The tyres play a critical role in your vehicles safety, with little more than a hand size amount of tread per tyre making contact with the road surface at any given time, this is critical for cornering, Steering, acceleration and braking, so it is extremely important that your vehicles tyres are in a good condition.
Good tyre tread becomes even more important on wet roads
The tyre tread is designed to disperse water from the contact area of the tyre, allowing the tyre to grip the road and perform as anticipated for the driver.
Without good tyre tread in wet conditions, the driver will have difficulty in accelerating, and cornering.
More importantly, the Tyre tread is responsible for ultimately stopping your vehicle when braking, the brake system can be operating fine, but if you don’t have good tread contact with the road, the vehicle can just simply glide on the road surface, when you need it to stop
To ensure this Tyres have a minimum tread level indicator.
If the tread is worn down to these bars or the bars are visibly worn, the tyre is illegal and needs to be replaced.
Correct Tyre pressure
Recommended tyre pressure is shown on the tyre placard attached to the car body (usually on the driver's door pillar), it is also listed in the owner's manual.
Tyre pressures are given for normal driving, and also when loaded up with the maximum number people the car can legally carry and luggage, so if you are going on a trip the pressure will differ from city driving with an unloaded vehicle.
The tyre pressure is also critical to the vehicles suspension performance, allowing it to ride and corner efficiently, while the tyres maintain god contact with the road surface.
Examples of Badly worn tyres
How often should I check the tyre pressures?
To ensure you are getting the best out of your tyres they should be checked regularly, the recommended is every two weeks.
They will also be need to be checked and adjusted before you go on a long journey, or before towing, as they might need to be set higher.
Don’t forget about the spare tyre,
“You don’t want to have to go through the hassle of changing a flat tyre only to find out your spare is also flat”
Looking after your tyres
Maintain the correct tyre pressure
Maintaining the correct tyre pressure is paramount to looking after your vehicles tyres.
A tyre with the correct pressure should wear evenly across the tread, incorrectly adjusted tyres will wear unevenly and require replacement much earlier.
Under inflated tyres wear heavily on the outer edges of the tyre, over inflated tyres wear out the centre of the tread prematurely.
Heat effects the tyre pressure
It is always best to adjust the tyre pressures when the vehicle is cold.
This is because as the car is driven and the tyres heat up the air in the tyres expands, so setting the pressure after the vehicle has been operating for a considerable time, will result in an incorrect tyre pressure when the vehicles tyres cools down.
So how can we help?
Future Auto Service Centres will inspect and adjust your tyre pressures as part of your vehicle servicing, but that only occurs once in six months for most people (some even longer). So tyre pressure needs attention in between services.
If you are uncertain of what you require please ask our staff for their advice on tyres and how they can assist in getting the best value out of your tyre for you.
If you are a Platinum Rewards Club member, we adjust your tyre pressures for you as part of your “Free Drive way Service” benefit
