Date on tires

[Dave King 2]

Does anyone know how to read the build date on tires. I can not find a date anywhere. There is a DOT with numbers and letters after it. Is this a code. I know it's a federal law that it has to be on the tires. Thanks for any help. Dave

 

[Dave S 2]

DOT codes are a 10 to 12 digit number located near the letters "DOT". BTW the digits can be numbers or letters.



The first 2 digits are a code for the manufacturing plant.



The next 2 digits are a code for the tire size.



The next 3 or 4 digits are a code for the type of tire.



The last 3 or 4 digits are the date code. The format is week/week/year/year or week/week/year



Starting in the year 2000, the date coding used is 4 digits. That means the highest number you should see for this year is 09. Before 1999 the format was 3 digits. 1999 and 2000 are transition years, so you will find both 3 and 4 digits.



For example; I just looked at the last 4 digits on my Avalon tires, which is 1608. Translating to the 16th week of 2008.

 

[Bud Williams]

Dateline did a story on this, and found many retailers were selling old tires and some were over a decade old. They were still considered new, but according to their experts, should have been taken off the shelf. In Britain, I think, they said they had a shelf life of 5 years or so. A firend of mine sent this in an e-mail, I'll try to find it...

Found it...below...

 

[Dave King 2]

Thanks for the input Dave. The tire is marked DOT A30K 3U8 4908. Am I reading this right to mean build date is the 49th week of 08?

 

[Steve McKellop]

......... and it's made by ( A3 --)> GENERAL TIRE & RUBBER CO --> MOUNT VERNON --> ILLINOIS --> US

 

[Bill Barber]

I have 2 sets of track tires for the Roush, at an event the officials will ck the dates.

You cannot run on tires more than 3 yrs old, thats the rules.