How do you know if you have the right car tyre/ tire?
What is the correct word “tyre or tire? Both spellings are correct. “Tire” is written in American English and “Tyre” is written in British English. Since UAE has influence from British English so you will see people use the word Tyre here in the UAE, but you may also come across the word tire, so don’t panic, they both are correct. For the purpose of this blog and since UAE is predominantly British influence, we shall here onwards will use the word “Tyre”.
Where to locate car tyre specs? Understand what they stand for!
Each tyre has an outer side with numbers and letters printed on it. Example: “235/40 R18 95W.” Here, every number and letter stands for something different. They basically refer to:
- “235”: This is the width of the tyre measured in millimetres, reference to the pic below.
- “40”: Indicates the hight of the tyre.
- “R”: Stands for Radial. The construction of the inner part of the tyre (standard now adays) which are also described as tubeless.
- “18”: Stands for the diameter of the tyre in inches.
- “95”: Load bearing capacity. You can see the index (here)to get an idea .
- “W”: The last letter in the number sequence stands for the amount of speed your tires can withstand or maximum speed they should be driven.
You can also see the GSO (Gulf Standards Organization) version as well.
How to check the manufacturer date of your car tyre?
You can see from the pic above the location for manufacturer date of the tyres and then you can determine if they satisfy the RTA (or your local transportation departments requirements)
There were some speculations online as to when does UAE require one to change their car tyres. So, I took it upon myself and verfied with RTA 8009090 (call centre) and confirmed. That your car tyre can not be older than 5 years from the date of manufacturing. RTA may also decide upon inspection and based on your tyre condition, whether or not you need to change them before the 5-year period.
So from the image above, if your car tyre is 5107 (this would mean, 51 = 51st week of the year and 07 = 2007, the year. So, this would mean that the tyre was made in the 51st week of year 2007 (third week of december of 2007). That would make this tyre expire by third week of December 2012.
As printed on image above, you can see where the date is mentioned on your car tyre. Mostly, it should start with DOT . U2LL. LMLR 5107 (this pic is just an example as its of a tyre which is pretty old. But you get the point). This tyre was made in 51st week of the year and the year is 2007.
Another Example
DOT. T008 . 0816 = This tyre was made in the 8th week of the year and the year is 2016. The important factor is the last 4 numbers after DOT or similar standard marking. DOT stands for Department Of Transportation.
When to change the car tyre in UAE/ GCC?
You may want to consider few things when deciding upon changing your car tyre.
Condition :
- The condition of the tyre is determined by its wear and tear.
- Car tyre can also be worn out quickly if your car alignment is out. Which means that when you drive the car on the road going straight and you let go of the steering wheel, the car should go straight, but if it starts to go to either side, that would mean that your car needs realignment. If you don’t fix that quickly, you can still drive the car but it will wear your front tyres out faster.
- Driving your car on un paved road (rocks and stones) for a long time can put a toll on your car tyres and they would require changing faster than the ones that are driven on pavement or asphalt. As we know, there are lots of areas in the UAE that are not fully paved specially the outskirts and new construction sites.
- UAE has a regulation which says that your car tyre can not be older than 5 years.
Hope this information is helpful and you can now make a sound decision when buying a tyre. Hope I have explained how you can tell when your car tyre needs to be changed. Thank you for taking the time to visit https://justcarprice.com