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Your Tire is Texting You

Do you recognize this: ILUVU4URAQT

If you are old enough to own a car, you’re likely old enough to remember that “sentence”, which may go down in the history books as the world’s first widespread use of emoticons and abbreviations in place of a phrase*. And it’s not too bad given that texting hadn’t been invented yet.  Now try this one: P 215 65R 15 96 V.

That pretty combination of letters and numbers is an example of what you might see on the side of your tires… yes, your Yamahas are trying to communicate with you. Granted the mumbo-jumbo might look more like your mother’s first attempt at texting you on her flip-phone, but this series of digits actually mean something (no offense, mom).

There is in fact a plethora of information that you can learn about your car just by having a look around. Aside from the manual, which is full of valuable information, there are indicators on various parts of your car that tell its story, from what kind of light bulbs it uses to how it likes its coffee**.  For today, let’s start by explaining those numbers and letters above, which is the information found on the sidewall of your tires.

P – This is the tire type. You will likely have “P” on your tire, since it stands for passenger. Other options include LT (light truck), T (temporary Spare) and ST (special trailers)

215 – This number is the tire width, in millimeters, at its widest point

65 – This is the aspect ratio, comparing the tire’s height to its width, as a percentage. In this case, the height of the tire is 65% of its width

R – This refers to how the tire is constructed. R means radial, which is the case for almost all cars on the road today

15 – This number tells you the diameter of the wheel that your tire will fit

96 – This number is an indicator of how much weight a tire can carry, according to a standard load capacity chart

And finally…

V – This is the speed rating, indicating the maximum speed the tire can go given its load factor. This takes into account many factors, including tire wear and cornering ability 

So now you’re an expert in tire talk! Just don’t ask us to explain that text your mom sent…

Is there any information on your car that you’re wondering about? Send us an email or a note through Facebook and we’ll write a blog about it!

*It probably isn’t

**unleaded