3 Vital Aspects Of Tyre Maintenance

by 1ststop 4tyres 1st Stop 4 Tyres & Auto Centre

Tyres are the main points of contact with the Earth. It means they are feet from your vehicle. Your vehicle moves with the help of its tyres as you move on your feet. However, other parts of your car are important but they do not touch the ground directly.

When you visit a garage for Car Service Kidderminster the mechanic does a lot of things to improve the health of your vehicle. You do not need the assistance of your mechanic to check a lot of parts of your vehicle. Tyres are one of those components that you may easily check for several issues. However, some issues with tyres are beyond your limits.

In this blog, we will talk about three major issues that affect the health and performance of your car tyres. These issues are wheel alignment, balancing and air pressure. Checking wheel alignment and tyre balancing is not your cup of tea but you can surely check air pressure to keep your tyres mechanically in good condition. Let us have a look at these issues one by one to know more!

Wheel alignment

Surely wheel alignment is not the reason for the bad health of your tyres. It is a necessary aspect of your vehicle. Problems start to occur due to bad wheel alignment. Wheel alignment has a link with the adjustments of suspension components. Proper adjustment achieves perfect angles that are necessary for your tyres to run smoothly on roads.

Prime reasons for bad wheel alignment

Your tyres will experience bad alignment because of sudden impact due to hard objects like kerbs and bumps. Hitting a pothole can also be a reason for bad tyre alignment. Bad adjustment of suspension components is possible after a minor road accident as well.

Common signs of a bad tyre alignment

When your tyres are not in good alignment, you will not handle your car smoothly. You will feel that the steering wheel is very heavy to handle and your car is pulling to either side. Moreover, you may observe strong vibrations in the steering wheel because of the wrong tyre alignment. Uneven tread wear in tyres is the most common sign of bad wheel alignment.

How to correct the wheel alignment?

Wheel alignment is not included in things that you can check and repair on your own. You have to look at a service station to check your wheel alignment. The technician will check the severity level of wheel alignment to provide proper assistance. Generally, mechanics look at three types of angles to correct the wheel alignment.

Caster:

This angle is important for the smooth steering of the car. The tester has to find a balance between positive and negative caster angles to fix the problem.

Camber:

The mechanic observes the disturbance at this angle by looking from the front of the car.

Toe:

The technician has to observe the toe angle by looking from the top angle. When the tester adjusts these three angles properly, they achieve the goal of adjusting suspension components properly.

When do you need to check wheel alignment?

You have to check the wheel alignment whenever you observe signs of tread wear in the tyres. Moreover, you have to check the tyre alignment whenever your tyres hit a hard object like a curb, pothole or broken parts of vehicle. You need to check the wheel alignment when you buy new tyres for your vehicle.

Wheel balancing

Generally, car mechanics do wheel balancing with the tyre alignment. Wheel balancing includes correcting the imbalance between the weights of the tyre and the wheels. Just like wheel alignment, wheel balancing is also a crucial factor for smooth and trouble-free driving. If you ignore wheel balancing for a long time, you may observe signs like vibrations, tread wear, and suspension damage.

How to correct wrong wheel balancing?

Like wheel alignment, you cannot do wheel balancing with your efforts. A trained mechanic will do this job for your vehicle.

Generally, the mechanic places tyres on a wheel balancer after taking off the vehicle. The mechanic checks the entire wheel separately to determine the areas of uneven weights. After this process, the mechanic will add or remove weights to remove imbalance.

Tyre rotation

Tyres do not wear uniformly. The front tyres of the vehicle wear more quickly than the rear tyres. Tyre rotation is a good practice to eliminate this difference. To rotate your tyres effectively, you have to change their positions regularly. It means your front tyres will serve as rear tyres and rear tyres will take the position of front tyres.

Changing sides is also possible in tyre rotating practice. In this pattern, tyres will move from right to left and left to right. Tyres may move from one corner to the other as well. These patterns are applied according to the type and model of the vehicle.

You must note that changing sides of directional tyres is not a legal approach. You can change only the positions of these tyres.

Tyre rotation is an easy practice that you can do easily. However, you must know about the appropriate pattern of tyre rotation for your vehicle.

Conclusion

Wheel alignment Kidderminster, wheel balancing and tyre rotation are mandatory tasks that you cannot ignore to keep your tyres in good condition. Try to perform these tasks before observing warning signs.