How To Keep Your Tyres Healthy in 2021
Which car part suffers the most wear and tear every day? Some people might say that it’s the engine because it handles the combustion process for every second that the car is running. Others may point to any of the dozens of other mechanical parts that a car relies on to function correctly.
While almost any answer is correct in its way, in this article, we’re going to look at how to maintain a part of your car that suffers the most friction and heat than any other: your car’s tyres.
Usually, it’s very easy for people to overlook the wear and tear suffered by tyres. Not only do they carry the weight of the entire vehicle, but they also transmit all the energy produced by your car’s engine to the ground underneath. As a result, tyres experience lots of friction, heat, and damage like punctures, cracks, and so much more.
In the next few sections, we’re going to learn a bit more about car tyres and how you can learn to keep them healthy in the year ahead.
How Many Years Do Tyres Last On Average?
Every single part of your car has a limited useful lifespan. When it comes to tyres, each of them will continue to be useful for at least three to four years for your tyres, depending on how much wear and tear they experience.
Now, let’s be clear about something. The rubber on a car tyre can last for many more years, some say even up to a decade. However, that doesn’t mean that it’ll be useful for your car throughout that time. Even though the rubber may still be intact, you must change your tyres every few years when the treads wear out.
Of course, the useful life of car tyres will be much shorter the further you drive and the more wear and tear your tires experience. Going off-road or on unpaved surfaces will wear out your tyres faster.
Why Is It Important That Tyres Are Maintained Correctly?
Some people may wonder why it’s essential to maintain or replace their tyres, even though the rest of the car still functions perfectly. Generally, there are two reasons for this: safety and fuel efficiency.
Safety
The most important reason to keep your tyres healthy is so that they can maintain a firm grip on the road. With that, you will be able to maintain good control over your car throughout your entire journey, especially when making turns or navigating any hazards along the way.
Suppose you’re driving on bald tyres (tyres with worn-out treads). If that’s the case, then turning your wheels just a little bit too hard on a wet surface can send your car spinning uncontrollably. That could lead to a total disaster involving plenty of damage, injury, and potentially loss of life.
Fuel Efficiency
Besides safety, you’ll want to keep your tyres healthy to maximise your fuel efficiency. Tyres in excellent condition will minimise the power needed to move your car forward. That way, you won’t end up burning more fuel than necessary just to accelerate and get to your destination.
How Do You Keep Your Tyres Healthy?
So, how can you keep your tyres healthy? You need to do five tasks often, which are to inspect, inflate, rotate, align, and balance your tyres regularly.
Inspect Your Tyres Often
To keep your tyres healthy, you must first be aware of their current state of health. That means inspecting your tyres often, and looking for signs of wear and tear as well as any damage.
Some people prefer inspecting their tyres before leaving their homes. Others may include as part of their petrol-filling habit. That means that each time they go to the petrol station to fill up their tank, they make it a point to inspect their tyres as well. Building their habit this way makes it easier for them to remember to inspect their tyres regularly.
Keep Them Well-Inflated
One of the best and easiest ways to keep your tyres healthy is to ensure that they’re well-inflated at all times. Under-inflated tyres will not only reduce your vehicle’s fuel efficiency, but it’ll also cause your tyres to wear out unevenly.
By keeping your tyres inflated, you’ll maximise the tyre surface that comes into contact with the ground. That’ll give you maximum grip on the road, and it’ll ensure that the tyre will wear out evenly.
Again, this is another tyre maintenance task that most people do whenever they go to the petrol station to fill-up.
Rotate Your Tyres
While those steps are usually taken at the petrol station or home, here are a couple of steps that you can take at your preferred workshop.
Whenever you take your car to the workshop for regular maintenance and servicing, you can also ask them to rotate your tyres for you. In this context, ‘rotating’ refers to changing the positions of each tyre. So, for example, the mechanic might move the front-left tyre to the rear-right position, and so on.
By rotating your tyres from time to time, you’ll ensure that your tyres wear out evenly. That will allow you to maximise each tyre’s useful life and reduce how often you’ll need to replace them.
Ensure Proper Alignment And Balancing
You can also request that your mechanic correct your tyres’ alignment and balance at your preferred car workshop. The result of both tasks is the same: they provide you with a smoother ride that maximises your tyres’ health. What makes them different is how they achieve that goal.
With alignment, the mechanic will ensure that your tyres come into contact with the ground at the perfect angle to maximise performance. On the other hand, for balancing, what they’re doing is ensuring that the weight of your car is distributed equally across all tyres.
All combined, they maximise your tyres’ health and performance so that they’ll last as long as possible.
To read more informative articles about keeping your car in top shape, check out the website for TOC Automotive College, the best automotive college in Malaysia.