If you're buying a new tire, you may be wondering just how old that "new" tire is. If you're checking tires on an older car, you may have legitimate concerns. Knowing how to read the Tire Identification Number is key to figuring out how old a tire is. The format has changed recently, so you'll need to differentiate between tires manufactured before and after 2000.
Locate the Tire Identification Number on the rubber area of the tire.
Isolate the last three numbers.
Note the first two digits of the last three. These numbers represent the week that the tire was manufactured.
Divide these digits by four, and convert the result to months of the year. For example, if the first two of the three digits are "07," divide by four to get 1 with a remainder of three. That means the tire was manufactured about three weeks after the first month of the year (January), which would mean it was manufactured in approximately the third week of February.
Note the last digit. This represents the year of the 1990s that the tire was manufactured. If the last digit is 7, the tire was manufactured in 1997.
Locate the Tire Identification Number on the rubber area of the tire.
Isolate the last four numbers.
Note the first two digits of the last four. These numbers represent the week that the tire was manufactured.
Divide these digits by four, and convert the result to months of the year. For example, if the digits are "07," divide by four to get 1 with a remainder of three. That means the tire was manufactured about three weeks after the first month of the year (January), which would mean it was manufactured in approximately the third week of February.
Note the last two digits. These represents the year that the tire was manufactured. For example, if the last two digits are 08, the tire was manufactured in 2008.
