Sensible car maintenance advice?

[steve50]

Look at it this way, the amount of GOOD rubber you have on the road determines how well your car stops, it's not your brakes that bring your car to a halt but your tyres. The brakes are a mechanical means of stopping your wheels rotating, the grip between your tyres and the road surface is what stops the car.

 

[fossyant]

I replace at around 3mm, but I usually see wear on the inner edges due to being front wheel drive. Bought Maxxis this time round because of the cycling link.

 

[mickle]

Reminds me i need to rotate my tyres and sort my tracking. I'm getting thin on the outside of my fronts.

 

[Piemaster]

Run them until they are bald for a maximum rubber contact patch. Just don't go out if it's raining, or damp. And watch out for those pesky cyclists squirting bidons in your path.

 

[Nibor]

My car was in a main dealer today for its annual service and MoT test.

Good news is it passed, and nothing extra needed doing in the service.

The garage reported - correctly - the front tyres were at 2.9mm tread depth, and advised 'changing them today'.

The legal limit is 1.6mm, and my policy is not to wear them that low, so I agreed and added two new Conti tyres to the bill.

I wonder if the replacement advice was a bit previous, although presumably I wouldn't have been able to get more than a couple of thousand miles out of the old tyres given that I'd want them changed at 2mm or so.

My mechanic non main dealer gives me a realistic idea of an advisories longevity he is not a main dealer and does sell tyres

 

[Paul139]

1.6mm is legal. So use it.
You could be driving at 70mph on brand new tyres and still have a blow out.

 

[TheDoctor]

79 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood is legal, so why not drink up to it?
Because it's stupid, that's why!
1.6mm of tread is the minimum that's thought to be not completely unsafe. Given that that's all that's keeping 2 tonnes of metal shiny side up, I'd change the tyres long before they got to the minimum.

 

[Paul139]

79 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood is legal, so why not drink up to it?
Because it's stupid, that's why!
1.6mm of tread is the minimum that's thought to be not completely unsafe. Given that that's all that's keeping 2 tonnes of metal shiny side up, I'd change the tyres long before they got to the minimum.

But I'm stupid so I wouldn't.

 

[Dirk]

Tread depth only has any relevance in wet conditions.
Slicks offer the best grip in the dry.
Anyone seriously racing a car, in a formula where treaded road legal tyres are specified, would buy the best new tyres available and have them shaved down to just above the legal limit to get through scrutineering.
It used to cost my mate a new set of tyres every meeting in his Dutton kit car.....but he did win his class in the kit car championship.

 

[Brandane]

@User9609 , you change the tyres on the wifes car at 5mm? . The tyres for my motorbike which can do 160 mph with only two contact patches; I don't think they've got much more than 5mm of tread when new! And .... why is it that motorbike tyres are legal down to 1 mm if tread depth is so critical? Marketing BS by tyre manufacturers, methinks.

 

[Drago]

It's a very complex equation. On the road , as opposed to glass smooth race tracks, the mechanical grip offered by tread can be beneficial. In addition, movement of the tread brings the tyres up to temperature more effectively, further improving dry grip. Then there's the stability that the tread brings at speed.

It's a lovely thought, but a bald road tyre is a different beast to a purpose designed racing slick.

Motorbike tyres have a curved contact section so behave differently again to car tyres, and with the smaller contact patch and different shape can tread sufficient water for the vehicles mass with shallower tread.

 

[Brandane]

79 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood is legal, so why not drink up to it?

Don't try that tactic on our side of the border! (It's NOT legal).

 

[Kajjal]

In summer driving carefully you can be fine. In winter it is alot riskier. I'd just replace them but spend just enough to get decent not expensive branded tyres as it is a pointless risk.

 

[oldfatfool]

If only driving in uk i would have run them until oct or 2mm whichever the sooner

 

[screenman]

I drove up the M1 yesterday in monsoon conditions, I want tyres that can cope with that.