You can't tell from the outside of the tires that the cords or belts are separating until after they do.
I had 4 Uniroyal Redline radials that only had 18,000 miles (average of 2,000 miles per year) on them. Car was always stored inside. Sidewalls and tread looked perfect. In 2004, coming back from a car show on the Interstate, started to feel a vibration coming from the rear. Slowed down, and it got worse, pulled over to see if anything was loose or obvious. Everything appeared normal. I was only about 1.5 miles from an exit, so drove on the shoulder at a slow speed - vibration got even worse.
Pulled off and parked in a hotel parking lot. Started looking underneath. Left rear shock was HOT, right shock not so much. Then my wife asked me what 'that' was. Crawled out from underneath to get to her vantage point and steel cords were sticking out through the sidewall. Jacked car up, replaced it with my never been on the car spare. Took a better look at the tire I pulled off and by that time there was a fist size bump in the tread surface.
Thought that I had a rare tire failure and with a fresh spare in place thought everything was fine. About 500 miles of driving later, I felt a vibration again. Looked real hard at the other 3 tires, but couldn't see any issues. Had a spare set of mounted tires - put them on - no vibration.
Rolled one of the suspect tires and noticed it twerk once every revolution at the same spot. Tried rolling the other 2 - same thing. All three had a very slight bulge in the tread.
Since then, I haven't exceeded 7 years on a set of tires.
You can do whatever you want, but please don't drive anywhere near me with old tires. I don't want to be the victim of your mistake.
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