When you own a car it becomes necessary to get your hands dirty and change tires. We are well aware that maintaining a good condition of your vehicle tires is vital for many reasons like safety and efficiency – with tires in poor condition, consumption increases heavily, and unsafe sanctions are risked.
It is very important to know when it is time to change your tire train. A worn tire is an unsafe tire and is easily subjected to the risk of aqua planning and punctures. Moreover, road holding becomes very low and the braking distance becomes longer.
According to the law, the tread carvings must have a residual thickness of at least 1.6 mm. If the tire is very worn and the carvings are less than 1.6mm deep, experts advise to change the tires, to always travel in safety.
Checking tire wear is
easy; you don’t need to go to the tire repair service and you can
do it yourself at home in no time.
To begin with, we must be sure that we can see the tire well:
that’s why we park the car on a stable surface, insert the handbrake and turn
the steering wheel a little so that we have a good
view of the tread
The one shown in the circle is the tire wear indicator
The easiest thing to do at this point is to look
for the wear indicator. It
is a small 1.6mm high dowel, positioned inside one of the main grooves of the
tire. To find it we must look on the side of the rubber letters TWI (which
stands for “Tread wear indicators”, or “marker wear of
the tread”), or a small brand logo will be seen at this position.
If the tread is worn to the point that it reaches
the indicator, they have reached their maximum limit and
they must be replaced as soon as possible.
Another good way to check tire wear is to measure the groove depth. To do this accurately, we must use a depth gauge (or depth gauge), a small tool for sale for just a few euros at any car accessory shop.
To make this easier for you, here are four tips to keep in mind:
Contents
Remove the spare wheel at the same time you remove the jack and the key is to loosen the bolts.
Acting without planning, you might loosen the wheel bolts before removing the spare wheel. This is not a mistake, but it will expose you to further annoyance of having to take out the spare tire with your palms already sweaty or cold, making the operation uncomfortable. Moreover, having already extracted the spare wheel, you can place it under the frame before placing the jack, a trick that increases your safety if the jack gives up or slides away.
Mount the jack at the right point
Recent cars have pre-established and marked points where they can place them safely. On occasions where the marker cannot be identified, position the jack as close as possible to the rubber to be replaced, verifying that it makes contact with the underbody. Also, make sure the surface is flat and hard, to prevent the jack from sliding or sinking under the weight of the car.
Before putting the jack down, loosen the bolts.
The wheel bolts must be fully tightened, so unscrewing them requires extreme effort. A simple way to apply great force on the key is to stand on it with your feet with your full-body weight. However, this trick is only possible as long as the car is resting on the ground; once the jack has been operated and the car lifted, it would no longer be possible to use this method safely.
Lift the machine until the wheel is completely detached from the ground
Generally, when the machine is lifted, the flat tire can be removed easily. However, it must be considered that the inflated spare tire will have a larger diameter and therefore needs more space to slide smoothly into place. For this, before removing the deflated rubber, make sure it is detached appropriately; as a test, pass a hand under the wheel and make sure the space allows easy passage of at least two fingers. If you lift the car enough to slide two fingers underneath, the inflated tire will slide unimpeded.
Be sure to tighten the bolts after removing the jack, and don’t forget, when you change your car tyre at night, make sure the reflector is placed in front of your car to warn the oncoming traffic.