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-   -   Why is my 2017 Audi wearing tyres from 2012? EDIT: Was a misunderstanding (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-alloy-wheel-section/240345-why-my-2017-audi-wearing-tyres-2012-edit-misunderstanding.html)

I recently purchased an Audi A3 35TDI from Audi Approved Plus. The car is manufactured in 12/2017 and Invoiced to the first owner in early 2018. The car had run 15,000+ km when I bought it end of July 2021 and tyres looked in decent condition.

Upon closer inspection today, I find that the rubber has a lot of micro cracks and upon looking at the tyre closely, I see that the manufacturing year is 2012 on all 4 tyres. The tyres running on the car say 'Made in Poland'. The space saver spare wheel is also 2012 make but says 'Made in China'.

Does this sound/look fishy because I cannot imagine Audi putting 5 year old tyres on a 2017 manufactured car? Here is a picture of the space wheel with the year mark. The person who pointed this out is of the opinion that maybe the original tyres were cannibalized by the service centre. Tough to believe a reputed company like Audi (or their dealer) would do this.

Would be obliged to hear opinions of the members here.

Tyre life is around 5 years in normal conditions. However, under specific conditions it's possible that their life can be prolonged. By how much - I don't know. Some one in the Tyre business can say more (Nikhil?).

But is crazy to imagine any inventory to be stored for 5 years.

I don't have any great answer except that may be it was stored under certain conditions and Audi determined that it is still usable when the car was being sold.

Edit: I just saw that you bought it at 15k kms. It's more likely that the first owner did some Tyre swaps and got rid of his 2012 tyres... Just my opinion.

If these tyres are indeed manufactured in 2012, that means they are almost 9years old.

Get rid of them as soon as possible.

Tyres should ideally be changed after 6years, 9 years is quite a stretch.

Can you share the DOT code on that tyre? It will be a 4 digit code like '0221'.

It’s nearly impossible for a car manufactured in 2017 to have tyres from 2012 unless they are not the OEM ones and have been swapped. Besides, a nine year old tyre will show its age anyhow. Please post a picture of the manufacturing sequence so that members here can have the fair view about the manufacturing year.

First thing first, the 2012 shown in the image is not year of manufacturing. It will be written somewhere else like 0512 or 4817. This means, it is manufactured in 05th week of 2012 or 48th week of 2017. So suggest to search for above print on the tires.

If you find the manufacturing date is 2012 through above mentioned method, then, go through below

Since you have purchased it from car dealer(Audi certified plus is another car dealer. Nothing more, nothing less.), he would have exchanged the original 2017 tires with his other 2012 car tires.

Usually, after 1st or 2nd round discussion, if you hint him that you are certain in buying the car, or if you give some token amount today and pay rest in 1-2 days, he will do all these mischieves.

Usually if you decide to purchase the car after thorough inspection, you should settle amount then and there and take the car to your custody.

Suggest to check the spare tire date of manufacture. Then you can be sure of what might have happened.

That's Brazilian INMETRO certification mark, number and year of certification

Usually Tyre manufacturing date is 4 digit number. For example, 5012 means 50th week of of 2012. What you have seen may not be the year of manufacturing.

Looks like I may have misread the number and reacted in haste. The number you and every one has asked for should be 2517 which means 25th week of 2017 so I'm guessing there is no error there. You can see in one of the pictures, the number is given.

Yes, you're absolutely right. The mechanic misread the number and I wasn't sure what to make of it. The picture below should clarify it.

I heard similar stories and was a little peeved off this evening. But it looks like there's no mischief here.

Thanks everyone for such prompt replies. Really surprised to see help coming in from so many folks. Given below are also pictures showing the micro cracks. Surprised that a car that has run 15K km and is only 4 years old has so many cracks. Have been advised by two people to get them changed anyway.



Also, I am told that the number that we read first

003424
2012

represents the rubber compound number and the year of design.

I'm just glad I put out a question here before calling Audi to give them a peace of my mind.

The DOT code in the last image above shows 2517, so it's a 2017 manufactured tyre itself.

Edit: Just noticed that you've figured that out in your previous post

The car may have largely been parked in the sun. In such cases, the cracks start to appear much earlier in it's lifespan. Yes you should change them without second thoughts. Get it upsized to 225/55/R16. 205 section tyres are too puny for your Audi.

I second this whenever you buy a car or bike you must get new tyres is what I feel :thumbs up

However please don't upsize your tyres having tried out a lot of different permutations and combinations, I've discovered that generally speaking the manufacturer reccomended size is right. One can perhaps go 10mm wider but that's it. Anything more would just add to unsprung mass, cause excess wear on the suspension and sap too much performance (assuming it is a sub 200bhp machine). Simply changing the compound and type of tyre from low rolling resistance ones to high performance ones makes a much better difference than upsizing excessively.

This is INMETRO (National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality) certification used for tyres to be sold in Brazil market. The 2012 is not at all compound or design year. No tyre manufacturer prints/engraves that on sidewall for public information. Rather, it's the oridinance relase number and year for the standard and the certification for tyres. The manufaturing week and year can be obtained from the last four digit of the DOT code of the tyre. DOT code has been mandatory for tyres allover the world after y2k.

When my neighbor bought Volvo S60 in 2015, the car came with continental tires manufactured in 2013.

Thank you both, for enlightening us with this interesting bit of information. One always learns something new each day and week on Team-BHP. Many tyre specialists in India would not have heard about the INMETRO mark.

A big shout out to thank everyone who contributed to this query of mine. I visited Madhus yesterday and got all four tyres changed to Michelin Pilot Sport 4 with stock size - 205/55R16. Also had my first drive to the airport last evening to pick up a friend. Drives very well now.