Follow These Car Tire Maintenance Tips for Long-Lasting Tires – The Manual
7 min readTires are often the most overlooked part of a car. Despite being tasked with literally keeping your car on the road, most owners pay more attention to a car’s engine, fluids, or brakes. Without tires, your vehicle wouldn’t be able to get down the road, making them just as important as gas and oil. Just like any other a part of your car, tires need to be maintained. Luckily, tire maintenance is a DIY process that’s easy to do.
If you’re the kind of person who changes your own car’s oil, then you’ll probably have all the tools you need to maintain your car’s tires. Gather them after organizing your garage . You’ll want to get into the habit of regularly checking your car’s tires. Whether it’s right after every car wash or even every season, maintaining your own car’s wheels helps keep you on the road plus out of a ditch.
What Does the Tire Maintenance Light Mean?
The particular majority associated with car proprietors won’t even think about their car’s auto tires until they get a warning light in the instrument cluster. The yellow exclamation mark in the middle of what looks like a teapot isn’t usually as bad as the check motor light, but you shouldn’t ignore the particular light with regard to too long.
The particular yellow light is a warning for your car’s Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). When the TPMS light comes on, it usually means one, multiple, or all of your car’s wheel pressure is off. Some TPMS lights only come on when the pressure will be low, while others occur when they’re low or high. Either way, the light is a warning to let you know you have to look at your tires.
It’s dangerous to drive with underinflated or overinflated tires. Overinflating your car’s tires can result in decreased traction, a poor ride, and premature wear, while underinflated tires could mean decreased fuel economy, high car tire temperatures, plus less responsive tires.
Sometimes, your TPMS light comes on when a TPMS sensor is malfunctioning. If that’s the case, you’ll need to get the culprit replaced.
What Is Proper Tire Servicing?
Appropriate tire maintenance is ensuring your car’s tires are in good condition. While that sounds simple, it requires a few steps. You’ll have to make sure your own tires have the right amount of air, don’t have any signs of wear, your car’s TPMS light is usually off, and your tires are usually protected from daily use.
Proper tire maintenance boils down to 11 tips:
- Know how to read your own tires
- Check tire pressure
- Look regarding indications of put on
- Complete wheel rotations
- Use the right tires
- Clean the sidewalls
- Keep an eye on tread depth
- Don’t overload your car
- Know what’s inside your tires
- Don’t ignore a TPMS light
- Get your tires changed when needed
Step 1 : Understand how in order to read your car’s wheels.
The first step of tire maintenance is to understand the numbers on the particular side of your tire. Most tires have a combination associated with 12 letters and figures on the side that will correlate to vehicle type, size, construction, diameter, load index, and speed rating. While your own car can hit 155 mph, your tires may be rated at 100 mph. That’s the high payload capacity. It might not be that high with the tires your own car has.
Step 2: Check car tire pressure.
To check tire stress, you want a tire pressure gauge. If a person want in order to make your life easier, you can obtain a wheel inflator, which comes along with a gauge and is definitely a do-it-all machine to keep in your garage. It’s a good idea in order to get a traditional tire pressure gauge to keep within your car in case of an emergency.
Step 3: Look for signs of wear.
This step is fairly simple. All you have to do can be look in your car’s tires plus search for scratches, gouges, bubbles, or cracks in the sidewalls. Some are signs that your tires are old, while others point toward damaged auto tires. In either case, you’ll want in order to replace them.
Stage 4: Complete tire shifts.
Depending upon where you get your new tires, you may be able to get a tire rotation intended for free. If not, you’ll want to follow your owner’s manual or even tire manufacturer’s recommendation on when to complete tire rotations and what direction in order to rotate your tires. Usually, tire shifts have to be completed every 5, 000 to 10, 000 miles.
Step five: Use the right tires.
Getting the correct tire sounds straightforward, and it is, once a person know how to read the particular sides associated with your tires. However, where you live and your own driving habits also play a large role in getting the right tires.
If your car is certainly primarily a commuter vehicle, you should find wheels that hold up well to long highway treks. If you have the sports vehicle and enjoy track days or racing down your favorite windy road, understand that you will wear through your tires quicker and you will pay a higher price for sticky tires. Do you have to deal with snow and cold climates? Consider a pair of dedicated winter tires.
Action 6: Clean the sidewalls.
Cleaning your tires is an easy way to maintain all of them. Putting upon a high-quality tire shine regularly is a great method to keep your wheels protected through everything they come into contact with. From dirt and rocks to the sun, the good tire shine can keep your auto tires in good shape plus looking great.
Phase 7: Keep an eye on tread depth.
Your tire’s follow depth is definitely an indicator of how much rubber is actually touching the particular road. New tires have an average stand depth between 10/32 in order to 11/32 inches.
As a person drive, the tread on your tires wears straight down. States that have safety inspections have a minimum legal limit to get tread level. In most states, it’s 2/32 of an inch, which you can test with a penny or a tire tread depth gauge. Anything below that will amount of tread and you’re gambling along with your life.
Step 8: Don’t overload your vehicle.
Overloading your vehicle puts additional pressure on your tires. Keeping your weight to exactly what your tires can handle will help you maintain your wheels.
Stage 9: Know what’s inside of your auto tires.
If a person have the green wheel cap on the tires, it’s a good indicator that nitrogen will be inside your tires. Even if you possess nitrogen, you can put air into it, but try to find a place that has nitrogen for you to use if your tire is close to flat or even needs a lot of air.
Step 10: Don’t disregard a TPMS light or tire ranking.
The numbers on your own tires are usually crucial, as is your TPMS light. From the maximum weight the wheels can handle to the highest speed you can safely hit, the numbers mean a lot and you have to respect them.
You also have in order to respect your car’s TPMS light. When the light comes on, you have to see if your own car’s tires are overinflated or underinflated. Ignoring a TPMS gentle can have some dramatic effects upon your car’s handling, fuel economy, and performance.
Step 11: Get your tires replaced when needed.
Yes, tires are expensive, but they’re the only thing keeping your car on the particular road. When it’s time to replace your own tires, don’t hesitate in order to do so. And ensure you get the right tires for your vehicle and your driving habits.
How Often Should You Maintain Your Tires?
A good rule of thumb with regard to tire maintenance is every season or quarterly. Usually, your TPMS light will illuminate after a really cold night, as the tire pressure in your tires drops with the weather. That’s normal. What’s not normal is waiting regarding your TPMS light to come on to maintain all of them.
Get into the habit of checking your own tires regularly — right after car washes, after oil changes, after you change your engine air filter , before a long road trip, or even whenever you possess a few minutes. At the least, you can check the particular tire stress, look and feel around the wheels for any problem areas, plus put some tire shine on as part of a monthly maintenance plan.
You should complete tasks, like tire rotations, on a strict schedule, but most service shops will complete tire rotations for free after you get new tires at the shop. Wheel or tire alignments should be done when you get new auto tires — yes, get it done, don’t be cheap — or when you notice your vehicle doesn’t go in a straight line when you’re holding the steering wheel straight.
Taking care of your tires is one of the easier ways to care for your car. For people who change their car’s windshield wipers , tire maintenance is a breeze. Maintaining your car’s tires will help you extend your tire’s life span, save you money on fuel, and keep you safe whenever you’re behind the wheel. More than anything else, a good set of tires will keep you on the road, but ignoring your wheels could result in a person winding up in the ditch. That’s a good enough reason to maintain them regularly.
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