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Check the air pressure in all your tires, including the spare, at least once a month. Not only will keeping your tires correctly inflated keep you safer, it will increase the tread life of your tires. (RUBBER MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION VIA COPLEY NEWS SERVICE) |
Safety point: Where the rubber meets the road
The next time you are tooling down the highway in excess of 60 miles per hour, it might be good to keep in mind that your continued well-being depends on a 4-inch-thick cushion of air encased in rubber.
That's right. Your automobile tires are really no more than four balloons stretched tightly over steel wheels. If one blows out at 60 miles per hour, you and your car could be spinning out of control.
Next to your brakes, there might be no part of your automobile more important to your safety than tires. If you think about it, choosing the right tires for your driving conditions and maintaining them correctly could be the difference between life and death.
To be safe, you should check the air pressure in all your tires, including the spare, at least once a month. Not only will keeping your tires correctly inflated keep you safer, it will save money by increasing the tread life of your tires.
Rotation is necessary because of the uneven wear characteristics of each wheel position on a vehicle. Front tires, the ones that turn, tend to wear faster than rear tires.
Rotate tires at the vehicle manufacturer's recommended intervals, or at 5,000 TO 7,000 miles if not specified. A healthy habit many people follow is to rotate their tires with every oil change.
Buying replacement tires for your automobile can be confusing. Tires come in a wide variety of sizes, styles and prices, and the numbers and letters denoting these things appear to be in secret code.
The Consumers Union, the nonprofit publishers of Consumer Reports Magazine, offers the following tips for buying tires:
Take a P205/55R16 94V tire for example, the "P" prefix denotes a passenger-car tire. LT is the designation for tires that should be fitted only on light trucks. Some tires omit either prefix.
The "205" is the tire cross-section width in millimeters, and "55" is the ratio of sidewall height to cross-section width - in this case, 55 percent.
The "R" means radial-ply construction. And 16 is the wheel diameter in inches. The number "94" corresponds to the tire's maximum load capacity. The letter "V" is the speed rating indicating the maximum sustained speed.
While it is expedient to address a slow leak by repeatedly filling the tire with air, you must keep in mind that tread punctures or penetrations left unrepaired can cause irreversible tire damage. What's more, an improper repair can damage the tire and will void the warranty.
Bridgestone/Firestone offers these guidelines on their website (tiresafety.com) for determining whether a damaged tire can be repaired:
All of the major tire companies - including Michelin, Bridgestone/Firestone, Goodyear, and
While run-flat tires are found mostly on higher-end sports cars and sedans and models with limited space for a spare, they have recently moved into the minivan segment.
Some vehicle owners have complained on the Internet that they were unaware their cars had run-flats when they bought them and only found out when they had to replace the tires, the Consumers Union says.
Some all-wheel-drive automobile owners are upset to find out that they need a new set after 15,000 miles, at a cost of $800 or more.
Conventional all-season tires typically last 40,000 miles or longer, and most cost less.
The bottom line: Despite the disadvantages and inconveniences of run-flat tires for many, the safety benefits can outweigh the downsides, the Consumers Union says. And the technology behind them is improving while prices are coming down.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
