Knowing the Age of your tyres

If you need to  determining the age of a tyre, you can identify when a tyre was manufactured by reading its Tyre Identification Number (often referred to as the tyre’s serial number). Tyre Identification Numbers are really batch codes that identify the week and year the tyre was produced.

Since 2000, the week and year the tyre was produced has been provided by the last four digits of the Tyre Identification Number with the 2 digits being used to identify the week immediately preceding the 2 digits used to identify the year.

In the image adjacent: DOT U2H8 LMCR1604 means the tyre was manufacturered during the 16th week of the year and in 2004.

While the Tyre Identification Number is required to be branded onto one sidewall of every tyre, current regulations also require that DOT and the first digits of the Tyre Identification Number must also be branded onto the opposite sidewall. Therefore, it is possible to see a tyre Identification Number that appears incomplete and requires looking at the tyre’s other sidewall to locate the tyre Identification Number. The reason for this is it reduces the risk of injury to the mold technician that would have to install the weekly date code on the top sidewall portion of a hot tyre mold.