How to take care of your Car Tyres
Highlights
- Never drive with low air pressure in your tyres
- Replace your tyres once they reach a tread width of 1.6mm
- Seek professional help in mounting your tyres
The first thing to note is that you should always have adequate air pressure maintained at the recommended level. Never drive your car with low tyre pressure as it can be dangerous, and your tyre can even burst.
Check for Damage
To ensure safety, inspect your tyres once a month and to see if they're damaged in any way. Things like cracks, bulges, knots, and penetration require a replacement of the tires.
Don't Spin Excessively
It would be best if you never spun your tyres excessively when your car is stuck in mud, snow, ice, or sand. Overspinning might cause your tyre to overheat and get damaged beyond repair. It would help if you used a gentle forward-backwards rocking motion to free yourself instead. Remember not to stand behind a tyre that is spinning fast, for instance, when a car is stuck in mud, sand, snow, or ice.
Maintain Tyre Pressure
Your car's manual will tell you about the recommended tyre pressure. You should always maintain adequate tyre pressure to ensure optimum performance and help your tyres stay durable and last longer. You can cause irreparable damage to your tyres if they are under-inflated, and your tyre might crack or experience air loss.
Under-inflated tyres increase roll resistance, lessens load capacity, leads to sidewall flexing excessively, and results in mechanical damage and heating up.
On the other hand, over-inflation causes increased stiffness, resulting in an uncomfortable experience while driving and generating vehicle vibration that you never want. The damage at impact is also increased in such a scenario.
Don't Mount Tyres Yourself
There can be a severe injury if the tyres are not appropriately mounted. The tyre or rim assembly might explode if the tyre isn't correctly mounted. It would be best to refer to your car's manual to match rim and tyre diameter. Ensure that you don't use different sized tyres on one axle.
Check for Wear
It would be best always to replace your tires when they have 1.6mm tread depth remaining. New tyres have indicators that tell you when the tyre reaches 1.6mm depth. Accidents might occur due to skidding, or you might experience punctures.
Never Overload Your Car
You should never overload your car and refer to your owner's manual to see the limit of the load that your tyre can take. Overloading your car with passengers increases stress on your tyres, increasing fuel consumption and leading to irreparable tyre damage.
Ensure that you never fit tyres that contain less than recommended load capacity, which you will find in your owner's manual. Also, remember that rim width should match the tyre at the recommended level.