MTFCA Forum

HI GUYS,
I AM A GUY WHO LIKES TO HAVE HIS CAR LOOK PERFECT. IT DOES LOOK PRETTY GOOD EXCEPT I CAN'T GET THE YELLOW OUT OF THOSE JUNKY FOREIGN MADE TIRES I HAD TO BUY BECAUSE THAT'S ALL THERE WAS. I KNOW THERE IS A ZILLION YEARS OF EXPERIENCE OUT THERE, I JUST NEED THE RIGHT PERSON WITH THE KNOWLEDGE.
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION, PAUL

Try whitewall tire cleaner it may help, or buy black tires.

This has been a problem for a long time. Some say it's due to the inner tubes. Some say it's due to the rubber used in the tire itself. Search White Tires to see what others have done in the past.

Good Luck

This is a bad time in the world to want your "white" tires to remain bright white. It is a combination of bad quality control, bad chemistry, bad work habits, and a general lack of caring about doing a job correctly. The severity of the issue varies greatly across the recent past years, companies involved, and individual production runs.
The innertubes do play a part in how quickly and badly the tires change color. How much of a part they play is still open to debate. (While I accept that they do play a role in it, my feeling is that it is a small part.)

The good news is that once the tires have yellowed to a light to medium brown? They probably actually look more like the original era tires did than the new tires did when they were fresh and white!

My fling with NOS white Firestones lasted how long? Six months? They looked great on my 1915, but country roads ate 'em up PDQ. Never again. From now on, Blockleys. What? Black tires aren't "correct". T.S. As they say in the DIY school of surgery, suture self.

Steve, I love your last line, most of all coming form your your not to distant past episode. Jim

I know for certain that "black" rubber left in contact with whitewall tires will discolor the whitewall, so I'd think black tubes would have a similar effect on white casings. New black tubes might be worse than older ones that have had time to outgas some of the aromatics. Red natural rubber tubes would be best, but all of the white rubber I have ever encountered is yellowed, or soon will be. If inner tubes do contribute to yellowing, which I'm pretty certain they do, the yellowing may affect the entire thickness of the casing, rather than just the surface. The Lucas 4.40/4.50X21 blackwall tires on my car have given excellent service, but the tubes do leak air pressure off. I have to air them up about once as week to maintain pressure. Others have had similar experience with various tires. I suspect that these tubes would cause rapid discoloration of white tires. Based on the experience of others, I would not run white tires on a car that is driven any significant amount. I had a set of Lester wide whitewalls on a Packard that were 23 years old, and they were not badly yellowed, and most of that cleaned up easily. Interestingly, these tires would hold air at a set pressure for months. The tubes had no brand name on them, but were marked "First Quality Made In USA" I assume they were purchased with the set of 5 Lester 7.00X16 whitewalls.

How bad is bad ? A few years back, the “brown death” was overtaking the newer all-white tires. This was not “yellowing” that responded to Bleche-Wite or other whitewall cleaners. As Wayne noted, many suspected reaction with the tubes sold at the time. That tubes posed a problem seems borne out by the fact that some vendors would not guarantee them unless fitted with the tubes they prescribed.

As for “yellowing”, I have a white floor mat in my ‘13 that, according to provenance, is 20 years old. Since I’ve owned the car, the mat yellows slightly through the winter when Lizzie is hibernating. A good scrubbing brings it back to bright white, and it stays like that through the summer, as it gets a lot of UV. Sunlight would probably whiten yellowed tires too.