Tyre Maintenance Tips For New Drivers

Once you have passed your driving test and have your very first car, it is important to remember that you are going to have to conduct fairly regular maintenance work on it to ensure that it stays in top condition and keeps you and other road users as safe as possible.

One of the most important things to keep an eye on is the state of your tyres, as they undergo wear and tear every single time you drive. While you should take the car to be serviced if you think you have a big problem, these maintenance tips will allow you to keep them in as good a condition as possible.

Keep Checking The Pressure

When you buy your car, it should come with a manual that informs you, amongst many other things, of the ideal pressure that you need to keep the tyres at so that they perform as effectively as possible. Underinflated tyres will get worn down a lot quicker due to more of the tyre making contact with the surfaces you driver on. Furthermore, because of the extra friction that this creates, your engine is also going to have to work much harder to get the car moving, which costs you money in fuel and also leads to wear and tear on the engine.

By contrast, overinflating will make it more difficult to control the car and may lead to tyres popping under pressure in really extreme cases. Know where the tyres should be and keep checking to ensure they stay there.

Check The Tread

The tread on your tyres is important for ensuring your car maintains a good grip on the road, particularly in slippery conditions. This tread will wear away ever so slightly each time you use the car. If left unchecked, this results in the tyre becoming bald, making it unsafe to use.

Thankfully, the tread is very easy to check. You want to ensure that your tread never falls below 1.6mm on any of your tyres, so use a ruler or coin to check every couple of weeks or so. It only takes a couple of minutes and will allow you to get your tyres replaced as soon as needed, rather than waiting until the car fails an MOT, having put you and others in danger in the process.

Cracks In The Sidewall

While you are checking the tread, it is also a good idea to start looking around the sidewalls of the tyre to see if you can find any cracks or signs that something of on the road has led to a split being made in the tyre.

Letting a crack or split fester for too long may lead to a slow puncture forming, which will cause extra wear on the tyre and lead to more dangerous driving. In the most extreme cases, these cracks may also lead to the tyre completely popping while you drive, though this is a very rare occurrence and only happens in cases of large cracks. Either way, make sure that you get the tyres replaced if they start showing these signs of wear.