Tyres

Your tyres are the only thing keeping your car on the road and driving safely. A tyre’s footprint, or the area that is actually in contact with the road, is quite small. In fact, it’s less than a square foot per tire. This tiny tyre footprint is what creates the traction that allows your car to accelerate, decelerate, and turn. If these contact points are hampered by poor tread or under inflation, your ability to steer, start, and stop can be adversely affected.

Thus, it’s important that your tyres are properly inflated and the tread is in good condition. Even one tyre that is out of sync can wreak havoc at any moment without warning. 

Checking tyre pressure

You cannot tell if a tyre is underinflated by looking at it. Merely looking at a tyre can only tell you if it’s completely flat. However, under inflation can be just as serious and detecting it can only be done with a quality tyre gauge.

Your tyre pressure is also affected by the temperature of the tyre. If you remember from physics, you can increase the pressure of a gas by heating it up. You can heat something up by applying friction. So, driving your car heats up your tyres, and thus increases the pressure inside them.

The suggested ratings which are written on the outside of your tire are based upon a “cold” tyre.

A cold tyre is one that hasn’t been driven for at least three hours or has driven less than a mile. If you stop at a gas station and determine that your tyres are underinflated, add air until you reach the recommended PSI (pounds per square inch) which is written on the side of your tyre. If your tyre isn’t “cold”, don’t try to guess how much extra air to add. Simply wait until you can adjust the PSI of the tyre when it hasn’t been driven more than a mile.

Tyres lose pressure over time

The warmer the weather, the quicker your tyres naturally lose pressure. It’s not uncommon to lose 10 pounds of tyre pressure throughout the summer simply due to normal driving. This loss of pressure is enough to cause traction problems, uneven tread wear, and tire failure.

Eight pounds below means “substantially underinflated”

A tire that is 8 PSI below the recommended level is considered a safety hazard. So, check your tyre pressure often. All cars made in 2008 and beyond feature government-mandated tyre pressure sensors that will cause a dashboard warning light to illuminate if tyre pressure falls too low. If your car is older than a 2008, there are gadgets you can buy that you attach to your tyres which keep a constant eye out on your tire pressure.

Checking tyre tread

If your tyres are bald, you might as well be driving with blocks of ice for tyres. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you get the point. Poor tread reduces your traction in the same way that a slippery road would. So, check your tread often to make sure that you have at least 1.6mm remaining.

You should also check for uneven wear which may be an indication that you need to rotate your tyres or have them replaced.

Changing a tyre is easy!

Step 1: Pull off the road on a completely flat area and place the car in neutral / park. Turn off your engine and switch on your hazard lights to warn other drivers of your situation.

Step 2: Place a large rock or sturdy, heavy object behind the tyre if you’re facing slightly uphill or in front of the tyre if you’re facing slightly downhill. Next, you will need your spare tyre, a car jack, and a tyre iron. 

Step 3: Remove the hubcap using the wedge on your tyre iron. Next, loosen the lug nuts by turning the tyre iron counter clockwise. Don’t remove the lug nuts yet! Simply loosen them in a star-patterned order. Loosen one and then move diagonally to the next one and so on. Tip: Most tyre and auto shops use pneumatic guns to screw on lug nuts. This means it could be extremely difficult to loosen them. In extreme cases, you may need to stand on your tyre iron to produce enough loosening force.

Step 4: Jack up the car. Many cars have a particular spot on the frame for placing the jack. You may need to consult your owner’s manual to find this spot. The new, fully inflated tyre will be slightly bigger than the flat one, so jack up the car high enough to take this into account.

Step 5: Completely remove the lug nuts and place them aside being sure not to lose them. If you have a hubcap, place them inside the upside-down hubcap.

Step 6: Carefully remove the flat tyre. Place the new tyre onto the wheel with the air valves facing out.

Step 7: One by one, replace the lug nuts in the same “star” pattern that you used to loosen them. Do not tighten them completely.

Step 8: Lower and remove the jack from the car, then finish tightening the lug nuts.

Step 9: Replace the hubcap, if necessary.   That’s it!   You just learned how to change a tyre!

Things to Remember:

1) Periodically check to make sure that your spare tyre is not flat. 

2) When a car is up on the jack, do not climb under the car for any reason.

Every driver should know how to replace a flat tyre. If you’ve never replaced a tyre, practice this skill by removing and replacing an existing, healthy tyre. Having some practice under your belt can make changing a tyre on the side of a busy road a little less hair-raising. 

As far as car maintenance is concerned, tyres are typically the most neglected part of a vehicle. Yet, proper tyre maintenance can increase your gas mileage, drastically prolong the life of your tyres, and prevent crashes due to tyre failure.

There’s a tendency to believe that all you have to do to take care of a car is to put gas in it.

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