What you can know from reading your tyres

If you have ever stopped and taken a closer look at your car, or rummaged through the tyre shop, you will see different markings written on the sides of your tyres, also known as the tyre sidewall. Although at first glance you might understand most of it, after reading through our article you’ll become a pro in no time!

Manufacturer

The biggest marking and probably the easiest of them to understand would be the name of the manufacturer and model of the tyres. For example: Michelin (brand) Pilot Sport 4 S (model). But in the illustration it would be ezauto (brand) ezfeed (model).

Tyre size

The most important and confusing information on a tyre, it is usually in the format of something like this: 225 / 45 / R 17. 

225	This stands for the width of the tyre which would be 225mm.
45	This is the aspect ratio of the height of the tyre relative to its width, so the height of your tyre would be 45% of 225mm.
R	Stands for radial construction of your tyres, another type of it would be cross-ply.
17	The size of your rims, here your rims would be 17 inches in diameter.

Load index and Speed rating

Usually following after the tyre size, it is often seen in this combination 94 Y:

94	A code depicting the maximum load a tyre can carry, here 94 stands for 670kg per tyre.
Y	The maximum speed a tyre can handle under its load rating and properly inflated, with supporting up to 300km/h

Date of manufacture

There are 4-digits often seen in an oval like so: (3618), with the first 2 digits representing the week of the year and the latter 2 digits the year of manufacture. So this tyre was produced in the 36th week of the year 2018. This is something to take note of when purchasing tyres as you wouldn’t want to buy tyres that have been in inventory for too long as tyres do have a usable lifespan.

Extra information

There should also be an arrow showing which direction the tyre should roll when your car is going forwards, so make sure that there is no error. And if you’re curious about tyre pressure, come read this article that will tell you all you need to know about pumping air into your tyres.

And here’s a table of load ratings (L) and speed indexes (S) for those curious:

L	kg	L	kg	L	kg	L	kg	S	km/h
62	265	80	450	98	750	116	1250	F	80
63	272	81	462	99	775	117	1285	G	90
64	280	82	475	100	800	118	1320	J	100
65	290	83	487	101	825	119	1360	K	110
66	300	84	500	102	850	120	1400	L	120
67	307	85	515	103	875	121	1450	M	130
68	315	86	530	104	900	122	1500	N	140
69	325	87	545	105	925	123	1550	P	150
70	335	88	560	106	950	124	1600	Q	160
71	345	89	580	107	975	125	1650	R	170
72	355	90	600	108	1000	126	1700	S	180
73	365	91	615	109	1030			T	190
74	375	92	630	110	1060			U	200
75	387	93	650	111	1090			H	210
76	400	94	670	112	1120			V	240
77	412	95	690	113	1150			W	270
78	425	96	710	114	1180			Y	300
79	437	97	730	115	1215			(Y)	300+