All About Tires

Your tires are an extremely important aspect of your vehicle: they’re the only part of it that actually touches the road, so they need to be in good driving condition. Here are some things to look at.

Tire Pressure

The pressure of your tires can affect many things on your vehicle. Low tire pressure can cause all aspects of your car’s driving performance to decline, which can lead to accidents. Low tire pressure will also hurt your vehicle’s mpg. Keeping the correct amount of air in your tires is easy and doesn’t take much time to check. The correct pressure for your tires will be listed in your car’s manual or somewhere near the driver side door. The next time you’re at the gas station, check your tire pressure and add air if necessary. If you don’t feel comfortable adding air to your tires, then stop at a service center. Many shops will add air to your tires for free.

Tire Tread

Your tire tread is also extremely important. It affects the traction of your tires on the road. Poor traction can lead to bad starts from a stop and can reduce your stopping power considerably, especially when there’s snow or rain on the road. A common way of checking your tire tread is to use a penny. Take a penny and hold it down into the tread grooves with the top of Abraham Lincoln’s head going into the groove. If you can see where the top of Lincoln’s head stops and the flat part of the penny starts, then you need to get new tires. In addition to the penny test, you should look at how your tires are wearing. If you notice that your tires are wearing far more on one edge than the other, you may want to have your wheel alignment checked, or at least have your tires rotated.

Tire Rotation

Rotating your tires is important because it ensures that you will get the most out of your tires. Tires are expensive, and if you don’t rotate your tires, then you may have to replace certain tires before other ones need to be replaced. This is undesirable as it’s usually best to keep tires of the same age and brand on your vehicle.

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