Hi, Can any one tell me?....Can you identify when a tire was manufactured. I have a 93 show car that has original/ oem tires on her. looks great but I am wondering just how old they are, before I change them out. Is there a code on them or something like that?

 

There's a 4 digit code listing the last two digits of the year and a two digit week. I forget the order but 9248 would be the 48th week of 1992. Or 4892...meaning the same.

 

The four digit code has the first two digits for the week of the year and the last two digits for the year. For example 4813 would be the 48th week of 2013.

That is for tires produced in 2000 or later.

For tires produced 1999 or earlier the code is a 3 digit. The first two are the week of the year and the last one is the year. For example 483 would be the 48th week of 1993 (or 1983).

The code is located on the tire sidewall near the bead. It will start with DOT and then other numbers/letters with the last 4 (or 3) being the date code when the tire was made.

 

My friend is a tire shop manager. He reckons the maximum safe life for a tyre is 7 years. I recently checked my spare. It had never been on the road, held air and looked perfect - but was made in June 1992! I replaced it obviously, but it hurt to throw away a "perfect" looking tire!!

 

Good to know about 99 and prior.

 

You mention that the car is a "show car" thus you may want to consider saving the old OEM tires. When you resell the car if it's still in show condition the next owner may value having the original tires (for show purposes only)

As noted above these tires are too old and brittle to drive on safely

 

I'm NOT taking you friend to task at all. But, IMO, "safe" depends on the way the vehicle is driven - most severely. "Safe" for an NCRS/WAXER or granny's 98 Buick V6 Le Sabre is probably different than P2s driven at the Autobahn or a WANNAGOFAST 1/2 or 1 mile 'shootout'.

Everyone can have a different driving style. Therefore, "safe" for any given tire varies, regardless of remaining tread OR age.

I guess I'm a little paranoid, but I've experienced a complete tire failure on the expressway on tires that were well under 5 years old: leave alone 7. And, I've felt my 99% street driven performance tires start to gets "greasy" on my Vettes in as little as my 3rd season; by the 4th season they were 'due'!

I guess my point is, "your mileage/age may vary." Just sayin'...I put more stock into how the tires are performing (for ME), regardless of "legal" tread remaining or date codes; certainly waaay before 7 years! Being a "WARRIOR" (instead of a "WAXER") it breaks my heart to be replacing my 555/555r Nittos while the tread wear is far from the wear bars. But, due to spending two seasons with the car down for mods or repairs in that amount of time, they'll be entering their 4th season come spring, and they will probably need to come off in spite of only being actually driven for slightly less than 2 seasons.