Not sure where to post this, but for the sake of everyone's safety please read below. The video below is about 8 minutes and discusses how you can tell if your "new" tires are actually dangerous.

I will summarize in case you cannot watch video; You should not purchase nor drive on tires more than 6 years old. How do you discover their age? On the side of the tirewall closest to the underside of the car there is a long DOT (Department of Transportation) series of numbers and letters. The last 3 or 4 are "blocked" and are the codes for dates...very simple actually - the first 2 numbers are the week the tire was manufactured...ergo "39" means the 39th week And, the remaining two numbers are the year since 2000. For example, "02" would mean the year 2002. In other words the 4 letter code "3902" means that tire was manufactured in the 39th week of 2002. It would be almost "out of date" going by the 6 year rule.

In the video ABC noted that if the code was just 3 letters for example "396"...then you were in a heap of trouble because that means the tires were manufactured in the 39th week of the year 1996!!!! And yes, Sears, Wal*Mart, & tire discount stores were "knowingly" selling them! Needless to say, there are many lawsuits pending.
This is good info...now watch the video.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIn...897&affil=wfaa

 

interesting, I just tried to check mine, but its in the inside (stock tires)... I'll have to wait until I'm off work.

Thanks for the insight.