How do you tell the age of a tyre?

[youngsyr]

Afternoon all, I understand that tyres are marked with a code/symbol/etc from which you can decipher their manufacturing date.

Can anyone let me know how I can tell the age of the tyres on my car?

[killingjoker]

Look on the outside edge for a "lozenge" shaped stamp with four numbers in it .i.e 5011 which would denote the 50th week in 2011. Hope that helps.

[youngsyr]

killingjoker said:

Look on the outside edge for a "lozenge" shaped stamp with four numbers in it .i.e 5011 which would denote the 50th week in 2011. Hope that helps.

Fantastic - thanks very much!

[killingjoker]

You're welcome mate. (Good to see an MX5 in your fleet.)

[Frances The Mute]

The above info is spot on; for tyres made in the 21st century. Just to add - incase this applies to the tyres you are talking about.

In the 1990's, tyre ages were denoted as such >148. The > symbol denotes the 90's decade, the 14 would be week 14 and the 8 would be the year so week 14 of 1998.

Previous to this, there were just the three digits e.g. 148 meaning week 14 of 1988. Believe it or not, these sorts of tyres are still in circulation; some of which are sold as part worn.

[Ozzie Osmond]

youngsyr said:

Can anyone let me know how I can tell the age of the tyres on my car?

Are you planning to send them a birthday card?

[strudel]

So on the same line, how long before the rubber perishes?

[lestershaw]

The numbers on the side of a tyre are called dot numbers( think it stands for date of tyre)
Generally you should not use tyres over 6 years old.
Some tyres are sold as new old stock and look pretty good, but tyres perish from the inside out afaik, so what actually looks a good tyre, could be a killer

[Frances The Mute]

strudel said:

So on the same line, how long before the rubber perishes?

That is dependent on how it has been used and the environmental conditions it has been exposed to. The general recommendation is that any tyre 10 years or over should be binned, regardless of appearance and remaining tread depth.
If a tyre is 5 years old and has not been put into use, this should also be binned.

Age cracking is normally quite prominent and features largely in the tread area, at the base of the tread grooves whether is is the centre of in the shoulders.
More advanced states of age cracking will affect the sidewalls and/or above the bead.

[gog440]

What you dont want is what I found under my wifes Zafira when she had a puncture. The tyre sits in a cradle under the boot floor, when I took it out the tyre had turned into some weird spongy stuff that didnt resemble normal rubber at all. It was so bad that I wouldnt even put it on to take it to the tyrefitters, i ended up leaving the car on the jack and taking the wheels in my car