What can wear down tires prematurely?

It’s no secret that driving a vehicle with worn out tires is extremely unsafe, no matter what the weather conditions are. If the road is wet or dry, the vehicle can still slip or if a tire is very thin it could burst at high speed.

Tire thinness means it cannot grip the road in an emergency situation, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle and have an accident. Thus, tire depth is vitally important for your vehicle to remain safely on the road and to keep occupants safe too.

The depth of the tire is called the ‘tread’ and having enough of this ‘tread’ thickness means that if you brake suddenly in rainy conditions or snow, your vehicle will have traction on the road, and as you reduce speed the car will be able to maintain grip on the road surface.

It is important to know what the standard is for tire tread depth in your country. For example, in the United States the measurement of tire treads should be between 9/32-inch and 11/32-inch when brand new. Top motor vehicle tire brands recommend vehicle owners replace tires when the tread is at 2/32-inch depth. Less than this would be putting yourself and other passengers in extreme danger.

One of the most obvious things that wear down your tires quickly would be an imbalance of air in the tires. It is best to fill up tires equally all round, and also to check air pressure in the tires regularly. Another factor relating to the wear and tear on the tires would be bad wheel alignment, in other words if your car’s wheel rotation has not been balanced equally, it is one of the fastest ways your tires will wear down, and unequally at that too.

Worn out shock absorbers and other suspension parts are also a key culprit when it comes to problems with tires wearing down prematurely.

Thus, even though it might seem costly or unnecessary to fix certain issues sooner rather than later or until they truly break, keeping the car running well has a big impact on saving tread on your tires, and might save your and your family’s lives too.