Tire Cases: A Growing Concern in San Antonio?
Do you know how old you are?
Most people can tell you their age and probably the month and year they were born. My grandchildren can tell me their age. However, can you tell me how old your tires are? Most people cannot.
Tire aging is becoming a growing concern in San Antonio as well as other areas of Texas. The age of a tire can play a role in a catastrophic failure that can cause vehicle rollover and major injuries to occupants of a vehicle.
The tire industry has known about this problem for decades. Have they warned you? Maybe. Look in the owner’s manual that came with your car. Maybe buried deep in the hundreds of pages of that manual you will find the warning. Studies show a rise in tire failure once the tire becomes six years old. But, even as late as 2005, tire manufacturers were telling everyone to replace all tires after ten years.
How about that! Tire failure starts increasing at six years but most manufacturers say you should replace all tires once they are 10 years old. What does a driver do during the four years the tire is deteriorating at our current highway speeds on the hot pavements of the streets and highways of San Antonio, Texas? I guess drivers and the passengers should start praying.
So, how do you know the age of your tire? Every tire comes with a Tire Identification Number (TIN). The TIN is a 10 or 11 alphanumeric characters that the last three or four digits identify the week and year of it manufacture, in other words, its birthday. If the last four digits of your TIN are 0202, your tire was born on the second week of 2002. Be careful, because this 11-digit number was only added in 2000. Before 2000, there were only 10 digits. So, if the last three digits were 029, your tire’s birthday was the second week of 1999 or is it 1989. You cannot tell.
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