What Those Numbers Mean On Your Car Tires

How to Know What Size Tire Your Car Needs?

Thanks to smart engineering and design, it can be easy to take our car’s parts for granted. In fact, most parts aren’t even given a second thought until they need to be repaired or replaced. Including all the nuts and bolts, a car will have tens of thousands of parts, all working together to deliver a safe driving experience.

But, of all those parts, there are only four that actually make contact with the ground. Those four parts are the tires. Yet, despite their importance as the only four parts that touch the ground while driving, many drivers won’t know what size tires they need should the tires need to be replaced.

It’s understandable. After all, if the tires are doing their job, you shouldn’t have to really think about them. But unlike many car parts, tires do need to be replaced from time to time. If you’ve ever attempted to buy car tires, you will find that there is an incredible variety with a bunch of different numbers that will mean little to the uninitiated.

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Making Sense of the Numbers On Your Car’s Tires

Though many online tire retailers attempt to make it simple for you to find the right tires by allowing you to search for tires that fit your vehicle, it’s important to keep in mind that some vehicle models are available in multiple tire sizes. You should only get the tires that fit your specific wheels.

Thankfully, if the current tires on your vehicle were the ones that came from the factory, it should be easy enough to get the information you need from the outside markings on those tires. If you are not sure if your current tires are from the factory, you can also check the placard that is usually located on the driver’s side door.

In either case, what you are looking for is a series of letters and numbers. For instance, you may see 225/45R17. In this example, 225 represents the tire width, 45 represents the aspect ratio and 17 represents the diameter. You may also see a two-digit or three-digit number and a letter following that string, such as 117H, which would indicate the load rating and the speed rating. In our example, 117 would represent a load rating of 2,833 lbs and H would represent a speed rating of up to 130 mph. Keep in mind that the load rating is how much weight each tire can support, not how much all four tires can support, so unless you have some unique hauling needs, the first string of numbers is usually the most important to ensure you get the proper size.

Another number on the side of your tire that becomes especially important as your tires age is the date code. This four-digit code tells you the week and year that your tire was manufactured. The first two digits is the week number and the last two digits is the last two digits of the year in which the tire was made. In other words, a tire made in the 3rd week of 2021 will have the code 0321 printed on the tire at the very end of the DOT code. 

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Once you’ve located these numbers, all you really need to do is make sure they match up with the new tires you are buying. Of course, if you have any questions or concerns, you can always contact the service team here at Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram of Marysville. We would be glad to help you out.