When To Purchase New Tires For Your Car

PRLog (Press Release) - Jan 22, 2010 -
Relacing your tires on your car can be an expense that will take your whole paycheck if not more depending on what you drive for a vehicle. Deciding when you need to replace the tires however does depend on a few things. Today we are going to look at some of the things to look for to help you answer this question.

  Wear indicators.... All tires have flat bars in them that run  horizinatl across the tread. These are considered wear indicators. The wear indicators let you know when your tires are worn out. However one must keep in mind that if your car has other issues this is also a sign that you may want to check these issues out. Wear indicators are placed in different spots across the tire. A car that is out of alignment for example may be worn dow to the wear indicators on one side but have plenty of tread on the other. Sadly the tires need to be replaced prematurely in this case because the cars alignment has caused premature wear. This is why it is so important to check the alignment.
  Another way to check tread thickness is with a dime. You can stick a dime in the tred with Roosevelts head facing down. If the tread does not reach the top of his head then the tires are worn out.

 In an earlier post found here http://www.prlog.org/10450074-tires-choosing-the-right-ti... we talked about choosing the right tires. This is a great post to help you find some new tires. Today however we are learning when we need to do this. We need to remember that the wear indicators as mentioned above are the main indicator however in some cases we may need to replace our tires sooner. An example of this would be snow tires. When we look at snow tires we find that by the time we are down to the wear indicators the tires no longer have traction in snow and are dangerous. A good rule of thumb is that for the best safety snow tires should be replaced when approx 50% of the tread is left. Many people will run the remainder of the snow tires tread out during the summer in states that allow this.

In closing I want to emphasize that proper alignment and a suspension that is still working properly can drastically prolong tread wear. Also remember that if the time has come to replace your tires please take a moment and read our previous article on buying cheap tires http://www.prlog.org/10281470-where-and-how-to-buy-cheap-... .