How to Tell Manufacture Date of Tires
- 1). Place yourself at eye level with the tire. Either squat next to it or if the tire is not on the car, you can pick it up. The manufacture date is printed on the side in small letters. You will need to be close to the tire.
- 2). Look around the tire for a number/letter combination that begins with "DOT."
- 3). Look at the last four numbers of the sequence combination you found. For example, "DOT U2LL LMLR 5107." In this case, you are looking for the numbers 5107. The last two numbers represent the year the tire was made. The number "07" in the example shows the tire was manufactured in 2007. The preceding two numbers represent the week of the year the tire was made. The number "'51" shows the tire was manufactured during the 51st week of 2007.
The system is slightly different if your tire was produced before the year 2000. There will only be three digits at the end of the sequence. The last number represents the decade in which the tire was produced. The two preceding numbers represent the week of the year. For example, "DOT EJ8J DFM 408" shows the tire was produced in the fortieth week of the eighth decade of the twentieth century. This system is less precise and was therefore discarded in favor of the prior system.
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