5 things you need to know about tyres

It could be argued that tyres are the most important things on your car as they maintain grip to the road and allow your car to move, so why do car owners know so little about them? We have compiled together 5 things you need to know about your car tyres and these should help you understand more about them.

  1. The minimum legal tread limit on your tyre is 1.6mm over three quarters of the depth of the tyre, it’s amazing how many car owners don’t know this even though it’s something you must learn when taking your driving lessons Sheffield. This is a legal requirement and not just a handy bit of advice we’re giving you. Make sure your car’s tread never falls below this as it could result in 3 points on your license per tyre, have all 4 tyres below the legal limit and you could be in for a driving disqualification.
  1. Keep your tyre pressure at the recommended PSI (Pounds per Square Inch). The recommended PSI can be found in the car owner’s manual, the PSI can vary from around 26 to 38 but this is different for every car. The amount of weight the car carries is also a factor that influences how much air should be pumped into your tyres. Making sure you get the right balance between pumping too much air and not enough into your car tyres is important as putting in too much can cause excessive wear in the middle of the tyre tread.

 

  1. Always check for cracks and bulges in the wall of your car tyres. This again is a legal requirement; it can cause your tyre to blow out and almost certainly an accident if approaching high enough speeds. In addition to this cracks or bulges on a tyre is 3 points on your license and if all 4 are demanded to be illegal you could be facing a driving ban.
  1. All of your tyres must be the correct and appropriate size for your car. The wheel size is the diameter of the wheel in inches from where the beads of the tyre sit on the wheel; it’s not the whole wheel from top to bottom. In addition to this most tyres don’t say the size of the wheel, they will just have a code along the side of the wall which represents the width of the tyre in millimeters, the height of the side wall in ratio to the percentage of the nominal width and the final number is the size of the tyre rim size with an ‘R’ which stands for radial. None of this is extremely important for you to know but it’s the code you will need when shopping around for tyres.
  1. Your spare tyre whilst stowed away in the boot of your car doesn’t have to meet the standard requirements by law, but once it’s fitted onto your car it has to meet the same requirements as the rest of your car tyres. Having a spare tyre that isn’t up to the legal requirement is as good as not having a spare tyre at all!

 

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