Understanding your tyres (can be quite tiring)...

How to check Car manufacturing date

Actually it's very simple...

Look for the 4 digit code on the tyre. It represents the week and the year the tyre was manufactured, i.e. wwyy.

Let's say the digit on my tyre is 3808, that means, it's manufactured on the 38th week of 2008.

The longer the tyres are kept, the harder the rubber will become. :)


How to decipher the codes on your tyres:

Since there are lots of codes on a tyre, we would all wonder what all of these codes mean. Well, I suppose since we're not tyre shop owners, I think it's just suffice to know the model and profile of your tyre and here's something I found from carbibles.com.

Key	Tyre Marking Description
A	Manufacturers or brand name, and commercial name or identity.
B	Tyre size, construction and speed rating designations. Tubeless designates a tyre which requires no inner tube. See tyre sizes and speed ratings below. DIN-type tyre marking also has the load index encoded in it. These go from a load index of 50 (190kg) up to an index of 169 (5800kg).
C	Denotes type of car tyre construction.
D	M&S denotes a car tyre designed for mud and snow. Reinforced marking only where applicable.
E	Pressure marking requirement.
F	ECE (not EEC) type approval mark and number.
G	North American Dept of Transport compliance symbols and identification numbers.
H	Country of manufacture.

Tyre Size Notations

When you change tyres, you will need to know which type of tyre that you need to fit your rims. This is done by refering to the funny code that comes under the B marking. To decipher the funny code that signifies your tyre size, refer the table below (I will use my own tyres,195/55/R15,as a guide):

195	55	R	15
Section width	Aspect ratio	Tyre Constuction. R for Radial	Rim diameter

Tyre Size Notation	Description
Section Width	This is the width in mm of the tyre from sidewall to sidewall when it's unstressed and you're looking at it head on (or top-down).
Aspect Ratio	This is the ratio of the height of the tyre sidewall, (section height), expressed as a percentage of the width.In this case, 55% of 195mm is 107.25mm - the section height. Higher aspect ratios provide better comfort. High performance tyres usually have a lower aspect ratio than other tires. This is because tyres with a lower aspect ratio provide better lateral stability. When a car goes around a turn lateral forces are generated and the tyre must resist these forces. Tyres with a lower profile have shorter, stiffer sidewalls so they resist cornering forces better.
Tyre Construction	"R" tells you that the tyre is of a radial construction. There are 2 types of tyre contruction, Bias/Cross-ply Construction and Radial Construction. Radial tyres are almost used on almost all the world's passenger vehicles now (for the past 20 years or so) as they are more resistance to tear and provide higher performance and better fuel economy.
Rim Diameter	This is the diameter in inches of the rim of the wheel that the tyre has been designed to fit on.

Well, now you know at least something about tyres. Change them every two years or when you noticed the tread have worn off. Here's signing off in support of better safety on the road. Yawn.. this is tiring... hahaha.