Buying a new tyre isn’t as simple as you think. Most of us just go to the tyre store and buy whatever the shopkeeper recommends. Some, not all, are dishonest and in order to sell their old stock, sell you old (not used) tyres. This matters since you should always buy the latest manufactured tyres. The reasoning for this is rather simple.
Tyres contain several layers of chemical compounds. If new tyres are not stored properly, they can begin to age. By the time you get them thinking that they are new, they aren’t exactly new even though they have never been used before.
It really doesn’t matter whether the tyres you are about to buy were legally imported or smuggled (this is not to suggest you should buy smuggled tyres). The tyres you are getting may be original, but who knows for how long they have been sitting on the shelves.
Now this begs the question, how to tell when the tyres were manufactured?
The answer is rather straightforward – read the manufacturing date on the tyre.
Many don’t know where to locate such a date and how to read it. Hence this guide.
Where to look for the tyre manufacturing date?
On the car’s sidewall, you should see alphabets and numbers. These are not randomly written alphabets and numbers. They serve a specific purpose telling the tyre’s brand, size, pattern, and manufacturing date.
Look closely at the tyre of your car. You may see DOT written on the sidewall, followed by alphabets and numerics.
After the DOT, you will see some alphabets and numbers. They represent the tyre’s manufacturing code.
You should also see four numerics embossed on the tyre. The first two numerics represent the week in which the tyre was manufactured (For example – in the picture above, 12 represents the 12th week). The last two numbers denote the year in which the tyre was manufactured. In this case 2021. So this tyre was manufactured in March 2021.
Pro Tip: Some tyres may have three digits on the sidewall other than four. The three-digit manufacturing date was used before 2000. So the tyre with such a date is really really old, don’t get it.
How to differentiate between a fake and original embossed tyre?
In Pakistan, some imported tyres come through unofficial channels. The smuggled tyres may take weeks and months to reach Pakistan. So by the time they arrive at the shop, they are already old. Since many customers can read a tyre’s manufacturing date, they refuse to buy old tyres. To counter this, some shopkeepers or their suppliers have started the shameful and illegal practice of embossing or debossing a fake date of manufacturing on the tyre.
To tell the difference, you must first know the difference between embossing and debossing.
Emboss vs. Deboss
An embossed tyre means that the code imprinted on the tyre is raised from the surface by surrounding the material. The tyres we have shown above are all embossed, which means the serial codes rise upwards from the normal tyre surface.
Debossed tyre means that the codes mentioned are stamped down, causing the surrounding material to press down. This way, the whole block with the numerical is pressed down the tyre’s surface.
Here is how to identify a fake manufacturing date on the tyre.
Once you’ve identified the tyre’s manufacturing date, see whether some numbers are embossed, while others are debossed. In short, if the four digits aren’t uniformly embossed or debossed, you’re looking at a fake manufacturing date.
There is one other way to tell if it’s a fake. Look whether all the numbers are equally clear. Are the numbers perfectly aligned? Also look for their font size. It should be the same.
Final word
Your tyre selection depends upon the area where you live, its climate, terrain, etc. How much you’ll be using them also determines what tyres you should get. We have a separate guide on this subject.
To learn more about the right tyre type for your car, read our guide on types of tyres. Whichever tyre you buy, always make sure you buy the original tyre for your car, which has been manufactured recently. You can find many new and used tyres on OLX classifieds.
Let us know which tyres you prefer and why? Share with us your experiences of buying new tyres in Pakistan.
You may also like:
All About Tyre Burst: Why Does It Happen and How to Prevent It?
Leave a Reply