inside the booster. I think Napa sold rubber dressing last time I looked.