Your tires are the only thing connecting your vehicle to the road below. Without the traction they offer, you wouldn’t be able to safely control your vehicle or bring it to a safe stop. Unfortunately, most people don’t think about the tires until something catastrophic happens, whether it’s a flat or something far more severe like a blowout or tread separation.
Simply put, tire maintenance is a must for keeping your Buick or GMC vehicle safely on the road. Frequent checks and careful maintenance help you avoid the many dangers associated with tire neglect.
How Tire Maintenance Benefits Your Vehicle
As Americans, we love to get out on the open road at any given opportunity. On average, we drive 13,476 miles per year, according to the most recent statistics. That figure outpaces other car-dependent nations by at least 30 percent. That alone highlights the importance of tire maintenance.
While other car components see their fair share of wear and tear, it’s your tires that face the full brunt of our nation’s roads. Each pothole, rut, and bump adds wear and tear to a typical tire. Aggressive driving habits, whether its hard cornering or panic stops, also adds further wear on our rubber. Constant exposure to the outdoors also does a number on tires over time, resulting in age-related wear and tear over time.
Even the things you’d probably dismiss as minor issues, like tire inflation, can play a big role in how long your tires last. All of these issues can add up to an unsafe tire that, without proper maintenance, could fail sooner or later. Tire failure causes an estimated 11,000 crashes each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Caring for your tires not only makes your vehicle safer to drive, but it also ensures your vehicle performs to its intended specs. Tire maintenance also helps maintain good fuel efficiency by eliminating factors that could make your vehicle use more fuel.
Tire Maintenance Basics
If you’re not familiar with tire maintenance or just need a quick refresher, then read on and learn more about these easy tire maintenance basics.
Visual Inspection
A visual inspection is the easiest thing you can do when it comes to tire maintenance. However, a successful visual inspection involves knowing exactly what to look for as you check your tires. That means checking for tire issues that could make your vehicle too dangerous to drive.
Cracks and missing chunks are the most obvious of these tire issues. Years of constant UV radiation exposure and the natural aging of rubber compounds within the tire can lead to cracks and missing fragments. That explains why most experts recommend replacing tires after five or six years of use, regardless of remaining tread.
Tire bubbles are less common, but more severe. These bubbles can form after any type of severe damage, whether it’s a run-in with a piece of road debris, hard impacts with curbs, or even driving on a flat tire for a short distance. If you see bubble-like bulges on the sidewall or in the tread, then it’s time to replace that tire before a blowout occurs.
Tread Inspection
Tire maintenance also includes keeping a close eye on tread depth and overall wear. Every tire relies on its tread to grip the surface below for better traction, thereby providing better traction in the wet and sharper cornering on dry roads. The right tread pattern can even help your vehicle save fuel.
Tire treads do wear out over time, which makes frequent tread depth checks all the more important. Tread depth is usually measured in 32nds of an inch and most new tires come with at least 10/32 inch of tread. Most states legally require car owners to change their tires once tread depths dwindle to 2/32 inch.
The quickest way to check tread depth is by looking at the built-in tread wear indicator on the tire. The more the tread wears down, the more visible the indicator becomes. Once the tread becomes level with the indicator, the tire is no longer safe to use.
Another way to check tread depth is with the penny test. Simply insert a penny into the tread with Lincoln’s head upside-down. If you can see the top of Honest Abe’s head, then it’s time for new tires.
Balancing and Rotation
Each corner of your vehicle has slight differences in suspension geometry along with different levels of component wear and tear. The end result is tires that wear differently depending on where they’re mounted. In order for your tires to experience uniform wear, they must be rotated to a different corner of your vehicle. That’s what a certified technician does as a part of your vehicle’s tire rotation service.
Your technician will also balance the tires in order to prevent unwanted vibrations and promote even tire wear. This is done using a special tire balancing machine that measures the tire’s natural balance, allowing the technician to balance out any vibrations by adding or removing wheel weights.
Tire Pressure Monitoring
Overinflation and underinflation are the dynamic duo of premature tire wear. Too much tire pressure not only shrinks your tires’ contact patch, which in turn makes your car more difficult to handle, but it also increases the likelihood of a blowout. Too little tire pressure puts more drag on your vehicle, resulting in poor fuel economy. Underinflated tires also wear out sooner and suffer degraded ride quality.
Keeping an eye on tire pressures is crucial if you want your tires to last. Fortunately, that’s made easier with the advent of tire pressure monitoring systems. Mandated for all U.S. vehicles back in 2007, TPMS alerts drivers whenever tire pressures rise or drop to unacceptable levels. Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to manually check tire pressures on all four wheels with a reliable tire gauge.
Don’t forget that the experts at Anderson Buick GMC can perform all types of tire maintenance. If you need new tires, we also carry an extensive stock with the right types and sizes your vehicle needs. Schedule your next appointment or drop by our service center today.