6 Simple Tire Tips

Here's a true story that highlights an important aspect of car care: A pickup is tooling down a two-lane highway. The driver notices something's not quite right when the truck hits 55 mph. There's a vibration, a resistance, some weird thing that's definitely amiss. And, surprise, surprise, it doesn't go away. The driver heads to a mechanic and tries to describe this strange malady. The mechanic walks around the truck and says, "The problem could be that big bulge in your back tire." Oops. Could this be one of the reasons why everybody keeps telling you to check your tires' health regularly?


Even though rubber comes from the ficus elastica tree, it does not regenerate itself once it turns into a tire. New tread will not be growing on your tire like a new limb on a tree. More bad news: Even if you don't put thousands of miles on your vehicle each month, just exposure to the elements will cause the rubber and other compounds in the tire to deteriorate. While tire maintenance seems like just one more thing to remember, like tiresome oil changes, lube jobs and the occasional tune-up, you should realize those four little tubes of rubber carry the weight of your vehicle and its passengers. They are the only things that keep the vehicle from careening through freeway rush-hour traffic like a pinball gone mad. The bulge on that pickup could have popped while the driver was checking to see if the vibration was still there at 60 mph. You can push the Tire Guardian Angel just so far.

Time Well Spent
The good news: you can get a good idea of your tires' health just by looking. One way to trick yourself into actually performing this task is to develop the habit of checking your tires while you're waiting at the gas pump. Here's what you have to look for:


1. Tread: You should have some. A minimum of 1/16-inch to be exact. You don't have to carry a ruler to gauge tread. Stick a Lincoln penny, head first, in the groove between the treads. If the tread doesn't come up to or beyond the top of Abe's head, there's not enough to provide good traction.


2. You shouldn't see the steel belts in a steel-belted radial. If you do, you failed the adequate tread test a long time ago. Another true story, same driver, different pick-up. This truck had a flat, which was the least of its tire problems. The driver tried to pump in air with a tire-fix-it aerosol can to drive to the tire store. As the can pumped in air, it gurgled out between what little was left of the tread. Bad.