I have a cougar -70 convertible into an incredibly original condition which has gone 69,500 miles . The tires are old and one is a bit choppy so I should buy new.
For fun’s sake I peeked at the DOT label on them and tried to translate using the internet but did not find it. I have been in contact with a local tire dealer here in Sweden and he thought they were older than 1980.
Now I wonder if there is anyone who can help me, and date the tires. The brand of the tires are BF Goodrich Radial T / A and DOT label is:
BFFCNX71 and BEHYNX71.
Hope someone can help me.
Here is some information from the BF Goodrich site - it does look like there should be more numbers. I hope this is of some help.
Regards,
Brad
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: How to read the DOT number?
Answer: DOT signifies that the tire complies with the United States Department of Transportation tire safety standards, and is approved for highway use.
Example: DOT M5H3 459X 065
The first two digits following DOT designate the tire’s manufacturer and plant code. The third and fourth characters denote the tire size. The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth (optional) characters identify the brand and other significant characteristics of the tire. The ninth and tenth characters denote the week the tire was produced. The final number(s) signifies the year in which the tire was manufactured.
For BFGoodrich brand tires, DOT markings related to the week and year of production will have an additional symbol for the decade of the 1990s. It will be shown as a triangle following these last three numbers.
Beginning in year 2000, an additional digit was added to the serial number to allow the year of production to have two digits.
A good rule of thumb is that if the codes on your tires do not match up with what is shown on the various “tire date decoder” websites, then they are pretty darn old and should most likely be replaced. LOL!
I had a similar issue when I bought my car. Ancient BFG’s on it. DOT codes were also BEHY, interestingly enough. I had several people look at them at car shows and tell me “they stopped using that tread pattern in the '80’s”! I also had a lot of cracking down inside the tread - Yikes!
When I bought new BFGs the dealer even told me the same thing - very old tires based on the tread pattern.
There should be a 3 digit number after the main DOT code. Now, tires are manufactured with a 4 digit code so you know the exact year they were produced.
On your old tires, let’s assume only the 3 digit DOT date code is present:
“127” for example would indicate the 12th week of a year ending in “7”, so it could be 1987, or 1997, possibly 1977. That is the issue with the older 3 digit DOT date code, you cannot determine which exact year. We in the tire industry can tell which decade for our tires by the tire line and the tread pattern.
The newer 4 digit DOT date code (which bagan at or around year 2000) would read “1207” which means the 12th week of 2007.
What is the DOT date code on your tires? If you send me a photograph of the tread pattern, I can possibly tell you which decade.
But yes, if you have the 3 digit DOT date code you are needing new tires.
Getting a little off of the OP’s question, but given his codes are BEHY NX71…
So, what if you have letters in there? My DOT codes were BEHY 4E2. Would that be 4th week of May, '72 / '82? Or 2nd week of May, '74 / '84?
Not that it matters, except for the sake of curiousity
I think the general concensus is: “time for new tires”.
Let me try to decode his 2nd tire he lists in the 1st thread: BEHYNX71
BE = BF Goodrich tire plant in Tuscaloosa, AL
HY = tire dimension code, P215/70R15
NX = specific tire line, here BF Goodrich Radial T/A
7 = 7th iteration of this tire’s design
1 = BF Goodrich (tire company)
So, there is no date code in the DOT code he lists. That is because when this tire was produced, the DOT date code only has to be on 1 side of the tire, so it would be found on the other side. Today, both sides of the tire has to have the date code present.
Mike, your photo of the DOT code does not show the DOT date code either: BEHY 4E2 (we need a photo of the other side of the tire, aka the “anti-reference” side)
BE = BF Goodrich tire plant in Tuscaloosa, AL
HY = P215/70R15
4E2 is not the date code, but is the older 3 character designation in this code, where we now see 4.
So, it makes more sense to read the HY4E together which designates your tire as a P215/70R15 BFG Radial T/A.
The “2” could mean 1 of many things…like it is a raised white letter tire, for example.
But for certain, you have the older Radial T/A, possibly from the 1990’s.
So, look on the other side of your tire to find your date code, and I will try to determine what year this tire was produced.
Thanks for the help.
Now I have new tires on the pearl.
I was just curious about how old the tires could be after the car has been standing since 1985.
Cool info Tom! Sorry I didn’t see this sooner.
The old tires are long gone, but I dug through my pics and found one that had the codes from the outside of the tire.
Looks like E4 020940
The E4 marking designates the tire has been approved to be exported to Europe. BFG (and Uniroyal) use E4 marking because we use the Dutch government for the approval system. Whereas a Michelin tire will have an E2 marking because we use the French Government for our approval process.
The E2 and E4 approval involves several types of tests (high speed limit, pass-by noise testing, the tire’s OD and section width sizing, etc…) that a tire must pass before obtaining this approval for import by Europe.
And I think your 020940 number is the E4 approval number for that particular tire and dimension…I think.
The DOT date code will appear right after the other DOT code designations. It will be it’s own little deal and will either be a 4 digit character if it’s cured after Jan 1 2000 or a 3 digit before.
So we still don’t know your tire’s build week and year code.
I have some really old Radial T/A’s on my garage stored 390GT. Possibly I could take a photo of one of those tires to show the old DOT date code.
These tires were purchased after my Freshman year at WVU, summer of '79. They look really good as only the raised white letters have cracking. No cracking at all in the black sidewall rubber, but the car has been kept in storage since 1982. But I would NEVER run those old tires on the street.
I have been doing adjustments on a major brand of tire (lots of em) and while the DOT # is on both sides the 4 digit date is only on one side of the tire. Most of the tires are 2 years old or newer. The number of digits preceding the date on this brand tire is 7 or 8 then the 4 digit date which is almost always in an oval, but not all the time.
Hmm… I looked through all my pics, and I don’t have any that show any other codes. I only have good pics of the inside of the tires (I was taking the pics to document that the wheels were not cracked at that time). So any other codes must have been on the outside / white letter side :-/
Ah well, I appreciate all the info just the same. Very interesting stuff, and good to keep in mind if you come across some vintage rubber.
