An Essential Guide To Tyre Care And Maintenance

Having a roadworthy vehicle requires proper care and maintenance. Besides regular engine check-ups, ensuring your tyres are in excellent condition is essential. Properly maintaining your tyres can be crucial in avoiding accidents due to poor handling. In addition, it's illegal to drive a vehicle with unroadworthy tyres. You can get penalties, points deducted, or both depending on your location. 

Some care and maintenance procedures are easy and can be performed regularly. However, some processes necessitate the services of a tyre expert. You can look for an auto centre near you or visit 5 Star Tyres for procedures like wheel alignment and tyre change. In any case, these steps are essential to ensure you have roadworthy tyres. If you want to keep your tyres in excellent condition, the reference guide below can be helpful. 

• Observe Good Driving Habits

Your driving habits can cause the rapid deterioration of your tyres. This is despite adhering to other tyre care and maintenance guidelines. Therefore, when driving across different surfaces, it's essential to be mindful of their effect on your tyres. 

For instance, uneven and rocky surfaces can accelerate your tyres' wear and tear. Therefore, it would be best to avoid such road surfaces. In addition, if you get stuck, you shouldn't excessively spin your tyres to try and get out. This can expose the tyres to higher temperatures. Gentle acceleration that allows the car to rock back and forth can assist you in getting unstuck. 

Hard acceleration and braking are other common bad driving practices that can destroy your tyres. These actions can burn your tyres, thus increasing their wear and tear. When driving in traffic, leaving enough space to avoid frequent start and stop motions would be best. Furthermore, observing road signs can be significant in caring for your tyres. This allows you to gradually slow down in case of crossroads or speed bumps.

• Maintain Recommended Tyre Pressure

Correct tyre pressure is critical for your vehicle’s handling. In addition, it's a factor that affects the fuel consumption rate. But these aren't the only reasons to maintain correct tyre pressure levels. 

Under or over-inflating your tyres also determines the rate of wear and tear. For instance, over-inflating them means a smaller surface at the centre of the tyre touches the road. Thus, this centre part will wear faster than the outer edges. On the other hand, under-inflating them can damage and wear the outer edges faster. 

Therefore, maintaining the recommended tyre pressure would be best. You'll see pressure level indication on the tyres themselves. However, tyre experts recommend following the car manufacturer's recommendations. You'll see these on the inside panel of the driver's side door.

• Always Rotate Your Tyres

Due to various reasons, your tyres can wear unevenly. This can significantly affect your vehicle's handling and control. Thus, it's essential to consider rotating them regularly. Rotating your tyres involves routinely changing the position of the tyres from side to side and front to back. One of the standard techniques is cross-directional rotation. 

Cross-directional tyre rotation means that the front left tyre becomes your rear right, and the front right becomes your rear left. Routine and regular tyre rotation ensure that your tyres wear evenly. This action can also make your tyres last longer. Furthermore, tyre rotation helps you check for tyre wear and tear. 

Tyre experts recommend doing a tyre rotation every 6,000km. Other experts advise using your oil change as a guide. Thus, when you change your car's engine oil, you can rotate your tyres. It's essential to note that tyre rotation is ideal for vehicles with the exact tyre sizes. 

• Keep The Wheels Aligned

Wheels can get misaligned due to poor driving habits, for instance, heavy driving over uneven surfaces and speed bumps. Various signs can help indicate that your wheels are misaligned. For example, the vehicle can pull to the side when driving straight. Additionally, you can experience vibrations from the steering wheel and squealing noises from the tyres. 

Tyre misalignment can increase your tyres' wear and tear. In addition, the treads will wear out unevenly. Thus, regularly scheduling wheel alignment with your local auto shop is essential. It would be best to follow your manufacturer's recommendation on how frequently you should take your vehicle for wheel alignment. 

• Do Not Unnecessarily Overload Your Vehicle

The manufacturer recommends load limitations for each vehicle. These are typically indicated on the driver's door or the manufacturer's manual. It's vital to follow these recommendations seriously. It’s worth noting that carrying an overload can stress your tyres and increase the rate tread wear. 

Furthermore, overloading your vehicle reduces its handling ability. Thus, also putting more stress on the tyres. It's vital to ensure that the tyres you choose have the same load capacity as your car in order to maintain them properly. 

Conclusion

Tyres will wear out eventually. However, taking care of them can ensure they serve you for their estimated lifespan. This guide will assist you in caring for and maintaining your tyres. This can save you money while keeping your tyres roadworthy and in good condition for longer.