Mike MeltonI Fix Broken Crews and Build Leaders That Run Without You

Are Your Tires To Old ? #tireshop #leadership #businessowner #automotivetraining

24 Feb 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:03

In this video, Mike Melton warns viewers about the hidden dangers of buying used tires that appear to be in good condition. He demonstrates how to locate the DOT/manufacturer date code on a tire’s sidewall, explains that the code (e.g., 0906) indicates the tire was produced in the ninth week of 2006, and points out that such a tire is about 19 years old. Despite having fresh tread and no visible cracking, an old tire is a "ticking time bomb" because rubber degrades over time, making it prone to sudden blowouts when subjected to heating and cooling cycles. Melton advises anyone purchasing used tires to check the date code and avoid tires that are excessively old, regardless of their visual appearance.

Chapters

Now, if you're out looking for used tires, watch out what you buy. Let me show you why. All right, so as you can see, that tires got really good tread and everything. There's no dry rotting whatsoever. Even on the sidewalls, nothing's cracking at all, right? Like now on your tires, look on the sidewall, you'll see a dot number. That one's got all the dot numbers right here. But it doesn't have the manufacturer's date. So one side of the tire has that date. Let me show you that I know. This side of tires, as you see, has dot numbers again, has all your little letters and numbers. And then you go, here it has an 090906. Now, what does that 0906 mean? That means it's made in the ninth week of 2006. So if you know how to do math, that tire is 19 years old. So just because these tires look good, watch out. When you go and buy used tires, you do not want to buy something that's that old, because this thing is a ticking time bomb. And this thing could explode at any time when it gets put back into service from heating and cooling. Heating and cooling. You will definitely have a blowout with this tire.