thanks scootr!

what about the brands? is there any one I should be looking for or any cheap will do? also if I follow the procedure of add-drain a little-add-drain a little-etc will it be considered mixing bands? the other option I guess will be draining it first but somebody here warned against that.

I'm not sure if anyone covered this, but the code you are looking for is the DOT (Department of Transportation) code for the tire. It starts with "DOT", which makes it easy to  distinguish from all the other numbers on the tire. I just looked at one of my tires, and the code is:

DOT EUM 5 L04 2503

which means, among other information, that the tire was made in the 25th week of 2003.

As has been pointed out, if the tire was made before 2000, the last part of the DOT code will only have 3 digits, and 387, for example, would mean the 38th week of the 7 year of some unknown decade before 2000.

Anyway, look for the end of the string that starts with DOT.

Dave Geyer
Merrimack, NH  USA

thanks, dhgeyer. At this point I am already set to get new tires. now I am looking for some clarifications of brake system bleeding (see my previous post). Any ideas?