Why It’s Important to take Care of your Car Tires. You can easily overlook those four patches of rubber called tires on your new drive, but it’s more important to pay more attention to them if you have a used car. Despite the car type, a few simple checks on the tires can yield better fuel economy and improved vehicle handling.
Tires mostly wear out and get damaged when you drive on inflated tires, experts suggest on checking the air pressure once a month. It’s important to maintain the tire pressure; reasons are plenty other than the risk of a blowout or flat tire. To achieve the most from your vehicle, from emergency maneuvers to everyday driving, your car tire pressure has to be at proper inflation level.
For optimal vehicle handling, tire pressure has to be checked. Because when tires are not at correct air pressure, they will result in increased rolling resistance. When tires are inflated, rolling resistance of the vehicle increases, and more energy is consumed which impacts of fuel consumption. According to a study of Motor Traders, properly inflated tires improve fuel economy by 3.3 percent approximately.
While, over inflated tires reduce the levels of handling performance since less rubber gets in touch with the road. And because of improper inflation the stress on the tires results in uneven and excessive wear. If this happens, replacement of the tires will be required, sooner than expected.
How to Check Your Car Tires Pressure
One rule to being in the driving seat is, to keep your car in perfect maintenance and if not-keep the all the necessary equipment with you and be your own mechanic where need be. For checking the tire pressure, air pressure gauge is needed. You can purchase the inexpensive item from an auto parts shop or from a departmental store.
For your car type, there’s always a specific air pressure, otherwise it is mentioned on label inside the driver’s door jamb. The pressure is expressed in “psi” (pounds per square inch). Every car manufacturer has mentioned the correct pressure for the vehicle type, both cold and hot pressure. However, the maximum pressure of the tire is usually mentioned on the sidewall of the tire which is not the inflation level for the vehicle.
For checking the air pressure, unscrew the cap that is on the tire’s valve stem, let the round gauge be placed on the stem. Exert some force to ensure the seal is good otherwise the reading will come incorrect. Read the line and numbers on the bottom of the gauge to determine the tire pressure. If you are uncertain for the reading, let the process be repeated twice or thrice.
Repeat the same procedure for all the four tires and add or remove tire to equalize the pressure. For adding air head to a gas station and spend a quarter or two.
NOTE:
Along with air pressure, perform simple tire inspection to check for tire wear. You might have foreign objects as screws or nails attached to the tires or you might even find cracks. There’s a long used trick to check the tread depth with a penny; take any 5 rupees coin and place the head side downward between the grooves of the tread at the top of the tire. If the head is obscured by the tread, you have enough tread in tires. Check for tread depth in various parts of the tire and look for uneven spots. The presence of head in certain areas is an indication for new tires.