Tyre Care

Tyres are of course the most important parts on the car, you can have the most high powered engine in the world, best brakes in the world but it is all connected to the road by 4 tyres and usually only a few square inches of each of these is touching the road at any one time.

The key to keeping your tyres in the best condition is 4 things,

1) Choose the right tyre, if you need a tyre for grip and performance then it may be best to choose a soft compound tyre. Soft tyres can usually be found from the big manufacturers such as Dunlop and Michelin. However because they are soft, they will wear away more quickly and you should choose a hard compound tyre if you need to get mileage out of your tyres more than grip. The harder compounds are easier to engineer and you will find a lot more budget tyre providers supplying this market. Harder tyres will last longer but you will probably find your car sliding a little more if you are turning at speed.
2) Have them fitted correctly and aligned properly by a trained specialist. If your tyres are fitted without being properly tracked it could mean that they working against each other and this will cause excessive wear. The best example would be to try and walk with both your feet pointing inwards, this is how poor tracking can cause your tyres to wear.
3) Your driving style, the smother you drive the longer your tyres will last. This includes rapid acceleration and deceleration. Turning corners at high speed will obviously wear the tyres at a higher rate.
4) Tyre maintenance, keep your tyres to at the correct pressure is the simplest but most affective act you can perform to get the most out of your tyres.

Below we have a chart showing you what is causing certain damage and the action to take to minimise further wear.

	Low Tyre Pressure This is caused by poor tyre care and the standard weekly checks of tyre inflation not being carried out. As the tyres have less air in them, the sides of the tyre that aren't meant to contact with the road start to take the load and wear more quickly. The load is taken off the centre of the tyre and causes that area to be less worn. Bad tyre inflation will impact on your fuel economy, acceleration and will shorten the life of your tyre.

	Tyre Pressure too High Almost the exact opposite of the condition above, over pressurising the tyre will cause the centre line of the tyre to be in over contact with the road and take the most wear. Over inflation will cause the tyre to wear quicker and breaking distances to suffer as less of the tyre is in contact with the road. Driving will also be more difficult in wet conditions.

	Poor Tracking / Wheel allignment Indications of poor tracking are the tyre being worn more on one side rather than the other. The side wall of one side of the tyre will usually be void of tread and the other will still have its tread pattern. Most occurring on the front wheel, the best way to test this is when the vehicle is till, turn the steering wheel full lock to the right or left and view look for the pattern described. To rectify bad tracking, you should take the vehicle to a garage with the correct equipment to align your vehicle correctly.

	Worn Tyre Unfortunately not much you can do at this point, the tyre has simply reached the end of its life and requires changing. The tyre is now illegal and you are in danger of prosecution with the punishment being 3 penalty points per tyre and a huge fine. If you are involved in an accident and your tyres are defective, you could be looking at a charge of anything up to manslaughter.

	Flat Spotted Tyre The picture to the left is an extreme example of a flat spot on the tyre. Usually caused by an emergency stopping action in which the brakes lock the wheel and a certain part of the tyre stays in constant contact with the road whilst the vehicle is still traveling. The friction of this causes the tyre to overheat and melt away the tread. Sometimes it is still legal to continue to drive on a flat spot although the car vehicle will ride with a little bit of a bounce, as you are no longer driving on perfectly round tyres. There will also be an increase in road noise.

	Tyre Wall Sliced Sometimes tyres can be repaired, but tyres with this sort of damaged can not be repaired and must be changed. This sort of damage will usually cause the tyre to deflate rapidly. If however your tyre is still inflated, don't drive on it as if the load on the tyre wall increases it may blow out and cause you to crash.

	Tyre Impact This type of damage is obvious because of the egg on the tyre. Usually caused by a heavy collision with the kerb, it means the end of your tyre as no repairs can be made for this. The tyre itself won't deflate and in 99% of cases with still be driveable. However you should not drive on this at any speed and should change as soon as possible. This is the kind of damage that can cause a blow out at any time.