How to Inspect Tires for Wear

It's impossible to prevent your tires from wearing down over time, but if you inspect them regularly, you can help prevent serious damage or a blowout. It's not enough to just look at your tires, however. You need to know what type of wear to look for.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Flashlight
• Penny
• Camera

1. Get familiar with the tread on your tires. For cars with high wheel wells, you can usually see most of the tread without removing the tire. If possible, note how the tread looks when the tires are new so that you can have a reference point for later.
2. Get in the habit of looking at your tires every time you get in your car. That way you can easily notice if you have a flat tire or tire damage of some kind.
3. Inspect the tread on the tires for wear visually on a routine basis. Use a flashlight to help you see the back portions of the tire better.
4. Look for the wear bars--rubber bars that are 2/32-inch tall located in between the grooves in the tread. If you can see these wear bars when you inspect your tires, the tread is at or below the legal limit of 2/32 inch. The tires must be replaced.
5. Do the penny test. Insert a penny with Lincoln's head facing the thread into one of the grooves in the tread. If you can see all of Lincoln's head without any of it being obscured, your tires are too worn and must be replaced.
6. Look for irregular wear patterns. If your tires are worn in just one area, that could be the symptom of another issue like bad shocks, poor alignment or improper inflation.
7. Compare the wear on each tire with the rest in the set. If one or two tires are more worn than the others, you may need to rotate them more frequently. This is particularly true for two-wheel-drive cars.
8. Check tires for damage when you look for wear. Nails, scuffs and other trauma can cause a blowout more frequently than wear in many cases.
9. Have your tires repaired or replaced as needed.

Tips & Warnings

• Take a snapshot of each tire's tread when you inspect them. This is a quick and easy way to observe changes in the wear pattern on your tires.
• Don't risk driving on worn-out tires. Their lack of traction can be very dangerous, particularly at high speeds or in inclement weather.