Looking After Your Car Tyres

Not everyone thinks like a mechanic so we are here to help you with a few things to consider with your car tyres.

To prolong the life of your car tyres, you need to regularly check them for signs of wear and tear.

• The inside and outside edges of the tyres can wear unevenly, it might look fine on the outside but the inside could be dangerous or illegal.
• The legal requirement for tyres is to have a minimum tread depth of 1.5mm.
• All tyres have tread wear indicators moulded into the tread grooves; if they are worn down to these indicators on any part of the tyre, then the tyre should be replaced.
• The tyre sidewalls should be checked for any damage, if it is, this could lead to a blowout.
• Remove any rocks or mud debris from the tread.  Check the tyre pressure at least once a month and ideally check them when they are cold, before driving.

Regular Car Tyres Rotation

When we do your car service, we do tyre rotations regularly to ensure even wear on all four corners.  The recommendation is to have your tyres rotated at least every 10,000kms to achieve a more uniform wear for all of your tyres.

Does Your Car Need A Wheel Alignment?

If you notice your car pulls left or right or the steering wheel is not centred, you may need to get a wheel alignment done.

If they are out of alignment you will notice that it affects the vehicle steering and handling on the road, it will also make a difference to your fuel economy if you leave it like this.

If you have recently hit a pothole, gutter or are driving on rough roads regularly then you may need to get your wheel alignment done again, even if it was done not long ago.

The wheels will need to be re-aligned according to manufacturer’s specifications.

What Is A Wheel Balance?

When you get new car tyres fitted, you will need to get a wheel balance done.

When combined, new wheels and tyres will be slightly out of balance, to correct this, a wheel balance is performed to correct any possible vibrations felt when driving at speed.

The correction is done by adding tiny amounts of weight at one point, this is identified by putting the wheel and tyre on a computer operated machine to determine the minute difference in weight balance.

Sometimes the tyre balancing weights can fall off and they will need to be re-balanced to correct this.  Also they can be thrown out of balance from hitting gutters or potholes and when damage is done to rims or tyres.

As part of our automotive repairs service, we can arrange to get your rims repaired.

When you come into our car workshop, let us know if you have felt changes in your cars on- road handling or feel that you need to get your car tyres checked and we will advise if you need a tyre replacement, a wheel alignment or wheel balance. Or it could be just as simple as needing the correct tyre pressure in them and our friendly mechanic will happily do this for you.