Judging When To Replace Your Tyres
Sometimes it is obvious that you need new car tyres – for example, when you discover a nail stuck in the tyre, suffer a blow out, or hit a kerb and gouge out part of the tyre wall. However, hopefully those are all rare occurrences, so how do you know that the normal wear and tear has reached the point that the tyre needs replacing?
There are a few ways to check how your tyres are doing:
- Buy a tyre tread gauge and use it! You can buy handy little gauges that you put into the gaps in the treads, and it will tell you how deep it is in millimetres. The legal minimum tread limit is 1.6 mm, however, it makes sense to get your tyres changed when you reach 3 mm in order to maintain a good level of grip and decent stopping distances.
- Look at the tyres to see how close you are to the tread wear indicators. Car tyres feature tread wear indicators to use as a guide. When your tread is at the same level as the indicator bands, you probably have about 2 mm of tread left. Definitely time to get booked in!
- Try the 20p test! That’s right, just a normal 20 pence piece. Stick it in the tread, and if you can see any of the outer band, you need to have your tyres changed.
- Take your car into a garage for a quick check. If you aren’t sure, most garages will check for you.