The federal motor vehicle safety standards require all tire manufacturers to provide certain information to the consumer. If you want to know specific information about the tires on your car, just look on the sidewall where it is molded right into the rubber. You can find the tire size, make and model, maximum load rating, air pressure requirements. Even the coded date of manufacture. New tires are measured metrically. For example, a tire size P-155-80-R-13 is broken down like this. P stands for passenger tire. 155 is the width in millimeters. 80 is the height/width ratio. R stands for radial and 13 is the diameter of the wheel in inches. Finally, the last three digits indicate the manufacture date. For example, 226 means the tire was made in the 22nd week of 1986. The maximum load and air pressure should correspond with auto manufacturer specifications and the tire code tells you the actual manufacturer of the tire in the event the tires were purchased from a chain store under their own name.
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