Spring cleaning your car: how to assess the condition of tyres

Assess the condition of your tyres

With frosty winter weather now behind us, April marks the beginning of warmer days and spring cleaning. For UK drivers, this means dedicating some time to surveying the condition of their cars following the cooler months, which should include a full assessment of their tyres.

Green Flag has issued common sense tips for maintaining and changing tyres to keep in mind:

Tyre Maintenance Tips

• Check Tyre Tread: Tyres are designed to provide grip on the roads. If the tread is worn, your vehicle may skid across the road surface. Although the legal minimum tread limit is 1.6mm, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) recommends that tyres should be replaced as soon as the tread reaches 3mm. To do this, you can use a tyre tread depth gauge or inspect their built-in tread wear indicators.
• Check Tyre Pressure:  Tyres should be correctly inflated according to your vehicle’s handbook. Remember that the pressure will need to be increased when the car’s fully laden. As well as affecting your car’s handling and braking performance, over or under-inflated tyres will reduce their lifespan and can affect fuel efficiency. To do this, you can check at your garage when filling up petrol, or buy a tyre pressure gauge.
• Choose the best replacement tyres: If you have to replace tyres, bear in mind it is illegal to put different types of tyres on the same axle as this will affect the vehicle’s safe road holding. So stick to the same brand and do your homework before having them fitted.

Lucy Davies, at Green Flag said: “Your tyres are your car’s point of contact with the road so it is vital they are in good order. Around 40 per cent of Green Flag’s call outs are to do with tyres and many of these are due to worn, over-inflated or under-inflated tyres, so it’s vital car owners take the time to inspect them.

“Whether you’re doing your spring cleaning by replacing winter tyres with summer ones, or simply dedicating some time to inspecting their wear, we encourage all UK drivers to not underestimate the importance of tyre safety.”

How to change a tyre

• Find a safe place to stop: As soon as you notice you have a flat tyre, find a safe place to stop off the road on a stable, flat surface. If you’re on a motorway, move to the hard shoulder and wait for assistance as it’s too dangerous to change a tyre there.
• Safety first: Put on a high visibility vest and place a reflective hazard warning triangle plenty of distance behind your car to alert oncoming traffic.
• Prepare for the job: Locate the spare wheel, the jack, wheel brace and locking wheel nut key. All should be either under the boot floor, under the car or in some SUVs on the back door.
• No spare? If you can’t find a spare wheel, your car may instead be equipped with mousse that can be squirted into the tyre through the valve. This is only a temporary solution to get you home and you should get the tyre changed as soon as possible
• Prepare the wheel: To remove the punctured wheel and tyre, loosen the wheel nuts with the wheel wrench, but don’t remove them yet. If you can’t see the wheel nuts, you may have to prise off a cover first. If your car has alloy wheels, one of the nuts is likely to be locking and there will be a key that fits the wheel brace to undo this.
• Position the car: Check the handbrake is firmly on and put the car into first gear. Find the jacking point by looking in your car’s manual, and use the jack to raise the car so that the wheel with the punctured tyre is off the ground.
• Remove the wheel: Now fully remove the wheel nuts and take off the wheel. If the wheel won’t budge, call for assistance: pushing and pulling it could bring the car off the jack.
• Add the spare wheel: Lift the spare wheel onto the hub, line up the holes and screw in the nuts until they’re finger tight. Once it’s secure, lower the jack and use the wrench to tighten the wheel nuts fully.
• To remember: Check them all twice to be sure none is loose. Remember if your car has a space saver spare wheel, your top speed and the number of miles you cover is limited.