Storing tires: the four mistakes that cost you money

Mistake 1: The Wrong Place

Tires like it dark, cool, and dry. The ADAC recommends a dark, cool, dry room – a cellar or garage.[1]

What causes rubber to age is not time alone, but UV light, ozone, and heat. All three accelerate the reactions that make the compound hard and brittle.

That's why these places are bad:

• Outside against the house wall. Sun, rain, frost – the worst of all options, even under a tarp.
• Next to the heating system or boiler. Heat causes aging.
• Next to a running electric motor. Motors produce ozone. An old freezer or a compressor in the same room is a real factor, not a myth.
• Damp basement rooms. Not because of the rubber, but because of the rims: steel rims rust, alloy rims get corrosion spots on the valve seat.

A normal, dry basement room or an underground car park is ideal. If you don't have either, storing them with a dealer is not a luxury, but the more economical solution – a prematurely replaced set costs more than six years of storage fees.

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Mistake 2: The Wrong Position

Here, it depends on whether the tire is on the rim or not:[1]

Complete wheels (tire on rim): stack them flat or hang them on the wall. The air pressure supports the structure, and the weight can rest on the sidewall.

Tires without rims: store them upright, do not stack. And rotate them a bit every few weeks so that the same spot doesn't bear the entire weight for months.

The reason is simple: without a rim, the tire has no form stability. Stacked flat, the bottom one will deform; upright without rotation, it will develop a flat spot in one area that you'll feel when you first drive.

The most common mistake in this category: stacking four tires without rims on top of each other to save space. Six months later, the bottom one is out of round.

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Mistake 3: Too Little Air

This is the point almost no one thinks about.

Increase the air pressure by 0.5 bar before storing, above the manufacturer's specification.[1] Tires slowly lose air in storage – through the valves and through the rubber wall itself. After six months, 2.2 bar can quickly become 1.8, and a wheel that lies on its sidewall with too little pressure for half a year will be subjected to greater stress at that point.

The side effect is convenient: the next time you change them, you'll still have enough pressure to drive to the petrol station and set it correctly – instead of rolling off with 1.6 bar.

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Mistake 4: Not Looking

Changing tires is the only time of year when someone holds each tire individually. This opportunity should be used.

Before storing, check:[1]

• Measure tread depth, at several points across the width. Uneven wear on the outside or inside indicates wheel alignment issues – this should be addressed at a workshop before the next set wears out in the same way.
• Remove foreign objects from the tread. A small stone is harmless, a screw is not. Six months for it to slowly work its way through is six months too long.
• Inspect sidewalls. Cracks, bulges, scuff marks from the curb. A bulge is a reason not to remount the tire – the carcass has separated there.
• Read the DOT number. How old is the set actually? We have a separate article on this.
• Note the position – FR for front right, RL for rear left, and so on.[1] With chalk on the tread or a sticker on the sidewall.

Why the position? Because tires wear differently. More wear occurs on the drive axle, and unevenly on the outside and inside. Knowing where each tire was at the next mounting allows for conscious rotation – and you'll have four tires that reach their end at the same time, instead of two that are still good and two that need replacing.

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When You Should No Longer Store a Set

Sometimes the right answer is not to store the set, but to replace it. Three cases:

Tread depth is insufficient for the next season. A winter tire with 4.5 millimeters in April might be at 4 in the next November – and there, TCS already recommends replacement.[2] Six months of storage space for a tire that needs replacing afterwards is wasted.

The set is old. Rubber ages even when not driven. From about eight to ten years, one should honestly evaluate, regardless of tread – the compound is different from day one.

There are two different models. Mixed sets are more common than one might think. If you notice during storage that different tires are on the front and back, it's a good time to correct that.

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Store Yourself or Have Them Stored?

An honest calculation instead of a sales recommendation.

Storing yourself costs: Space, a few minutes of work, and the discipline to rotate the tires every few weeks if they are stored without rims. It's free, though.

Having them stored costs typically between 60 and 120 Swiss francs per season. In return, you get a suitable space, someone who checks the tires during the change – and you don't have to carry eight wheels through the stairwell.

If you have a dry cellar, store them yourself. If your only option is the balcony or the house wall, the service is worthwhile – there, you'll ruin more in two seasons than storage costs in six.

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The Four Takeaways

1. Dark, cool, dry – and away from motors and heating.
2. With rims: stacked flat or hung; without rims: standing upright and rotated regularly.
3. 0.5 bar more pressure before storage.
4. When changing, check: tread, foreign objects, sidewall, age, note position.

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For further reading: DOT number and tire age · When to change? · Mounting & Appointments

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