This is sickening!

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4826897

 

and once you know how to read the code, its so easy to check! I was dissipointed that the video decodes a few of them for you, but never explains it.

on every tire there is a "DOT" number, lots and lots of numbers and letters actually. follow it all the way to the end and you will find either 3 or 4 numbers together. 3 numbers means the date is between 1990 and 1999. 4 numbers means that the date is 2000+. the first two numbers indicate which week of the year the tire was made, the last one or two numbers say what year it is. "134" for example, 3 numbers, means the 13th week of the year 1994. "2307", 4 numbers, means the 23rd week of 2007. this DOT number is only on one side of the tire. the video erroneously says that some older tires have the marking on the inside edge, actually is random. The marking is on one side of the tire only and may be on the inside or out. if your tires will rotate in either direction, then it just depends on whether the technician mounted the DOT number on the outside or inside, it doesn't matter and I'm sure no tech would pay any attention to it. if you have unidirectional tires like all high performance tires, they are designed to rotate in only one direction, therefore one side will have the DOT number on the outside, and the other side will have it on the inside, so you have to crawl under with a flashlight to check them out.

Be sure to share this info with your friends and family, there are too many people out there who still don't know!

 

I just bought brand new tires and 3 of them are two years old already. I think moderators should consider this thread to be "sticky".???

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ight=age+tires

 

The video explained it exactly the way you just did.

It's definitely something to keep an eye out for, but that report was somewhat alarmist. Without exposure to moisture, heat cycling, pressurization, etc. rubber will age exceedingly slowly. If I had to guess, I'd say the vast majority of catastrophic tire failures come from improper inflation. I routinely check all my tires' pressure once a month (the C5 sure is easy to do at least ), and I have never had a blowout in hundreds of thousands of miles of abusive driving. I see cars everyday driving around on soft tires, and the owners have no clue. I heard a rumor that our gubment is requiring TPMS on all cars at some point in the near future. Gotta protect people from themselves I guess.

 

I guess I need to get to the bottom of shelf life vs. usage. I had a trailer tire go bad (flat spot). Took it into to Discount Tire. The tire is 7 years old, although it has been stored inside. Service guy suggested I replace the other trailer tire and the spare due to age. I bought one replacement at the time as that is all I took to the store.

The tire they sold me was made in 2002. It is 6 years old. They are idiots, I am a sucker, or shelf life doesn't matter. Appreciate any thoughts.

 

I just bought brand new tires for my family car and checked after this post. One is months old and two are about a year and a half old. I have always changed my tires between 4-5 years no matter how much thread they have since by then, the tires start to always show cracks on the side walls.

I agree that proper tire inflation would make a big difference whether it last longer or not.

 

I bought the tires for my Plymouth in 1989. They still look good, I'll have to keep an eye on them.