Date Code on Tires Help Please

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11&

 

Tire codes are sometimes confusing. Not sure what to make of your numbers.

 

You're checking BOTH sides of the tire...right??

Codes on the outside of the tire usually are not date codes- they are on the "back" of the tire.

 

Check the write-up on the Tire Rack link. It explains it very clearly and shows pictures of the tire sidewalls, so you know what you are looking at. It sounds like you might have some very old tires there. The C2Y 469 could mean that they were manufactured in the 46th week of 1999. If so, that's not a good thing. I would not want to be driving around on 12 year old tires. But check those pictures in the Tire Rack article and see if you can confirm what you are looking at. If in doubt, go to a local tire shop and ask them to check for you.

 

Jerry,

Even though the tires look okay, they may be seriously weakened by time and ozone. You don't want to find out at 70 mph when one of them decides to let loose. If it were me and I had 12 y.o. tires on my car, I'd invest in a new set ASAP, even if they otherwise looked okay and still had a good amount of tread. YMMV, but I ain't betting my life on old tires.

 

I have a set of Dunlop SP Sport D3 tires that were probably quite a bit older. Possibly even from 1988, the three tire shops I asked all weren't sure (!).
They look almost new without any cracks. They just didn't get out much. The look is awesome, very fitting for the vintage BMW they're sometimes on. While I am not afraid to run them hard on dry roads without too much speed involved, the wet handling of them can only be described as very vintage.

 

not very long ago, back when I too was a date-code-virgin, someone showed me how to read the date code because I had troubles with some Michelin PS II's. They also showed me how to find out in which plant (Mexico, France, etc.) the tires were made.

The very best thing they taught me, or rather I learned from paying some fairly dear tuition, was to never accept any tire more than one year from date of manufacture. Period. oh, that was redundant, but needed. Period end zip.

Don't do it, I don't care if the tires are free or look cool, run away screaming.

All the tire sales-people (pc enough?) in the world may agree I'm nuts, so what, you won't find me buying a tire with a date code more than a year from the date I put them on my cars. Three months is better.

And if I can't decipher it, I don't need that tire that badly.

just an opinion . . . but tune in later to find out how I really feel . . .
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Peter, I totally agree with you when it concerns cars that are being used a lot and at high speeds. The Dunlops I consider to be show tires. No Ferrari or DD will never see tires older than 6-7 years. For collectibles I am willing to compromise - where the yearly mileage is measured in hundreds rather than thousands and the usage only a couple weekends a year, the risk is negligible.

 

I put 1,700 miles on a set of 15 year old tires. My car came to me with 124 miles on it, and the original tires. I actually did some fairly hard driving on the old tires, but nothing high speed (never broke 80 mph). Aside from flat spots causing vibration at 35 and 70mph, I wouldn't have known they were more than a couple years old. They looked absolutely perfect. Once I replaced them, I wished I would have just done it immediately though. The ride was much better without the flat spots!