I have to declare an interest here as I worked directly in the tyre industry for over 30 years - all in the technical side of the industry too. I worked for Goodyear and, latterly for Firestone (Bridgestone/Firestone) Technical Center Europe based in Rome, Italy.
The first thing all motorists should do is regularly (once/month-ish) monitor the tyre pressures with an accurate gauge. Do NOT trust those on the garage airlines, they used to be notoriously inaccurate. Buy your own, preferably digital, pressure gauge as Lindy has already done. I still use the older style of stick gauge but it was checked against a standard pressure gauge and I know it is no more than 1psi out at 35psi so I compensate for this when inflating my cars tyres. Properly inflated tyres help with reducing your fuel consumption as well as braking and steering.
Secondly, find the Tread Wear Indicators that are moulded into the grooves of the treads. Their positions are usually marked on the upper sidewall of the tyres (Michelin, usefully, moulds a little Michelin man to indicate where they are). Take a 2p coin and place it edge on, on top of the TWI. If you can see the ring of dots just inside the outer circumference of the coin then CHANGE THE TYRE ASAP because you have less than the 1.6mm tread depth the law allows. In any case, I change my tyres at 2.5mm remaining tread depth in order to preserve wet braking distances.
Thirdly, if you find that your front tyres are wearing unevenly, get the tracking and suspension checked asap.
Fourth, never, ever use back street tyre places that sell cheap part worn tyres. The tyres could be killers!!!
Fifth, use a reputable tyre company like Black Circles (used them myself), Kwikfit (good for tyres and batteries but not much else), Hi-Q (Goodyear/Dunlop’s trade outlet), Halfords, etc.
I have fitted all Falken tyres on one car as I am fed up paying out Continental prices and have not noticed any difference. Plus Falken are taking on the “Big Boys” in competition and quality. Otherwise, I use Michelin Primacy.
Tracking and Camber Angle, never let garages near the job unless it needs doing, just an add on bonus job for tyre fitters. Mine stay fine for years on factory settings and only play up if touched by garages.
Different tyres suit different cars though; on the Seat Mii Falkens and Avons saw me sliding all over the road when they were wet but Goodyear EfficientGrips are brilliant; the more powerful 130bhp Jazz ate through Pirellis but Goodyear EfficientGrip’s are great on that and last longer too.
On the new Citroen the Bridgestone Turanzas are grippy, long-lasting and quiet.
Lindy, I can’t understand why they’re advising you to change tyres with reasonable tread depth left, did they highlight other problems with the tyres?, is the wear even across the tyre?, is there any damage?, they do advise changing tyres if they are old, but as yours aren’t that shouldn’t be a problem, maybe they are trying to drum up a bit of business, not sure if you have a Kwik fit on the iow, but I’d be inclined to get a second opinion…
Apparently one of the tyres has a nail in it - not sure which one - other than that, no damage that I can see or has been mentioned. I agree though that to give me a warning on a tyre depth that was 4.5.5 is ridiculous - that’s the reason for my post and deciding to buy a type depth gauge and doubt the advice from the garage.
In November…or December…I managed to get a bolt in a rear tyre. At the MOT, this tyre had a depth of 5.6.5 - but the garage told me it would have to be replaced!! Fortunately I found a garage who repaired it to £20!
If it has a nail in it then, depending where it is, it might not be fixable, I’d take it back to the chap who repaired your last one and see what he says…
It’s in one of the front tyres which according to the garage need replacing. It’s giving no problems at all, so I’ll leave it for the moment and will most likely replace both the front tyres in the next few months. If it gives problems before then, it’s probably best to replace it sooner rather than later.
No one has mentioned so far that it’s not just the tread depth that matters but also how old tyres are. If they are older than six years, it’s recommendable to start looking for replacements no matter how deep the tread may still be. Over here, MOT may be denied if tyres are too old. That’s why it is important to make sure that a garage doesn’t try to sell you allegedly new tyres that are, in fact, already two or three years old. This is another reason why I buy tyres from specialists with a high turnover and have the checks done by another garage.
When I need to buy tyres, I wouldn’t walk into a shop unprepared either because some shops may want to sell you just those tyres for which they get a bonus. We also have independent and reliable test reports run by AA which give you a good overview of the prices and the pros and cons of any tyre available. As some of you do, I also go for brand tyres if the difference in price is not that high. I once also had Bridgestone Turanza Eco and was very satisfied with them. However, one thing needs to be considered and that is that both test reports and many dealers’ recommendations are almost invariably based on the assumption that any customer is a frequent driver. If you tell them that you regularly drive one mile a day or every two days, if at all, they are puzzled.
As for test reports, the summer tyres coming out on top are meant to meet the highest demands, say, of sales reps driving more than 40,000 km a year while the winter tyres are supposed to meet those of snow regions. That’s why I usually picked mid-range but solid tyres. As a retiree, my demands are even lower.
I did mention in one of my earlier posts about the age of lindyloos tyres, but hers are only three years old so will be ok, there is a date stamp on tyres, it will show the year and week of manufacture.ie the numbers might be 3718, that means it was made on the 37th week of 2018,
I was about to post how to determine the age of a car tyre but you beat me to it Primus. As a matter of fact, the serial number as a whole can be decoded by “those in the know” to reveal which company made the tyre, where in the world it was made, and which factory it was made in.
Dachs mentioned tyres over 6 years old causing an MoT failure in Germany. I think it’s 7 years here over here.
As for repairing punctures in Lindy’s case, I wouldn’t trust any tyre that has been repaired even by a tyre specialist and I certainly wouldn’t be driving at speeds in excess of 50mph if I had one until I could replace the tyre.
Replacing tyres is another murky field. I always change both tyres on the same axle at the same time so they wear at the same rate and I always buy premium brand (not Pirelli!!!) tyres -anything else is false economy IMHO.
I tend to agree Percy about not buying cheap tyres I always buy premium, mine has continentals on , if I keep it long enough to require tyres I might go for all seasons
Depends what you use the car for, how long you intend to keep the car, and what the condition of the roads are like where you drive. It does not matter if you fit a budget of a premium tyre on a car with duff steering/suspension geometry, and with the state of the roads lately, it is hard to avoid causing this, so, if fitting expensive tyres, get the geometry checked at the same time, or, if you are a worrier, fit them anyway, what price peace of mind.
Many years ago I only ever fitted Michelins, nothing else. Brilliant tyres with roadholding that was quite something, well worth the additional cost. Then came the foreign and other brands we see now which were as good. I’ve now had all different brands on various cars over the years, one brand that did stand out for their noise reduction qualities, on a ‘W’ reg. Ford Focus, were Continentals, EcoConti if I recall correctly. My present car in regular use is a VW Golf 1.6 Tdi Blue Motion, fitted with Hankook tyres from new and quite surprisingly the front tyres covered 26,000 before replacement. I do drive fast and expect front tyres on front wheel drive cars to last far less miles. These had tread left but were proving a little ‘slippery’ on cornering so time for replacement at a cost of £68 each. My view on the importance of good tyres was gained as a motorcyclist where good tyres and performance really is essential. Basically good tyres keep you alive to ride another day, not realising this you could very easily finish up dead!
When trying to find information regarding older tyres failing the MoT I found there was a proposal to ban tyres older than 10 years on certain vehicles, mostly passenger vehicles, due to many fatal accidents where old tyres were the cause. However, I could not find anything about tyres six years’ old failing an MoT, although these were subject to the same checks as any other tyre.
There is a lot of interesting and very useful information about tyres on this website, not relevant to the OP’s location I know but very informative all the same:
This company does have a branch on the Isle of Wight and there’s plenty of useful information on their website too:
My Michelin tyres are 10/11 years old and done 10,000 miles or less. I check the sidewall casings inside for cracks and they are still as brand new as the car is not left outside in UV light. Plus I am still happy at the moment doing 90 plus on them. Tracking etc never, unless needed at it has not been needed since the car was new.
As posted before, quite happy with Falken rather than Continental on the other car as I will never wear them out and they run sweet.
The rubber used for the inner-liner of a tyre is not the same as used in the sidewall on the outside Davey. For a start it will never be exposed to UV light, it’s sole purpose is to slow down the passage of air from the inside of the tyre to the atmosphere. It is generally made from a butyl-type rubber polymer. The sidewall on the outside is, most probably a 50/50 blend of 2 polymers (natural rubber and poly-butadiene rubber) that offers the best flex resistance but is rather bad where UV cracking is concerned. This is corrected for by the inclusion of chemicals called diphenylamines (sometimes you can see a purplish-brown haze on the sidewall of the tyre if too much is used).
Sorry PV, I should have posted that I inspect the inner and outer sidewalls for any form of cracking. My Brother had an advisory on his MOT on a fairly new car as he had some cracks. I took one look at it and was horrified and convinced him to buy new tyres. He then looked at mine and thought they were brand new and not 10 years plus age. Really with little wear I may not be changing them to do 600-1000 this summer. I believe legislation was brought in for coach tyres after the crash.
Yes it was and not just for coaches/buses. Truck and bus tyres (as they are known in the trade) now have a 10yr lifetime limit. After this, they must be scrapped out and recycled but no longer retreaded.
