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How to read a tire's date code

93Bandit

93Bandit

Forum Mentor
As the title suggests, how do you read a tire's DOT date code? I thought I knew, but I found a tire with a date code that doesn't make sense. "DOT LD2119" I thought the last 4 numerical digits are what we pay attention to. The first two are the week and the last two are the year. If that's true, this tire was built the 21st week of 2019, or May of this year. I know for a fact this tire is at least 10 years old. It's dry rotted and cracked. I know it wasn't made in May of 1919. So can anyone help me out?

Thanks.
 
The DOT number is a lot longer than that. The last four digits are usually in a small oval, which is a plug in the mold that is changed every week. Post a picture, if you can.

.
 
The DOT number I'm referring to is in the oval plug. Unless there's another one I'm missing? Here's a picture.

Front Tire Date Code.jpg
 
Maybe someone needs to tell us when the current date code standard was started to be used. Maybe the tire is older than that. And not all tire manufactures implemented it all at same time .
 
I understand the current 4 digit date code convention went into use in the mid 90s.
Prior to that it was 3 digit, WeekWeekYear, where the year was only one digit,
and differetn manufactuires would/could add other digits in front of the of those 3 digit date code for other things for thier own purposes.

So could your tire be older than mid 1990s......?
And the LD2 119 is 11th week of 1989, and the LD2 is something about who know what, maybe what manufacturing plant or what mold or something.
 
It's partially curiosity, but also because I have a few tires that have (what I now understand) a pre 2000 date. But I didn't know this before and they don't look bad but I wanted to be sure since it's a safety item.
 
Ah
greg78 link fills in the piece of info I was t sure of, and that is the 2 digit year code (instead of 1 digit) came into effect in 2000 (not mid 90s per my recollection).

so that tire could be 1999 or 89 but not 09 nor 19.
 
Since it has a four-digit code, it would be reasonable to think that it is as you originally guessed, 21st week of 2019, but the sidewalls look TERRIBLE for a tire that new.

Yes, there was a switch in 2000 from a three-digit to a four-digit code. Your picture clearly shows a four-digit code, which is rather puzzling. With the three-digit codes it was definitely ONLY three digits, not just reading the last three digits. I have heard that during the 90s, they put a star or a diamond along with the number to differentiate the 90s from anything earlier. They they came out with the four-digit code that was supposed to eliminate any questions. And then you came up with this.
dunno.gif


.
 
Steve, the bike this tire is on was sitting in a shed for about 20 years according to the owner. The tires look like they were never ridden on, and based on the condition of the rest of the bike I believe it has sat that long. And as you said, the sidewall condition certainly indicates it's been sitting for a while. Both the front and rear tires and severely dry rotted.
 
Where they from 1919? Strange how that worked out. Wondering if those tires came from some kind of a "grey market" supplier?
 
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