While it’s easy to overlook those four patches of rubber called your tyres, performing a few simple checks can yield better fuel economy and improved vehicle handling. Since most tyre damage and wear is a result of driving on tyres that are improperly inflated.

Maintaining proper tyre pressure is important for many reasons other than reducing the potential of a flat tyre or a blowout. In order to achieve optimum handling from your vehicle, from everyday driving to making emergency maneuvers, tyre pressure needs to be at the proper inflation level. Even a tyre that doesn’t appear to be low on air can result in reduced vehicle handling and excessive tread wear.

Tyres that are not at the correct air pressure will also increase the rolling resistance (the friction that occurs when an object rolls) of the vehicle. Under-inflated tires, for example, result in increased rolling resistance and therefore require more energy (or fuel) to move the vehicle, which negatively impacts fuel economy. According to american research, keeping tyres inflated properly improves fuel economy by approximately 3.3 percent. Tyres that are over-inflated result in reduced levels of handling performance because less rubber is in contact with the road.

Improper inflation puts unnecessary stress on your tyres and can result in excessive or uneven wear. When this happens, it compromises the ability of the tyres to perform, and often results in premature tyre wear-and the necessity to replace them sooner than expected.

Rotating, Balance and aligning of your tyres is a critical factor to tyre life. In some cases were service intervals are stretched as high as 15000 klm, this can result in halving your tyre life especially on the island of round abouts. Inspecting your tyres periodically will result much longer tyre life thus saving lots of dollars

Scott and Adam, Bribie Car Care
3408 4477