Tire Safety Maintenance
The Importance of Tires
The tire is the only contact between your vehicle and the ground. In order to ensure greater safety and to achieve longer tire life, it is important to adhere to certain principles. Tires are of the utmost importance and the cost of regular maintenance is more than justified.
Check the tire pressure in all your tires, including your spare, at least once a month!
Failure to maintain correct inflation may result in improper vehicle handling and may cause rapid and irregular tire wear, sudden tire destruction, loss of vehicle control and/or serious personal injury. Therefore, your tire pressure should be checked at least once a month, and especially before any long distance trips. Pressures should only be checked on cold tires; ie: before they have been driven on as driving for even a short distance causes your tires to heat up and air pressure to increase. Stop by JustJoes any time and we will check your tire pressures, for free!
Have you had front end work done recently? Be sure to have an alignment done! Proper alignment plays a huge role in making sure your tires are wearing properly.
If you run your car with all seasons year round, it is very important to have your tires rotated regularly. We suggest having it done with every oil change! Regularly rotating your tires also gives you a good opportunity to visually inspect them for damage, check their air pressure, have them re-balanced if you’re noticing any vibration, and check their tread depth.
Why is tire rotation important?
There are several reasons!
First, by routinely rotating your tires, wear is spread evenly across all four tires, and their tread life is maximized. That’s because each specific position on your vehicle requires a different give from each tire—(for example, tires on the front of a front-wheel drive vehicle will take a larger proportion of the torque and friction that’s needed for turning, accelerating and braking)—and can lead to more, or less, wear on the tire.
Secondly, even tread wear keeps the tread depth on your tires uniform, which can help keep traction and handling consistent across all four tires. This will improve cornering and braking performance and keep your vehicle safer for driving overall.
Finally, if your vehicle has all-wheel-drive, evenly worn tires lower the stresses on the drivetrain, reducing wear on expensive drive components.