Having a good set of tires is essential to safe driving. The treads on your tire provide your vehicle with traction, as your tires go along the road substances like water, snow, oil or anything else that has been spilt on the road are pushed into the treads, allowing your tire to maintain contact with the road. Tires wear out over time reducing their safety so it’s important to take care of them.
Tire Maintenance
You can slow the wear on your tires and extend their life (saving you money!) by following some simple tire maintenance techniques.
Tire Rotation
Tires do not wear out evenly. The front tires wear more on the shoulder of the tire because they handle most of the force when turning. Whether your car is front or rear wheel drive will affect ow quickly the treads start to wear down on the front or rear wheels. Rotating the tires so that the stresses of driving your vehicle are shared between all four tires will let them more evenly extending their life.
For most vehicles in HUNTINGTON BEACH CA, tires are rotated front to back. Some manufacturers recommend a cross rotational pattern that includes the spare tire, and some high-performance vehicles have different size tires on the front and rear and may even have uni-directional tires that can only be on the left or the right side of the vehicle. Your service advisor at ExperTec Automotive can help you sort that out and will perform the right tire rotation for your vehicle.
Your tire manufacturer will have a recommendation for how often you should rotate your tires. It’s usually somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 miles.
Wheel Balancing
When your tires are not balanced, they start to wobble. Un-balanced tires are triggered by tiny weight differences. Variations in the tire and wheel manufacture, the valve and even the tire pressure monitoring sensor can put a tire out of balance with the rest of the tires.
Even small differences can cause annoying vibrations at speed: the wheel is essentially bouncing a bit as it goes down the road. For example, at freeway speeds, an out of balance wheel can be slamming into the road 14 times a second. That’s annoying and can cause your tires to wear out more quickly. If one of your front wheels are out of balance you will feel the vibrations in the steering wheel, if it’s a back wheel you will feel the vibrations coming through your seat.
Tire Balancing adds weights to the wheel to ensure that all wheels are the same weight, providing you with a smooth ride and extending the life of your tires.
Tire Sales
Maintenance will make your tires last longer but eventually they will wear out and you will need to replace them, but how do you know when that is?
Keep an eye on your tires and if you see any of these warning signs head on over to Expertec Automotive so we can check your tires are still safe;
- Low Tread – In California the legal requirement is 1/32”, if your tires are this low you can also drive in Idaho but the rest of the country requires 2/32” so if you plan on driving out of state you should make sure you maintain the 2/32” tread depth. You may be thinking that is difficult to measure 2/32” of your tire so here is a handy trick. Take a penny and turn it upside down and place it in the tread, if any of the coin above Lincoln’s head is showing your tread is too low!
- Sidewall Cracks – The sides of your tires can over time also develop faults, look for cracks in the sidewall which can cause your tires to lose air pressure.
- Bulges and Blister – If the outer surface of the tire starts to weaken then the tire can start to form bulges and blisters which can cause the tire to blow out.
Here at Expertec Automotive we carry a full range of tires from the very best manufacturers;
- Dunlop
- Falken
- Michelin
- Pirelli
- Nitto
- Toyo Tires
- BFGoodrich
- Bridgestone
- Yokohama
- Continental
- Coopertires
- Hankook
- Kumho Tires
So you can rest assured we have the right tire for your car!
Visit us today for all your Tire needs
Whether you need new tires or are looking to extend the life of your tires visit Expertec Automotive today so we can make sure your tires are safe for the road. Call us at (714) 848-9222 to schedule an appointment.
