How to Determine When a Michelin Tire Was Made
by Jason UnrauThe Department of Transportation requires that tire manufacturers print the manufacture date on each tire. Here is how to decode what the DOT date information on a tire means.
Locate the DOT number.
On the sidewall of the tire, locate a number that starts with DOT. It can be up to 12 digits long. The last three or four numbers are the date code.
Determine the week of manufacture.
The two numbers at the beginning of the date code are the week of the year the tire was made. This number will range from 01 to 52. For example, the manufacture code of 237 means the tire was made in the 23rd week of the year, because the "23" represents the week.
Determine the year of manufacture.
If there are three numbers in the date code, the tire was manufactured before the year 2000. For example, if the code is 237, the tire was manufactured in the year 1997, because the "7" represents the last numeral of the year the tire was made.
If there are four numbers in the date code, the last two numbers are the year of manufacture since the year 2000. For example, a tire with the date code 3109 was manufactured in the year 2009, because the "09" represents the year the tire was made.
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Writer Bio
Jason Unrau is an automotive writer with 15 years experience in the automotive dealer environment, including 10 years as and automotive service consultant. He is a Certified Technology Expert, a regular contributor to Gearheads.org, and operates AutomotiveCopywriter.com.
