Friday 22 August 2014

When should you change the tyres on your car

One of the questions that we get asked about a lot is when should you change the tyres on your car.

The legal answer is that your tread should't be lower than 1.6mm, however the performance of a tyre starts to decrease once you get passed 3mm, making them dangerous to use. See below results for stopping distance in the wet at different tread depths.

Tread Depth       Stopping Distance
     7mm                      28m
     4mm                      33m
     2.5mm                   36m
     1.6mm                   43m
     1mm                      49m

From the results we can see that the distances taken to stop in the wet increase dramatically once the tread gets below 2.5mm. This creates an increased danger to both you and other road users. Which is why we recommend changing your tyres once they get to 3mm, especially in powerful vehicles.

There are quite a few gadgets on the market that can help you check the tread depth of your tyres. However there is a very simple way to check your tyres using a 20p piece, meaning there is no excuse no to check them regularly.

How to check your tyres using a 20p

Step 1 - Make sure your cars handbrake is engaged
Step 2 - Get out a 20p



Step 3 - Place your 20p in the tread grooves


Step 4 - If you can see the edge of the 20p, your tyres maybe illegal


Step 5 - This is what a full tread looks like


You can tell the huge difference in a worn and new tyres tread depth!

For a full tutorial visit our WikiHow page

What are you waiting for, go and check your tyres







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