Ensure Road Safety with these Tips to Prevent Flat Tyres

Those who have owned a car for any significant amount of time must have experienced a flat tyre at least once. It’s frustrating, wastes a lot of time and in severe cases, may even cause accidents. Although modern car tyres are much more resilient and modern roads much better in condition, flat tyres is an issue that is yet to be overcome.

Flat tyres are the single biggest reason for car repair in Pickering. The Automobile Association (AA) received approximately 180,000 call-ups last year from people stuck with a flat tyre. For the record, that’s the highest number of call-ups for a single reason.

Although there is no airtight way (pun intended!) to prevent flat tyres, every driver may exercise reasonable caution to mitigate its chances. However, before delving into how it can be prevented, let’s understand what causes flat tyres in the first place.

Why do tyres go flat?

A flat tyre is a condition in which there is no inflation pressure left in the tyre body, rendering it unusable for all intents and purposes. Flat tyres have been around since the invention of pneumatic tyres and are likely to remain a cause for concern in the foreseeable future.

Many tyre manufacturers are spending millions to figure out a permanent solution to this problem. Michelin, for example, has developed a novel technology which they fondly call the Tweel (a portmanteau of tyre and wheel). It is a tubeless and airless alternative to conventional tyres. However, it is yet to hit the consumer market.

Pneumatic tyres may get punctured and go flat for many reasons such as:

• Completely worn out tyre body

• Irregular tread wear

• Poor road conditions which may cause physical damage

• Sharp road debris

• Misaligned wheels

• Inflation issues

• Damaged or loose valve cap

Preventing flat tyres

Your tyres may go flat because of any of the reasons mentioned above. However, you may take some precautionary measures to prevent that from happening.

• Always maintain the proper inflation pressure across all four tyres. Measure the inflation pressure using a pressure gauge at least once a week.

• Maintain tread depth of over 3mm across the tyre body. Although the legal minimum requirement is 1.6mm, experts advise maintaining a minimum 3mm tread depth for the safe performance of your tyres.

• Get your wheel alignment in Pickering checked every 6 months.

• Rotate your tyres twice every year. You’ll find the recommended rotation cycle in your owner’s manual.

• Ask your mechanic to check the condition of valve caps while inflating your tyres.

• Take your car to dependable auto garage like Add Tyres and Exhausts for wheel balancing every 6 months.

• When possible, avoid roads that you know are in poor condition. Especially avoid construction sites as there’s a lot of debris which may cause punctures.

• Switch to run-flat tyres. Although these tyres won’t prevent punctures, they are a lot safer as they let you drive a few miles even with a leak and there’s practically no possibility of a nasty blowout.

Stay safe on the roads and avoid punctures with these useful tips. Remember that it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

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Created on Feb 6th 2019 23:46. Viewed 547 times.

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