How to Preserve Automobile Tires

Good tires will help your car drive smoothly.

Automobile tires keep your car in contact with the ground, allowing it to maneuver properly over the road. No matter how well the vehicle operates, you can't drive it safely without well maintained tires. A damaged tire can affect the car's drivability and create dangerous driving conditions. Following the tire manufacturer's recommendations and establishing service schedules for your tires will help preserve them.

Things You'll Need

• Pressure Gauge
• Pressurized Air
• Penny

Instructions

1. Rotate the tires according to the manufacturer's suggested time frame. While the tires all begin with the same tread, the wear may become uneven. In cars with front wheel drive, the front tires wear out more quickly because they do the bulk of the moving, while the rear tires just roll along with them. You can even out this imbalanced road wear by rotating the tires every 10,000 miles, which conveniently coincides with every third oil change. Rotating the tires involves moving the back tires, which have less wear, to the front. Rotating them regularly will help ensure that road wear is evenly distributed among all four tires. Also, have your tires balanced when rotating them. An unbalanced tire may not sit on the ground properly, causing uneven wear as it makes contact with the road.

2. Align the wheels of the automobile. Improper alignment will wear out your tires more quickly than anything else. Your wheels can get bumped out of alignment by just about anything, including hitting a curb, driving over a pothole, or just through normal wear.

   Test the alignment yourself. While the car is moving at a slow rate of speed on an empty street, take your hands off the steering wheel for a moment. If the car veers to one side, then your wheels are out of alignment. If the car holds a steady line, then your alignment is in good shape.

   Catching improper alignment early will save you a ton of money on tires. Once you've been driving your car with misaligned tires for a month, you will notice the tread on the outer edges of the tires has worn out considerably, while the rest of the tread remains intact. Basically, when your tires are not aligned properly, you drive on the edge of the tires, which will quickly wear them out.

3. Check the tire pressure regularly to ensure that your tires are properly inflated. You can find the manufacturer's recommendation for tire pressure on the sidewall of the tires. Make sure all four tires have even pressure. Uneven pressure, under inflation or over inflation will cause excessive wear on the tire with the least pressure because it will maintain more contact with the road than the other tires. You do not need to check tire pressure every time you get gas, but checking it once every couple of weeks will prove beneficial.

4. Inspect the tire surface for tread wear regularly. Just take a quick walk around your car every time you get gas to ensure all your tires appear properly inflated and that the wear on each one is even. If you can't really get a good sense of the tread wear by visually inspecting the tires, then use the "penny" method. Insert a penny into the tire tread groove. If the head on the face of the penny does not sink into the tread groove, the tire is worn out and should be replaced.

References

• Cars Direct: 5 Tips For Preserving Your Car Tires
• Expert Car Care: Tires and Auto Repair
• Auto Anything: Zymol Tire Cleaner