The Two Signs Your Car Needs New Tyres

Friday 6 May 2022

Keeping your car tyres in the right condition is essential to ensuring that your vehicle is safe. This guide explores the two critical signs that your car needs new tyres.

Are you worried that your car might need new tyres? Your car’s tyres are an essential element of your vehicle and one of the key factors that will determine whether your car is safe to drive. On average, your car tyres should last 40,000 km or approximately five years. However, various factors can impact the life of your tyres. This includes your driving habits as well as what environments you tend to drive your car in. That’s why it’s important to know the signs that your tyres need to be replaced. If you drive with tyres that are in a poor condition, you will always have less control over the vehicle. Two main factors determine whether your car needs new tyres.

Not Enough Tread

First, you need to think about the level of tread. This is one of the deciding factors when determining whether you need new tyres for your vehicle. The tyre tread’s main purpose is to ensure that water is dispersed and removed to ensure a high level of grip even on wet surfaces. Typically a new tyre will have a tread with a depth of eight millimetres.

It is a legal requirement in Australia to ensure that your tyre tread depth is no less than 1.5mm. Anything less than this will cause issues including:

• Longer stopping distances
• Lower levels of grip
• Increased risk of aquaplaning

It’s easy to tell when your tread is low. There are tread wear indicators around the tyre. These small rubber bars run across the grooves. If the tyre is worn down to these grooves then it will need to be replaced.

In some cases, you might find that the tyres are worn down unevenly. Usually, this points to an issue with the setup of the car. For instance, you might find that the wheels are misaligned. This will often happen if you hit the curb too many times when you are parking the vehicle. If you want to avoid issues with the tread wearing down faster than it should, then you should arrange to get your wheels aligned. If you do this every 20,000km or 12 months, you can ensure that the tyres remain in the right condition for longer.

Visible Sidewall Damage

The second sign that you need new tyres for your car will be if there is visible damage to the sidewall. It’s important to check your tyres regularly for any sign of damage. This will ensure that you are never driving your car on tyres that are not safe for the road. You need to make sure that the structure of the tyre has not been impacted. If you check the tyres, you might notice that there is a chunk missing from the sidewall or there could be a cut into it.

Often this will occur after going over a pothole or hitting a gutter harder than you would have liked. You could also notice a bulge in the sidewall. A bulge suggests that the inner structure of the tyre is compromised. If it has separated from the rest of the tyre, then it will allow air to push against the rubber that is closest to the sidewall. This is one of the main reasons why tyres tend to fail on the road.

One more sign that you do need to watch out for is crazing. These are small cracks that can develop on the sidewall of the tyre. The most common cause of this issue is the tyres being exposed to strong sunlight. That’s why you should keep your car in a garage or under a carport when it’s not in use throughout the day. This issue can also be caused due to sea air. As such, if you live on the coast, then you do need to make sure that you are checking your tyres for this issue. Signs like this are clear for anyone to see and can be identified quickly if you remember to check your tyres each time you are taking the car out on the road.

We hope this helps you understand the two key signs that your car does need replacement tyres. If you notice issues here, you should always take the time to get replacements fitted sooner rather than later to keep your vehicle safe.

Get in touch today if you think you’re in need of new tyres, and take advantage of this month’s special offer: Click Here.