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. 

225This stands for the width of the tyre which would be 225mm.
45This 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.
RStands for radial construction of your tyres, another type of it would be cross-ply.
17The 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:

94A code depicting the maximum load a tyre can carry, here 94 stands for 670kg per tyre.
YThe 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:

LkgLkgLkgLkgSkm/h
6226580450987501161250F80
6327281462997751171285G90
64280824751008001181320J100
65290834871018251191360K110
66300845001028501201400L120
67307855151038751211450M130
68315865301049001221500N140
69325875451059251231550P150
70335885601069501241600Q160
71345895801079751251650R170
723559060010810001261700S180
73365916151091030T190
74375926301101060U200
75387936501111090H210
76400946701121120V240
77412956901131150W270
78425967101141180Y300
79437977301151215(Y)300+