For months, I had gone from one mechanic to another, seeking to understand why my car was making a scraping sound when I applied pressure to my brakes. The mechanics assured me that the problem was not the brakes. Yet, the problem grew worse.
The scraping sound was like a phantom. It was elusive at best. One moment it was so loud that other drivers would stare as my car moved past them. The next moment, there was no sound at all.
When it comes to buying new tires you have an almost unlimited selection to choose from. This isn’t the false freedom of choice you experience when deciding which of seven virtually identical brands of frozen broccoli to go with either. This is the real deal.
The tires are the main point of interaction between your vehicle and its environment. It is, quite literally, where the rubber meets the road. This makes choosing the right tires a very important decision.
There is a lot of information to be found on your tire’s sidewall. However, aside from the part that gives you the maximum load and the maximum tire pressure, it’s not exactly easy to understand.
A good place to start is by taking a look at the Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG). It’s one of the few places on the tire where you will see actual words. These are tread wear, traction, and temperature.
No matter how diligent you are in maintaining and rotating your tires, sooner or later the tread will be gone and the tires will have reached the end of their life. Or have they?
If you take a look at a tire that is “completely” worn out, you will notice that the tread is basically gone and the tires just can’t grip anymore. But you might also notice that the rest of the tire seems to be holding up just fine.
Most of us never stop to think about the maximum load our tires can support. After all, passenger cars are usually used to transport well…passengers, and any human beings who would cause the vehicle to exceed its maximum load are unlikely to fit through the car doors in the first place.
But (and just like in the example above it’s a big butt) with the large number of light trucks, SUVs, and vans being used as primary transportation today, a tire’s maximum load becomes a much bigger factor.
When it comes to car repair, most of us are totally clueless. Even if we took auto shop in high school, vehicle design and technology changes so fast that it seems like the only people who can keep up are professionals and extremely dedicated hobbyists.
However, there is at least one quick fix that every motorist, regardless of occupation, age, or gender should be able to perform, and that is how to change a flat tire.
By properly maintaining your tires, you could potentially be avoiding uneven wear, poor performance and possibly even a blowout. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, tire failures or blowouts are believed to contribute to over 400 deaths and 10,000 injuries in the United States every year. Even with those figures being made public, the surprising factor is that statistics have shown some drivers still fail to follow the basic tire maintenance guidelines that could help to prevent such occurrences.
In addition to overloading, under-inflation is one of the leading causes of tire failure. Simply put, this means putting too much air or not enough into the tires. Either of these can cause stress and excessive heat, which can lead to tire problems and may even result in a blowout or a car crash.
These tips will help you have a safer driving experience. Please read them over and practice following them. They may save your life.
1. Always use the seat belt - THIS MEANS YOU. Every living thing inside the car should be buckled up or secured.
There’s no question that tires can be expensive. However, before deciding to replace your worn tires with a discount brand there are some things you should consider.
First, you can use a little common sense to determine which kind of tire is right for your particular situation. A good way to think about this is to think of tires as being like shoes for your car. Would you wear brown oxfords while jogging? When you attend a funeral do you throw on a pair of cross trainers? Of course not!
Why should you rotate your tires? After all, they seem to rotate plenty when the car is moving. All kidding aside, there is one very good reason to have your tires rotated on a regular schedule. By rotating your tires, you are ensuring an even pattern of wear. This means you will get the most possible use out of your investment.
Assuming that your tires are of at least average quality and you never rotate them, your front tires will wear out somewhere between 16,000 and 32,000 kilometres. Compare this to the rear tires, which will last anywhere from 80,000 to 130,000 kilometres, and you can see that without tire rotation you will be shelling out a lot of extra cash to replace tires you don’t have to.
If you happen to live in an area that experiences severe conditions during the winter, you may want to consider chains or studded tires.
Before you rush out to buy them, though, there are a few things you should know. These traction devices are for situations where a regular tire just can’t hack it, not for driving to the corner store in the middle of January. In most cases all-season radials or snow tires can handle anything you would care to throw at them.
So you’re leafing through the newspaper on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and you come across a classified ad that reads something like this:
GREAT TIRES FOR SALE! Barely used, premium tires, $15 each. Come to Josie’s Bar and Grill, ask for Snake. NO COPS.
Your vehicle’s tires are actually synthetic rubber which has been shaped into its form. It covers the circumference of the wheel of a vehicle. What it actually does is it dampens any strong shocks or forces that could be the effects of any irregularities on the road surface like bumps or potholes. In fact, tires also protect the wheel itself from wearing out too soon.
That is why it is of utmost importance that a car owner should take extra care when it comes to the tires. One of the most common ways of keeping a tire in good shape and condition would be to maintain the proper air pressure. Make this activity a routine and do it regularly. And this is very important also when you are about to take long drives. And during the summer months, be sure that you check the tire pressure when the tires are cold for the air inside expands when the tires are hot so you would be getting a different reading.
Driving through snow is not on anyone’s list of fun things to do. It becomes even less enjoyable when you feel your tires quit on a particularly slippery patch.
When it comes to ensuring safe winter driving, you have two choices. Either you buy snow tires, or you go with all-season radials. Which one is the correct option depends entirely on the environment you drive in.
Can you rotate your own tires? The answer is yes, but it’s really the wrong question to be asking in the first place. A better question is: Should you rotate your own tires? The answer in this case is probably not.
Rotating your vehicle’s tires is a breeze if you have the right tools. Unfortunately the right tools for rotating your own tires consist of a lift, a powerful compressor, and the air tools to go along with it. You could make do with a tire iron or even the right size of socket wrench, but it’s the lift that is the real sticking point. Even the most dedicated of do-it-yourselfers rarely has a hoist in their garage. If nothing else, the cost of the equipment and installation can prove prohibitive. If you could afford to put in a lift, you could probably afford to have your tires professionally rotated every single day for the next year
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