Have you ever thought about just how many hours you spend in the car every week? You might log quite a few miles, which makes it very important to keep up with car maintenance. One part of the car that needs to be properly tended to are the tires. Taking good care of your tires can help you stay safer on the road. We’ll go over why tire tread depth, tire alignment and balance, tire rotation, and pressure are so crucial to the health of your vehicle.
Tire tread depth:
The tread depth basically tells you how worn your tires are (the treads being the notches in the tire.) As you drive, they get worn from rubbing on the road. If they’re overly worn, it can significantly impact the time it takes for your car to come to a complete stop. Old tires don’t have as much grip as new ones, so it will take longer for your car to come to a halt. As you can imagine, this means you have a greater chance of getting involved in an accident – you might accidentally careen into something. This can be especially dangerous in wet weather. (Side note: having no accidents is good for your auto insurance premiums.)
Bald tires are no good. Make sure that your tires have the proper tread depth.
Pro tip: Don’t forget about the car your teen driver uses. They might not know how important it is to take care of the tires or when they need new ones. Keep your teen driver safe and explain the importance of car maintenance to them!
Alignment and balancing:
It’s also important to have your tires aligned and balanced properly. If they’re not, this can lead to your tires wearing out faster. A trustworthy shop can use computer-assisted devices to help you make sure that your car is aligned and balanced properly.
Speaking of tires wearing out, that leads us to our next point:
Tire rotation:
It’s important to have your tires rotated per the manufacturer’s recommendations. Front and rear tires wear unevenly because they’re carrying different loads and have different “tasks.” Which set wears more depends on whether your car is front or rear-wheel drive, but it’s important to have the tires rotated regularly so that they will wear evenly. (If there’s no recommendation from the manufacturer, a rule of thumb could be every 5,000-7,000 miles.)
Air pressure:
It’s important to make sure that your vehicle has the proper tire air pressure. If your tire pressure light goes on, you don’t need to panic right away. Sometimes the pressure can be reduced if the weather is cold. If your pressure light goes on and hangs around, definitely get your tires checked for leaks by a mechanic.
It’s important to have the right inflation in your tires because if you don’t, you could risk the tires wearing out fast and unevenly. That means that your tire could fail, and that would be really not good. Having a tire failure is dangerous.
Part of being a responsible car owner is maintaining your vehicle. The tires are an essential part of what keeps the car rolling, and having tires that are poorly maintained is a safety hazard. Your car does a lot for you. Return the favor by keeping up with tire maintenance.
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Source:
https://www.tiresafety.com/en_us/maintaining-tires/tire-maintenance/tire-rotation
https://www.tiresafety.com/en_us/maintaining-tires/tire-maintenance/tire-inflation