Just as your foot are sore after a foresightful walkway , the tires on your car take a beating every time you drive . This is n’t a sign of unfit drive –well , not usually – but rather an inevitable fact of life . Tires get old and wear down . And because a tire nonstarter while you ’re driving can be catastrophic , cause your car to go out of ascendency or leaving you stranded in the middle of nowhere without any easy manner to get home , you need to know when your tire are in bad shape so you’re able to get new ones before something go wrong . Of of course , if you have a mechanic flavor at your car periodically , he or she will belike recite you if the tires need to be changed , but there are several things you could do yourself short of a sojourn to your local car center to make certain your tires are in good shape .

We ’ve listed five of the warning signs that indicate you need new tires ( in no peculiar order ) over the next few Page .

5: Tread Depth

The stride on your tires should never fall below 1/16 of an inch ( 1.6 millimeter ) in depth . If you on a regular basis drive on sleek , wet surfaces , you ’d be even in force off with twice that much . you may buy a gauge to measure the pace depth the way the professionals do , but there ’s an sometime caper that will give you a rough thought of how much tread depth you have left and it wo n’t be you more than a centime .

In fact , it command a centime . Take a Lincoln - head cent , the kind you find in your change every twenty-four hours , and insert Abe ’s oral sex ( promontory - down ) into the stride . If Lincoln ’s entire head remains visible , you do n’t have enough pace . Take your car into the mechanic and expect about getting a new set of tires .

4: The Tread Wear Indicator Bar

fresh tyre have a widget that older tires miss . They have tread wear indicator bar built into the tyre themselves . These legal community , invisible or scarce seeable when the tire are new , gradually begin to appear as the tread wear down . They appear as flat rubber bar running vertical to the direction of the tread itself . If more than one or two of these are visible on a tire , the pace is getting downcast . This should be peculiarly obvious in the wet track that your tires leave after you drive through a puddle . Use the penny test described on the previous page to double check the depth , but if the bars are bulge to appear on any or all of your tire , it ’s once again fourth dimension to ascertain with your car-mechanic or local tire bargainer to see about getting your current tire replaced .

3: Cracks in the Sidewall

Not all problems with the tire are break down to be in the tread . They can also appear in the sidewall . Fortunately , it ’s easy to do a optical check of sidewall problem . Look for track or cuts in the sidewall – grooves that are discrete enough to be visible to the raw eye . This could be a sign that your tyre is develop a leak ( or unfit , that it ’s about quick to blow out ) . This is definitely something you want to avoid . So if the cracks in the sidewall are starting to look serious , get that car to a repair shop at the next chance and start talking about getting them interchange . well safe than good-for-nothing , as they say .

2: Bulges and Blisters on the Tire

Sometimes the outer surface of the tire begins to weaken . The resultant role can be a bulge or blister that extends outward from the rest of the aerofoil . This is like to an aneurysm in one of your blood vessel and you know that if your doctor tells you that you have an aneurism , you ’d better get to the infirmary as quickly as you may before you blow out an artery . It ’s the same with your tyre . This weak spot can cause a sudden bump out , and if you do n’t put the car in the hospital ( or service sum , as the case may be ) before this happens , it may end up putting you in the hospital when the tyre blow out on the freeway . So keep your eye on those tyre bulges and blisters .

1: Too Much Vibration

A sealed amount of vibration is inevitable when drive , especially on ill paved roads , but if you ’ve been driving for a while , you probably know how much vibration feel correct and how much means that something ’s go wrong . There can be any of a number of cause for the shaking – maybe your tires are misaligned or unhinged , or your shock absorbers are begin to go . But it could also bespeak that there ’s some sort of internal problem in the tire itself . Even if the tyre is n’t the source causal agency of the vibration , the vibration could damage the tyre and passably soon you ’ll have a problem . So if your cable car has a big case of the shimmy - shimmy shakes , especially if you notice this when you are n’t ram on bad roads , take it to the mechanic right away to have it checked out . Too much vibration is almost always a signal that something is wrong .

For more information about tire and other related to matter , follow the links on the next page .

Replace Tires FAQ

Lots More Information

Sources