Car tires, being the absolute necessity that they are, have become a prime “consumable” automotive aftermarket item. Nowadays, tire manufacturers and sellers are doing brisk business in automotive tires and the applicable accessories. They compete in the areas of performance, durability, ready availability, and price—which redounds to the benefit of the riding or buying public.

Car owners should know that tires are legally “worn out” when their tread depth reaches only one-sixteenth of an inch. Some of the current tires have tread wear indicator bars, which are moulded into the tire and visually show the owner when their tires have worn down enough to need replacing.

Actually, some tire characteristics, such as handling, cornering and dry braking, tend to improve a bit as tires begin to wear. But as tread depth is lost, traction and resistance to hydroplaning also deteriorate. According to Consumer Reports, for the sake of safety, consumers should replace their tires even sooner—that is, when the tread has worn to only one-eighth of an inch deep. By the time only one-sixteenth of an inch of tread is left, performance in wet-pavement cornering and braking tests will have also deteriorated a lot.

If you have a front-wheel-drive car, you should rotate (or interchange) your tires periodically because the front tires wear faster than the rear. When the front wheel tires have a different tread thickness than the rear tires, you will likely have uneven braking and poor handling, especially in the rain. By not rotating the tires, you will eventually be replacing them two at the time, meaning that the tires will always have uneven tread thickness. It is important to replace tires in a matched set of four to ensure that the handling and braking traction of the car will be balanced.

With certain front-wheel-drive cars, you may notice tire noise or significant humming on smooth roads. It’s another problem resulting from not rotating your tires. If you check the rear tires and run your hand back and forth along the edges of the tire tread, you will notice a “saw-tooth” wear pattern on the inside and outside shoulder of the tire.  (Caution: Take care not to cut yourself on debris or any exposed steel belt wire.) Noise may also result even if the tire feels smooth in one direction but it is jagged in the other. Rotating such a tire to the other side of the car should even out this type of wear and quiet down the humming.

In some cases, you may have an option for a larger wheel or wider tread with a lower profile.  Note that larger wheels leave more room for air to circulate around the brakes to help them run cooler.  Or, if you are into performance driving, the larger wheels will also leave room for larger brakes.  Larger wheels, a lower-profile tire and wider cross section will make the car steer more sharply and feel more responsive to steering inputs. However, the shallow sidewalls also mean less cushioning over road irregularities, so a rougher ride may result.

In most countries, most new vehicles will come with all-season tires.  This type of tires offers the best compromise for normal driving.  Performance tires offer better grip, stability at high speeds, and better cornering, but tire wear will be quicker—which means more frequent replacement of the whole set.  Summer tires will have superior traction on dry and wet surfaces but are not usually very good in the snow.

Never forget the correct tire pressure for your car tires in particular, both for the front and for the rear tires. In general, tires will lose about a pound of air every month. Therefore, remember to check your tire pressure at least once a month. But only check your tire pressure when your tires are still cold. If you measure the tire pressure when you have driven more than a kilometre or two, your readings will be inaccurate.

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