Since we have a new family car we pay a lot more attention to all the thought to be small details and we think it’s a lot better to maintain everything than ending up with a breakdown and a hefty bill. Just now before taking our family car on a long drive over to France, Brittany we made sure that the tyres are in the best condition for the trip. The tyres are a very important aspect of the car. When it comes to driving safety, their importance definitely can’t be understated. If you think about it: tyres are essentially the only contact between you and the road.
How does a healthy tyre look and feel like?
Healthy tyres have good deep tread channels to deal with wet conditions. If the tyres are too worn out, the rest of the tread can’t properly disperse the water at the contact patch. Therefore, you need to regularly check the depth for the tyre tread.
The best is always to visit professional car care centre which is near to you to check if your tyres are in a healthy and fully working condition, but these basic tips will help you to look after them.
Regular tread check
As I mentioned above, the condition of the tread gives you a good indication of the tyres’ well-being. So start here. Generally, it is advised that when the tread gets down to 3mm, you should really consider replacing them. Poor tread can increase your stopping distance and raise the risk of skidding. So don’t drive your vehicle with tyres of poor tread and if you are local in areas like Clackmannanshire, you can contact Point S or you can also book tyres online from them.
Regular inflation check
Avoid over and under inflation because they both negatively effect the tyre’s life and ultimately the car’s safety. Any petrol station should have tyre pressure pumps, so you can check them by yourself. Inflation check should be done at least monthly.
Regular balancing check
A good indication of tyres being unbalanced is the vibrating steering wheel. But even if you don’t notice this, every time when you’re getting the tyre replaced – a check should be performed. Avoiding this, can result in the tyres ageing more rapidly.
Regular wheels alignment check
You can spot this if the car’s handling is altered, for example the car slightly drifting or pulling to one side. In this case you definitely need to check the alignment because at this point your car is unsafe – and of course it will ave an effect on your tyres life too. But don’t wait for this to happen and rather get it checked regularly.
Regular rotation check
For this, you again need professional help to carry this out, but you only really need to do this twice a year, or if you drive a lot, then in every 10,000 kms. The tyres at the front of your vehicle commonly wear out faster than those at the rear. Rotating your tyres can help to maintain the same degree of wear across the 4 tyres.
This is a collaborative post.
