Yes, no problem. 36th. Week of 1981! If you want, I will explain why they are 1981, not 1991, or 2001, just let me know. OH, and throw these ones out please, but I suspect you know that already if you've been silly enough to drive on them
Thanks guys! A quick Google search confirmed 36th week of 1981: To determine a tire's age look on its sidewall (usually the back side) for the letters DOT followed by one or more ovals containing numbers. The last oval will have three or four digits. If there are three digits, the first two are the week of the year and the last digit is the year of manufacture (the digits 229, for example, would indicate the tire was manufactured in the 22nd week of 1999). To distinguish between the 80 and 90 decades, tires manufactured in the 90's will have a triangular mark to the right of the manufacture date. Beginning with the year 2000 there are four digits. The first two are the week of the year and the last two are the year of manufacture (2301 indicates the tire was manufactured in the 23rd week of 2001). So I guess these might very well be just the second set of tires on my 1980 308GTB (it has 11200km's on the odometer now)
Hi Mick, Lovely car, so nice to see a NON RED car. You must change the tyres. The XWX's now have a different construction as well as being "W" speed rated to ones you have. The TWI (Tread wear index) is just 100 on the new ones making them very soft and grippy. As an example a Pirelli P-Zero Giallo is 140 and normal R compound tyre is about 60 so they are in between a street compound and an "R" compound. I have seen three horrific accidents including one death from running tyres younger than yours at speed. Don't kid yourself, these tyres are not safe.
Thanks clarification & education - the extra detail about 3 or 4 digits & triangle or not I did not find yesterday which means the two XWX in my office are 1986 & 1989...... not 96 & 99
Same tyre type but on a UK car, so they're not DOT marked. I have the same confusion as to whether this is week 02 of year 79, 89 or 99. Its scary but I have no records of whether these are the original tyres on a '76 car (10,000 miles). Can anybody positively date them please? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Paul, all XWX's irrespective of the market of destination post 1981 have the DOT rating. If yours have no DOT approval code, they are pre 1981. Throw them away (Is there an echo here
