Written by Steven Schiller
Fact checked by Henry Speciale
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Most tire manufacturers recommend replacing tires after they reach six years of age. They embossed the tire manufacture date along with other critical information on the product’s sidewall.
As you read these inscriptions, you might find the letters and numbers confusing. So, how to read Michelin tire date codes?
Michelin tire dates can be found in the last grouping of 3 or 4 numbers in the DOT tire code. The first two digits represent the week of manufacture while the last two numbers specify the year the tire was produced. For instance, a DOT code that ends in “0512” means the tire was made in the 5th week of 2012.
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Whether you like it or not, tires expire after ten years at the latest because they contain organic materials that degrade over time. For example, tires made of rubber lose their elasticity as they age.
Some tires may break down faster than other brands because the compounds react differently to various factors like heat, ice and other driving conditions. So not knowing when exactly to replace them may compromise your safety.
For these reasons, tire manufacturers use markings to help vehicle owners estimate how long they can use certain products, even if the brand promises strong treadwear warranty like Michelin.
There is no specific regulation that standardizes the placement of any tire date code Michelin inscribes, but there are two ways to find this information.
1. Use the tire date code chart printed in your dealer registry card.
2. Check the DOT tire code in the inner or outer sidewall of your tire.
To make sure that you know how to tell when tire was made, it is important to familiarize yourself with the type of information included in Michelin DOT code lookup.
The Michelin tire sidewall displays three sections of sequences. They are:
1. Tire Specification
This is the most visible section because it reveals the following:
In brief, it may look like this: P 245/50 R17 98V
Note that if you don’t find any “P” letter in the code, it means that the tire follows Euro metric size.
Such a model will have a higher load than its P-metric counterpart.
2. Michelin Tire DOT Code Decoder
After the word “DOT,” you’ll find the plant location, manufacturing code, and the tire’s birthday.
In other words, the Michelin tire manufacture date can be found at the end of the second section. They are the last four digits of the tire code, usually below the tire specs.
This sequence is also called the DOT safety code or DOT TIN (Department of Transportation Tire Identification number). It can be up to 13 characters.
3. UTQG rating
UTQG stands for Uniform Quality Tire Grading. This section shows the tire’s treadwear, traction, and temperature grades as determined by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The DOT stamp has the following codes in order from first to last:
For example, 001x and 002x were traced in a complaint for Michelin Pilot Sport.
So if you feel that the manufacturing code is unusual like 006x or 009x, it’s not the date the tire was made. You’ll need to focus on the next few digits for that, which are the year and week codes.
Remember that the tire date code before 2000 has three numbers in the last grouping of the DOT sequence. The first two digits represent the week of the year while the third or last number indicates the year of manufacture.
For example, if the DOT code ends with “214,” it means the tire was built during the 21st week of 1994.
Meanwhile, models made after 2000 will have four numbers, wherein the first two digits specify the week the tire was made and the remaining two digits refer to the manufacture year.
As an illustration, if the last four numbers of the DOT code are “0514”, then the tire was made in the 5th week of 2014.
Now that you know how to identify which code stands for tire manufacture date location and other info, you can calculate Michelin tire age.
Even if Michelin produces different designs of sidewalls, be assured that the date code on Michelin tires is always printed on both sides of the sidewalls.
Learning how to read Michelin tire date codes is a basic skill for vehicle owners.
At first, the tire markings may seem confusing because they use different sets of letters and numbers. It is possible to mix up the week of manufacture with the production year.
Reading the codes on the tire’s sidewall will be a piece of cake if you familiarize yourself with the arrangement of the information such as the DOT, plant code, manufacturing code, etc.
If you find this guide helpful, feel free to tell us other topics you would like to learn about.
Categories FAQsI'm Henry, the content writer for PPMC Transport. We build our site entirely on experience and extensive market and customer research. My goal is to create a trusted platform where people can go to determine what is best for their vehicles in terms of safety and convenience. Keep an eye out for our useful guide!
- Speciale Henry
Are you having difficulties reading the DOT number of your tires? Do you want to know how to read tire date codes? If you have lost the receipt of your purchase, you might be having difficulties knowing the exact age of your tires. This issue is common and you can find the solution from your tires.
Just observe your tires, you will get the answer.
*Picture Copyright: UTires.com
How to Read Tire Date Codes?Whether you are financing your tires or purchasing them, it is important to understand how to read tire date codes. The numbers are present on tires only. You just need to know how to get them. You might have difficulties while reading codes on old tires. Keep reading to know how old your tire is.
Ways to Get Your Tires DOT NumberLook at all the sides of the tires. There are a bunch of numbers and letters. It might seem like a jumble. But this is helpful information about the tire. Find the number that starts with DOT and followed by ten to twelve series. This code will reveal a lot of things about your tires. You will know the tire size, year, and place of the manufacturing with the unique code of the manufacturer. You can also rent a wheel payments to know more about tires. Once you rent a tire payments, you will not have to be bothered about the manufacturing year.
They will take care of this. You just need to look for a rent a wheel return policy to make it more beneficial for you.
Remember that the last four digits of the code are the date the tire was manufactured. You can check the first two digits of the DOT code to know the week of the manufacturing. The last two digits will reveal the manufacturing year. For instance, when it was written in 0203, the manufacturing year was 2003. But it is a bit tricky to know the manufacturing year of tires manufactured before 2000.
Tires Manufactured Before 2000You need to check the last three digits of the DOT code. Check the first two digits to know the week. For instance, when the last three digits read 022, you should understand that the tire was manufactured in the 2nd week of that year. You might be thinking about how to know the year. The year is the 2nd year of that decade. It is easy to get confused to know the decade.
It might be harder to know the exact decade. There might be some other indications to know the year.
*Image Copyright from kilgoretirecenter.com
What About the Incomplete DOT NumbersIncomplete DOT numbers mean the current DOT regulations demand the complete number to be written on one sidewall only. When you find a few digits on the opposite sidewall, you can check the other sidewall to find the complete DOT number.
Reading DOT Tire NumbersNow you know how to read tire date codes. You can simply check at the sidewalls of tires to avoid any further confusion. Also, never lose your purchase receipt. If you do so, you might not get the warranty benefits. So, keep the receipts in a safe place and avoid any confusion by checking the DOT code. Whether you are interested in learning about wheel alignment or more about DOT numbers, our professionals here at Dan the Tire Man can answer your inquiries.
Many modern drivers, when buying a set of car tires for any season, often ask themselves - what is the year of manufacture of the purchased tires?
Naturally, sellers, whether used material or new, of course, will say the year is newer than it actually is.
And here you only need to rely on yourself to understand how old the tires really are.
We will tell you how to determine the age of car tires and what methods exist for this.
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Regarding the novelty, this will be true, but there may be slight misconceptions about the exact year of manufacture, since there are a large number of car tire sets in the world that were not sold and, accordingly, were not used for their intended purpose.
These tires could lie on the counter for a week or several years. How to be in this case and find out how old the tires are?
In this case, the marking of car tires will help you, on which information about the manufacturer and year of manufacture must be indicated. On car tires from the French manufacturer Michelin, you will definitely be able to find such information, it is enough to carefully examine the side of the tire to see an engraved marking on it indicating the necessary data. However, there are cases when, due to wear, the marking is not visible or is read very poorly. In this case, you can only determine the age of car tires approximately, by eye.
Determining the age of Michelin car tires is quite an important undertaking for drivers, because it is necessary to always correctly evaluate the life of the car tires used, the margin of safety and all key performance characteristics. When determining age, drivers can also find out the approximate life of purchased car tires from the French manufacturer Michelin, which will help drivers determine how long he will use a set of tires.
It's not a secret for anyone that car tires from the French manufacturer Michelin have a fairly long service life. In general, the manufacturer claims that his products may not lose their best qualities for at least 3-4 seasons. This suggests that, in principle, these tires can be used for 5-6 years. In fact, this is a fairly long period, which indicates a very large resource.
This is true - Michelin tires have a very serious margin of safety, which is manifested due to the fact that the manufacturer, in the manufacture of all modifications of his own products, used the optimal composition of the components that were included in the rubber compound of Michelin tires. These are absorbent gels, and synthetic substances, and natural rubber. Together, the combination of these components made it possible to use tires of very high quality, which still delight a large number of drivers, not only in Europe, but throughout the world.
Despite the fact that Michelin car tires have a fairly serious margin of safety, nevertheless, it is necessary to preserve this advantage of your tires in order to use them as long as possible.
In fact, in order to keep Michelin tires in excellent condition for a long period of time, you just need to follow a few rules.
First, you need to move as carefully as possible. This is a rather abstract concept, since each driver has his own driving style, from which it is very difficult to deviate in favor of something. You just need to try to drive on a level surface, as well as ensure a driving style in which you will have a minimum of sharp maneuvers - turning, starting, braking, drifting, etc. These are the factors that can have a serious impact on the final quality of your Michelin tires.
Secondly, at the time when the season of use of your tires ends, it is necessary to store them in a strictly defined place under certain conditions. It is well known that rubber products tend to shrink and expand, and this can ultimately play into the reduction of the strength characteristics of Michelin car tires during a long period of storage in inappropriate conditions - even though Michelin car tires have excellent rubber quality.
Third, when changing kits at the start of the new season, be careful when removing tires. Even such durable and dense tires as the French manufacturer Michelin's car tires are sensitive to strong deformations and external influences, therefore, also exercise maximum caution and be extremely careful.
As it becomes clear, there are quite a few ways to find out the age of Michelin car tires. Most importantly, try to determine the age as approximately as possible, since it is very, very difficult to determine the exact age, especially if car tires have already been used by any driver before.
The most important thing to pay attention to when determining age is determining the tread height of Michelin tires. To do this, it is enough to measure this value as accurately as possible and compare it with the standard value.
If the difference between these values is relatively small, then the age of such tires will also be small. With an increase in this value, the age of car tires will also increase accordingly.
The most important thing for drivers is to try to keep the quality of the used Michelin car tires for as long as possible. To do this, it is enough to treat rubber products as carefully and accurately as possible.
Michelin has production sites in 17 countries in the world at 67 plants:
MICHELIN products are available in 170 countries and are manufactured to the same Group quality standards worldwide.
Russian-made MICHELIN tires are sold not only in Russia.
MICHELIN tires in our online shop are not sorted by place of production. It is difficult to say who is the manufacturer of a particular product in the catalog. It doesn't matter. All MICHELIN tires sold by authorized dealers perform equally well.
No, it doesn't. Now many world brands have their own factories in Russia. At the same time, the requirements for product quality remain unchanged regardless of the place of production.
Tires made in Poland or in Germany are of the same high quality. For all Michelin production sites, there is a single workflow for each tire model. Therefore, the consumer will not be able to distinguish a tire produced, for example, in Poland from a similar model produced in a German plant.
Tests and tests conducted by independent organizations have confirmed that Russian or Asian-made MICHELIN products are identical to their Western counterparts in terms of performance.
All MICHELIN-branded tires carry a 5-year warranty from the date of manufacture against defects in workmanship and materials.
MICHELIN tires purchased from the TYREPLUS network of tire centers are covered by another one-year warranty. It includes free repair or replacement of tires within 12 months from the date of purchase.
An automotive publication conducted a test comparing MICHELIN Energy Saver tires in size 180/60R15 made in Spain with a similar model in the same size made in Russia.
Tests have shown that both tires have the same characteristics: tread depth, handling (both dry and wet asphalt), wear resistance, braking properties on dry and wet asphalt.
