How to Tell the Age of a Car Tire

The week and year a tire was made can be found on its sidewall.

In determining the age of a tire, it's easy to identify when a tire was made by reading the Tire Identification Number, commonly referred to as the tire's serial number. Tire Identification Numbers are batch codes that identify the week and year a tire was manufactured. Federal law requires manufacturers to put the numbers on the sidewall of each tire.

Instructions

Find a tire's age on its sidewall

1. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires that Tire Identification Numbers be made of a combination of the letters DOT, followed by 10, 11 or 12 letters and/or numbers that identify the manufacturing location, tire size and manufacturer's code, as well as the week and year the tire was manufactured.

2. Look on a tire's sidewall. For tires made after the year 2000, the week and year the tire was produced is shown in the last four digits of the Tire Identification Number. The two digits that identify the week immediately precede the two digits that identify the year. (For example, if the last four digits are 1306, the tire was made during the 13th week of 2006)

3. Law also requires that "DOT" and the first digits of the Tire Identification Number must be branded onto both of a tire's sidewalls, so it's possible to see a Tire Identification Number that appears incomplete and requires looking at the other side of the tire to find the whole Tire Identification Number.

4. The Tire Identification Number for tires produced prior to 2000 was based on the assumption that tires would not be used for 10 years. The week and year the tire was produced was contained in the last three digits. (For the example above, the numbers 136 would mean the 13th week of the 6th year in the decade)

References

• Tire Rack: determining the age of a tire
• CBS News - when good tires go bad