How and When to Buy Tires

Aside from obvious failures such as a blow-out or an irreparable flat , how do you know when it’s time to replace the tires on your vehicle?
The answer is simpler than you may think thanks to an industry standard known as “wear bars.” Deep within the tread of every tire is a small ridge molded into the tire that indicates when that tire has reached its useful limit. The “bars” are located in several places around each tire and are aligned to create a line across the tire tread. An old tire trick involves using a penny. Hold the penny with Lincoln’s head facing down and toward you. Insert it into a worn area of the tread. If you can see all of the president’s head, the tires are worn out. Tires are officially worn out when the tread depth reaches 1/16th of an inch.
It is always best to replace all four tires at once. It ensures that the vehicle will ride and handle as it was designed for optimum safety and comfort - this is especially important if your vehicle is all-wheel drive. Traction control and computerized all wheel drive systems rely on all of the tires being exactly the same size and rotate at exactly the same speed. On a typical front or rear wheel drive vehicle you should at least replace your tires in pairs.
If you buy a new pair of tires the next question is where to have them installed. Old school logic had always professed installing the better tires on the front. Logically, the front tires handle the weight of the engine, steer, and provide most of the braking. This made good sense until engineers at Michelin proved that logical is not always practical. At their proving grounds Michelin demonstrated how having the better tires on the rear of a vehicle – either front or rear wheel drive – reduced hydroplaning and consequential oversteer caused by the rear tires losing traction. Hydroplaning is a condition that occurs when a tire cannot channel away the water beneath it and therefore loses contact with road by literally riding on a film of water.
Another thing to keep in mind is that all tires have a break-in period. Tires perform best after the first 500 miles of service. This is due to the use of various chemicals necessary during the manufacturing process that wear away after 500 miles or so.
The tire industry is extremely competitive so be sure to shop around before buying. Keep in mind that every tire manufacturer has several models of tires to choose from and then several variations of each model so be sure your comparing apples to apples.

Spring Cleaning

It’s time to take off the snow tires and wash the salt out of the fenders. Even if you don’t have to deal with such things, there are maintenance items that everyone should practice to get their car ready for summer.
If you live in an area of the country that gets cold and salt is used to keep the roads clear of ice, it is vitally important to ensure that no remnants of salt remain on your vehicle. Salt is highly corrosive and although manufacturers are using more man-made and galvanized parts, salt will cause any bare metal parts of your vehicle to rust away. Wash the car off from above and below. Many automated car washes offer an undercarriage wash which greatly helps to remove residual salt that may be trapped in nooks and crannies that would otherwise harbor the corrosive.
Protect the paint by applying a fresh coat of good quality wax. Wax helps to preserve the paint finish by providing a protective layer that keeps bugs, grime and dirt from sticking to the paint and also offers protection from the uv rays of the sun.
Get the oil changed, tires rotated and be sure to have the service agent check the coolant. Coolant is not just antifreeze – it also raises the boiling point of water it’s mixed with to keep your engine from overheating. Also, check the wiper blades since April showers also tend to bring work to the body shops.
Last, if your air conditioner has taken on a musty or moldy smell, ask you service agent about disinfecting the a/c system. There are several products available that work very well at killing the mold that often grows in the car’s ventilation unit.
As usual, make sure all the lights are working, the fluids are full and there’s air in the spare.

Cold Weather Tire Pressure

Any one with a working knowledge of automobile maintenance will know that tire pressure should always be checked while the tire is cold – meaning not driven on for at least two hours. But cold is a relative term and winter temperatures can quickly go from cold to too cold.

The air in a tire expands and contracts with temperature. Since the inner volume of the tire stays relatively constant, the air pressure increases with higher temperature and decreases with lower temperature. Filling your tires with Nitrogen is one way to help minimize these fluctuations. Nitrogen expands and contracts far less than air.

With winter upon us, you may notice that your tires appear low on air, or the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) may be flashing a warning that your tires are low on air. For each ten degrees of temperature change the pressure in an air-filled tire will change by one pound. So if you last checked your tires in the fall when it was in the 70’s and now it’s in the 20’s, your tires have each lost about five pounds of air pressure.

Considering the hazards winter affords; snow, ice, wind and rain, you should pay more attention to your tires in the winter than during any other time of year. So check the driver’s door jamb or the owner’s manual for the recommended tire pressure; make sure the tires are cold; and check your tires using a quality tire pressure gage (dial or digital are most accurate). If your tire pressure light is on, fill all the tires to the proper pressure and check your owner’s manual for how to reset the light. Chances are it will reset itself after driving a few miles. Last, don’t forget your spare.