Your car tyres play a significant role when it comes to their life and performance, the handling or performance of your vehicle as well as your safety on the road. For this reason, it is essential for your car tyres to be in a perfect functioning condition all the time. Car tyres will wear down with time and call for a replacement. When your car tyres start wearing down, they should do so in a regular pattern. Tyres that are wearing unevenly are usually a sign of an underlying issue that should be repaired. Here are some of the common culprits for uneven tyre wear patterns.
Improper Tyre Inflation
One of the major causes of uneven tyre wear is improper inflation. The amount of pressure in your car tyres plays a significant role when it comes to vehicle handling, ride comfort and fuel economy. The right amount of pressure is crucial because it has a significant impact on the distribution of your vehicle load as well as braking and acceleration. For this reason, if the pressure is too low or too high, the contact of the tyre treads with the road will be affected, resulting in uneven tyre wear.
If you underinflate your tyres, they will wear more on the outside shoulders because of the excessive contact that the edges of the tyres will be making with the road. On the other hand, if you overinflate them, the centre of the tyres will wear more. That's because, with too much air in your tyres, the middle section will bulge, which means it will make more contact with the road. Therefore, always inflate your tyres to the manufacturer's recommended levels. This information is usually written on the sides of the tyres.
Improper Wheel Alignment
Wheel alignment is also another cause of uneven tyre wear. The angle at which the tyres of your vehicle are aligned often depends on the wheel alignment. If the wheel is out of alignment, your tyres will start wearing more on the inside shoulder of the tyre. There are multiple reasons why the wheel alignment may be knocked out of place such as hitting a pothole when driving at speed. Whatever the cause, make an appointment with your mechanic for your car's wheel alignment. Also, remember to add wheel alignment inspection to your car service checklist.
Out-Of-Balance Tyres
If your tyres are out of balance, you will notice a patchy wear pattern. The tyres have to be rotated to solve the problem. Similar to wheel alignment, ensure the tyres are rotated as recommended in your owner's manual.
Check with a professional auto servicing shop for more information and guidance.
Share20 April 2018
My name is Donna, and I love my toys! I have an ATV, a caravan, a boat and a range of other "toys". I find that there is a lot of information online about auto service but not that much about servicing fun types of vehicles. Inspired by the phrase "be the change you want to see in the world", I decided to start a blog full of information that is usually hard to find online. I will write about servicing toys, vintage cars, sports cars and a range of other topics. I hope that you like these posts and that you learn from them. Thanks for reading and enjoy your toys.