How To Care For Your Tires Properly
As a car owner there are many things that you need to do in order to regularly maintain your car so you know that you are doing your best to keep it in good working order. One of the areas of concern that you want to have is with regards to your tires. While it is true that tires are easy to maintain, there are still things that you should do to take care of them and you can find many of those things detailed here:
Consider putting studded tires on when you will be driving in the snow
When you are going to be driving your car in the snow you should consider having your regular tires swapped out for studded tires for the winter season. This isn't something that will help to keep the tires in good shape necessarily, but it will help to decrease your chances of having an accident. When there is snow on the ground the street can get icy. Without the proper tires your car can drive on a patch of ice and slide into something. This is where the studs come in to play. They are like little nail heads that protrude from the tires and grip into the ice to prevent those slides from happening.
Have your tires balanced and rotated
Balancing your tires will help to prevent the tires from having a wobble to them. This will help give you a smoother feeling ride and help prevent other issues from occurring such as alignment problems. Rotating your tires helps to ensure that they don't wear faster in certain areas. It is quite common to have tires wear more on the inside than they do on the outside and if you don't bend down and peak under the car to look specifically for that wear then you may not even know that it's happening. This can lead to you needing to replace the tires sooner or it can even cause them from blowing. You should have your tires rotated every 5,000 to 8,000 miles.
Keep the right amount of air in your tires
If you look on your tires you can see the proper amount of air pressure that you should keep in them. It is marked on the tires as the "PSI" on the side of the tire near the tire size. You can purchase a small gauge for a few dollars at an auto shop that you can use to see how much air pressure is currently in the tires so you know when it's time to put air in them, or you can take them in to a tire shop and they will check the air pressure for you and add air if it is needed.