How to Maintain your Car Tyre.

We all know that not only fuel is expensive now, but also other glossaries and needy items. Rubber tyre is also unavoidable and hiked for about 5 to 30%.

From what I experienced, fuel consumption is related closely to your tyre. If you taking good care of your tyre, you will not only save your fuel consumption in long term, but also last longer for your tyre.

There are 5 particular matters that you should take note for your car tyre.

Understanding your tyre reference is the first rule for maintenance.

1. Tyre Inflation Pressure
Check your tyre pressure regularly, including the spare. Pressures should be checked when cold, as there is an increase when the tyre has warmed up after being driven. Having a stable tyre pressure for sure giving your vehicle a better grip, increased fuel economy and tyre life.

So how do we know the tyre pressure we should pump for our vehicle? It is essential that you read yout Tyre Placard, which can be found in the driver's glove compartment door. If you are still not sure, you can refer to the tyre shop or petrol station for assistance. Most importantly this service is Free ;) so just do it regularly depends on your usage.

2. Tyre Rotation
If your car is running front-wheel drive cars, you should have regularly perform tyre rotation. To maintain the direction of rotation, move the tyres from front to rear. Depending on tyre wear, perhaps you can consider rotating your tyre every 5,000 to 10,000 km.

For just about RM12 per service (RM3 per tyre), regular rotation brings your vehicle many benefits, such as maximize overall tread life, even-out front and rear wear patterns, quieten tyre noise and lessen vibration. Cool.


3. Wheel Alignment
Proper wheel alignment should be check to ensure proper tyre wear. It is recommended for you to check it every 4 months or 10,000km. In fact, it also depends on the some other important factors, such as road condition and the driver behavior. I think I've discussed this in my previous post on savings your fuel.

My friend said he can do wheel alignment himself without this thing. HOW?

Anyway, I only can say that Malaysia's road is sucks and benefits the tyre shop for this service. It costs about RM25-RM50 per service. The larger your vehicle, the more you pay.


4. Tyre Balancing
A balanced set of tyre able to make your driving safer and more comfortable. Improper tyre balancing may harm other parts of your car, such as absorbers, wheel bearing and engine mounting. If you driving 80km/h above and your steering wheel is vibrating, then you really need to send your car for tyre balancing immediately. It is not expensive anyway.


5. Tyre Lifespan
The tyre lifespan normally is about 3 to 4 years from its manufacturing date, depends on the tyre quality and grade. Due to different road conditions and driving patterns, especially in Malaysia, tyre may be worn out faster than expected. No doubt that proper maintenance by following 4 points above definitely gain your tyre longer lifespan.

My worst experience of shortest lifespan was 11 months, by using a Indonesia imported D*nlop brand tyre! Ops, it was because my mum continuously used it without inflate tyre pressure, while I was outstation for a few months. Luckily I'm using 175/R13 tyre size, it's cheaper.

It's good also to understand the layers of a tyre.

If your tyre's tread is worn to Tread Wear Indicator (TWI) level, you need to change your tyre immediately. However, TWI level only can be determine at tyre shop, so whenever you see your car tyre is flat or a staight line in white, you are advise to change it as soon as possible.

Tyre shop business really that good? Why I don't see such promotion on newspapers?

So where you service your tyre normally?
I found out that many tyre shops are cheating people's money. They might sell you the tyre reasonably, but they mark up a lot on alignment, balancing or other items/services you don't know/need, end up you pay them more than what you suppose to pay/service. This is very true. Just google 'tyre shop' and you'll see a lot of 'cheated by tyre shop' keywords.

So....Good luck to you.