5 things to know about driving with worn tires this spring
Not all tires are created equal.
Winter is finally over and so, for now, are the worries about driving through ice and snow. But rainy-day travel can be a challenge, too, especially when your tires are showing signs of wear.
Here’s what you need to know about driving with worn tires:
1. Know how to check the tire tread.
Although it’s common knowledge that driving on completely worn-out tires is a bad idea, what’s not so easy is figuring out at what point they need to be replaced. One sign of a worn-out tire is a tread that’s too low. The going wisdom is a tread depth of 2/32 of an inch or less is unsafe. You can check your tire tread with the penny test.
Insert a penny into the tread with Lincoln facing you and his head facing down. If you can see the top of his head over the tread, then it’s below 2/32 of an inch and the tire needs to be replaced. It’s a good idea to check the tread in a few spots in case there’s uneven wear.
2. Pay attention to wet braking and hydroplaning.
There’s not much data out there about how a tire performs as it wears. Michelin studied tire wear by conducting tests on tires from a variety of companies to see how they performed at different stages of life.
Just because a new tire had a better wet-braking distance than competitors didn’t necessarily mean it maintained that lead as the tire aged. In the middle of its life, a tire might perform worse than others those it outperformed when new. Even price wasn’t necessarily a deciding factor, so simply going with a more expensive tire from the start wasn’t a guarantee of the best lifetime performance.
Worn tires feel sloppy during wet braking and may cause you to hydroplane even with very little water on the road. If you feel your tires losing grip when you brake, especially during wet weather, then have them checked by a professional.
3. Make a visual inspection of your tires.
Tires are a surprisingly complex component of your car. The tread patterns and chemical compounds of tires are carefully designed for optimum lifetime performance. “The tire is arguably the most sophisticated piece of technology you trust your life to every day,” said Tom Carter, Michelin’s technical communications director for product marketing.
Despite their complexity, a visual inspection can tell you a lot about a tire’s condition. Take a look at the tread and even run your hand over the pattern. If the tread feels the same and looks the same across the tire, then you’re experiencing nice even wear. If the pattern looks or feels uneven, you should have your tires checked.
4. When in doubt, ask the professionals.
How long your tires last will depend on a variety of factors including the type of vehicle, how you drive, and where you drive. If you’re unsure whether your tires are safe, the best thing to do is to bring your car to a professional and have the tires inspected. They can put your car on a lift to get a good look at the whole tire and see damage on the inside edges you can’t see when the car is on the ground.
Follow their recommendations about whether it’s time to buy a new set. “The tires are the only thing that have contact with the road surface. If you can optimize that, you can optimize safety for drivers,” said Andrew Koury, Michelin’s brand director.
5. Ask questions about long-term performance.
“Long-lasting performance means a tire is designed to deliver performance throughout its life, not just when its new,” said Koury. Michelin’s goal is to make it easy to see how well tires maintain performance over time.
One challenge for consumers is that data on worn-tire performance isn’t readily available when buying tires. That’s because the industry isn’t performing these tests. Michelin thinks that needs to change. “Worn tires should be tested and drivers should have that information. Not all tires are created equal,” said Koury.
The next time you’re looking for a new set of tires, ask about worn-tire performance. Listen to the advice of tire service professionals and provide them with plenty of information about how you drive. This will help you choose the best tires for your car and make sure you’re not driving on tires that wear out prematurely.
