Tyres are one of the most underrated pieces of equipment that many of us rely on each day. No matter how much power your car has, or how big the brakes are, the tyres are the only part of your car that contacts the road and is responsible for handling everything you do while driving.
Because of this, there are some simple things that your tyre needs to be able to do, and some very important things to check whenever you’re checking your tyre pressures.
For the easiest way to access the front wheels, turn the steering wheel all the way to one side and make sure the car is in park or gear with the handbrake on. When checking the rear tyres, you may be able to look from behind the car or even through the wheel well.
Looking across the entire width of the tyre, we need to make sure the none of the treads are less than 1.5mm thick. The easy way to know this is by using the tread wear markers in between the treads of the tyres and by looking for any spots where the tyre is smooth across these points.
1.5mm is the minimum tread depths for most places and the tyre needs those grooves to expel any water from the road. This is incredibly important to keep you safe in wet conditions as it disperses water to stop aquaplaning, which can cause you to lose control of the car.
After this, you want to check that none of the outside edges are wearing faster than the others. This is a sign of a bad wheel alignment (we already have a blog post about that here) which can cause your tyres to wear out a lot faster than normal. Whereas, if the middle section of the tyre is wearing a lot faster than the outer sections (or vice versa), this can mean you may need to check or change the tyre pressures, such as in this post.
Our final check is to run our hand forward and back along the tread of the car, feeling for any rough edges. If the edges of the tread are rough feeling in one direction and smooth in the other, it may be time to look into a rotate and balance. While this isn’t a major issue immediately, this can cause a tremendous amount of noise, making the car painful to be inside for any period of time.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out at any time.
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