How to Well Maintain Your Tires

Contents

– Maintaining your tires: checking for wear

– Check inflation pressures monthly

– Maintain, check and adjust your vehicle’s alignment

– Tire maintenance: balancing your tires

– Store your tires correctly to maintain them better

Well-maintained tires = More safety and more miles

There are several tips and basic rules to increase your tires’ life and improve safety.

Maintaining your tires: checking for wear.

Wheels tires tools

An irregularly worn tire can reflect an inflation problem, bad geometry, shock absorber problems, etc. Checking the wear of your tires allows you to maintain your vehicle better.

Good to know: Rotate your tires every year to even out the wear of the different tires and thus optimize their life span and performance.

Checking the wear of a tire also ensures that it can perform its mission safely: watch out for cracks that are synonymous with ageing, overloading or under-inflation, and wear indicators that show the legal limit of 1.6 mm.

Note the more significant the tread depth, the less likely it is that aquaplaning will occur.

Check inflation pressures monthly.

It is important to properly inflate your tires according to the manufacturer’s recommendations for different uses (city, long trips, loads, etc.) and when the pressure is adjusted (cold, hot, winter, etc.).

A poorly inflated tire (too much or too little) can cause :

– a loss of grip,

– less efficient braking,

– less good longevity,

– an increase in fuel consumption,

– risk of a tire blowout.

Maintain, check and adjust the vehicle’s alignment

Wheel alignment is the process of ensuring that the wheels are parallel to each other at an angle to the ground that maximizes the connection to the road.

– Improper alignment results in uneven wear, rougher handling and driving precision, and increased fuel consumption.

– It is particularly recommended to have this service performed by a professional when changing a tire, after a shock or when you feel the steering pulling in one direction and not responding normally to the steering wheel angle.

The alignment costs between $40 and $100 depending on the type of vehicle checked and the repairer performing the service.

Good to know: It is possible to detect misalignment of the vehicle manually. When you pass your hands over the tread, perpendicular to the tire, the fact of feeling a grip going towards the inside of the tire translates into a misalignment in the opening. Feeling the rubber blocks grip when you bring your hand back towards you is a toe-in misalignment.

Tire maintenance: balancing your tires

Balancing your tires prevents the tire from spinning and wearing out unevenly, which maximizes the life of the tires and shock absorbers, among other things, as well as driving comfort.

Proper storage of tires for better maintenance

It is advisable to use tires adapted to the season in your country.

– When one set of tires is on the vehicle, the other should be stored properly, i.e. indoors, dry, at moderate temperatures and preferably upright or suspended. Stacking tires horizontally is not recommended unless it is for a short period or rim-mounted and inflated.

– When a vehicle is immobilized for a long time (more than one month), it is advisable to mount it on chocks or drive the vehicle to a minimum to avoid leaving it static.

Note: it is important to clean the tires and remove any stones stuck between the grooves before storing them.

I hope this post will help you to maintain your tires in perfect condition. Remember to share and comment in the section below.