Tires are the point where the road meets your car. They determine how much traction you can get. This translates to how much power you can put to the ground when accelerating or how much grip you can get when braking and cornering.
Since your tires have such a huge responsibility, it’s only sensible to ensure that they stay in the best condition possible. This starts with driving responsibly to avoid straining them, keeping them at the correwct pressure, and replacing them as soon as necessary.
How Long Do Tires Last on Average?
Telling how often you should change your tires is hard. A tire’s lifespan depends on how hard you use them.
According to the NHTSA, you should change your tires after every six years regardless of whether the tread is worn or not. Otherwise, market data shows that tires will last anywhere between 40,000 to 75,000 miles.
Coincidentally, most car owners take between three and five years to drive such a distance on their daily driver cars.
To nail down the frequency with which you should change tires, we have to investigate a couple of factors that determine how fast your tires age. These include:
The Date From Manufacture
Believe it or not, tires have a shelf life. If stored in normal environmental conditions without use, they will start degrading by the time they are six to 10 years.
Despite this, some people can still keep using tires past the five years mark – as long as they constantly inspect them for issues.
A tire’s shelf life depending on two main factors:
- Where and how the tire was stored
- Prevailing environmental conditions
How the Environment Degrades Your Tires
The environment is full of elements that are harsh on your tire’s rubber. The most prominent are heat, ozone, oxygen and UV light.
How Oxygen Ages Your Tires
Oxygen is the primary element responsible for rubber degradation through oxidation. Since your tire is in contact with oxygen on the outside and the inside (unless you inflate your tires with pure nitrogen) the process can be comparatively fast.
Most manufacturers mitigate the oxidation process by adding some antioxidants to their rubber. Nonetheless, these antioxidants just reduce the oxidation rate. They can’t stop it completely.
UV Light’s Photo Degradation Impact
The rubber in tires starts absorbing UV rays as soon as its exposed to sunlight. The more the UV light the tire absorbs the faster the photodegradation occurs.
Manufacturers can counter this by putting carbon black on the tire to absorb inbound sunlight and convert it into heat.
The only problem is this protective layer doesn’t last forever. Over time, it will be worn through and UV light will photodegrade tires faster.
Heat
The ambient heat in the environment combined with what the tire could generate if exposed to sunlight accelerates rubber aging through thermo-oxidative degeneration.
As such tires will age faster in hotter climates. They will last even shorter if stored in direct sunlight or an uncooled warehouse.
Ozone’s Impact on Tire Shelf Life
Ozone is oxygen with an extra atom. Even though it’s naturally found in the troposphere and the stratosphere, we still have some down on the surface thanks to human pollution.
Ozone damages a tire by causing irreparable cracks in the rubber.
However, its impacts are lowered if tires are in use. Rotating tires can circulate special compounds inserted in the rubber by the manufacturer to counter the effect of ozone.
These compounds don circulate around and are useless if the tires stay in storage for very long.
The Manufacturer and Tire Brand
Just like any other commodity in the market, tire makers design their products with a market price point in mind.
These budget constraints determine how good a tire can be, and consequently the expected lifespan.
This is why some tires only last 30,000 miles while others have warranties as high as 80,000 miles.
This means that the safe operational miles you can get from your tires depends on the manufacturer’s quality and the warranty on the tires – if any.
Another interesting factor that determines tire lifespan is what the manufacturer intended the tire to be used for.
- Reports show that ultra high performance tires tuned for speed tend to last around half as much as family car tires built for normal daily driving
- All season, summer, and winter tires last for different miles since the treadwear rating is different
Your Tread Depth
The acceptable way of measuring tread depth is using 1/32ths of inch increments. New tires have anywhere between 9/32 and 11/32 depending on the design and what weather they’re meant for.
Normally, road tires are unsafe as long as the tread depth dips below 2/32. However, you should start thinking of swapping your tires as soon as the depth goes below 4/32.
The rules vary depending on the tire’s purpose.
- Racing slicks designed to drive on dry roads can have less or no treads but still be safe to use
- Winter or all-weather tires could need replacement at a higher tread depth than summer tires
Some manufacturers include an inbuilt wear indicator on their tires. Dubbed the ‘tread wear bars’ they are strips of solid rubber running across your treads.
Your tire is worn out the moment these bars are even with the tread. Run your finger horizontally across tread wear bars. If you notice that the bars feel as even as the treads, then it’s time to replace the tires.
Alternative ways to check your tread depth include:
The penny test
Get a penny and insert it into your tread groove with Lincoln’s head upside down. If you can see Lincoln’s entire head, then your tire tread is wornout. Normally, a portion of his head should be covered.
If you don’t have access to a penny or want something more accurate, you could invest in an accurate tire tread meter.
What Vehicle Are You Driving?
Different cars burn through tires differently. The heavier the car the faster it wears down tires – especially if you don’t use manufacturer specified tires.
Moreover, since different car models use tires differently, wear and tear is bound to be different.
Model specific quirks like suspension’s alignment, traction control and how the car delivers power to its wheels could determine how the tires interact with your driving surface. This will in turn have a huge influence on how fast tires wear out.
Your Driving Style
Most cars can do much more than normal carowners will ever throw at them. Even though they can take more, you don’t necessarily have to keep on pushing them hard.
Driving habits like hard stops, fast accerlaration, driving fast over potholes and carrying heavy loads will age your tires faster.
Moreover, your driving style could help you determine how many years you’ll be on the road before changing a set of tires. The Federal Highway Administration averages ameriacan drivers at 13,500 miles a year.
If you are within this range and drive responsibly, you should get around four years of service from a 60,000 mile warranty tire.
This is below the recommended shelf life.
Where You Live
Prevailing weather conditions also have some impact on your tire’s lifespan. We’ve already seen how heat and UV rays affect rubber degredation. This means that hot and sunny places burn through tires faster.
Lower temperatures, on the other hand, could lead to low pressure in tires, more flats and even faster manual tire damage.
Finally, the quality of roads you drive on determines how much of a beating your tires take. Potholes and gravel roads literally hammer the rubber off your treads aging tires faster.
If you have no option but to frequent bad roads, slow down and drive responsibly to avoid straining your tires too much.
How Well Do You Take Care of Your Tires?
Lastly, simple maintenance and care procedures could extent your tire’s lifespan immensely. Here are the basics that you should have on your list every now and then.
- Ensure you ride on the correct tire pressure for your car
- Rotate your tires regularly
- Inspect tires for signs of aging
- Check wheel balance and alignment often
Signs that Your Tires are Wornout
Apart from reading your tread depth, mileage and date from manufacturer, there are a couple of other things you should be on the lookout when inspecting your tires for damage.
Cracks and Cuts on Your Sidewalls
Your tire’s rubber could develope cracks as it ages. This is common in cars that have been parked for very long and are experiencing ozone degredation.
You could also get cracks and cuts to your sidewalls from driving over potholes and uneven surfaces.
This problem is more prevalent to people driving on badly paved roads, gravel roads or offroading vehicles that rock crawl a lot.
Bulges and Blisters on Your Tires
Your tires will bulge if their internal structure fails or is failing. You will get bulges when you hit the curb or potholes at high speed. They could also happen when you overload or just because your old tires are failing.
Regardless of the cause, you should replace bulging tires as soon as you spy the problem. A bulge means that the air in your tire is no longer contained within the tire. It has seeped through and is only held by the top layer of the tire.
This increases the possibility of your tires bursting as you fail. Tire bursts can be catastrophic and you shoud avoid them as much as possible.
Excessive Vibration When Driving
Vibrations when drivnig could mean a couple of things. It could be something wrong with your suspension, driveshaft or the tires. Heck! sometimes, a misfire could lead to violent vibrations.
Whatever the cause, you should have your car inspected as soon as you hear vibrations unaccounted for by the surface you are driving on.
They could mean you have tire bulges, uneven treadware or massive cracks on the treads. It could also hint at unbalanced wheels.
Either way, even if your tires are still good, the vibrations put more stress on the tires making them age and get damaged faster.
How to Check and Maintain Your Car Tire’s Air Pressure
As tire technology advances, drivers need worry less and less about their tire pressures. This doesn’t mean you should neglect tires though. You still have to inspect and refill them often if necessary.
First things first.
- Tire pressure flactuates wildly depending on prevailing temperature
- Even cars with automated tire pressure sensors need extra monitoring as these sensors can fail
- You can’t tell if you have enough tire pressure by eyeballing your tires. You have to use a gauge
Air expands as it heats and contracts as it cools. With wild temperature fluctuations, you could lose or gain up to 5 PSI as temperature changes.
This means that you should maintain your car tire pressure checks depending on how wildly your temperatures fluctuate.
How Often Should You Check Tire Pressure in Summer
In winter, you can check your tire pressure once a month. You should expect to lose around 1 PSI per month. If your car has a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS), you can check the pressure in real time from within the car and even get a warning when you have a problem.
ProTip: Sometimes, your pressure can shoot beyond the recommended level if you inflated your tires to the max when it was cold and they begin to heat up as the temperature rises.
How Often Should You Check Tire Pressure in Winter
Winter brings wilder temperature fluctuations. People with TPMS systems will get more warnings than before. You can, however, still, get away with checking your pressure once a month. Doing it twice a month is more responsible.
I am the more cautious type. I use my garage compressor to check and regulate my car’s tire pressure once a week. It doesn’t eat into my time. You can make it a habit too.
You don’t have to buy a compressor. You can use a car tire pressure gauge or invest in an aftermarket TPMS if your car didn’t come equipped with one.
Is It Better to Check Tire Pressure When Tires are Hot or Cold?
Before checking tire pressure, you first have to identify your car’s recommended inflation levels. You’ll find this information on a sticker at the driver-side doorjamb.
Don’t use the information on the tire markings as this indicates maximum pressure the tire can take – not what your car needs.
Manufacturers and market specialists recommend checking your tire pressure when they are cold. This will give you the most accurate reading possible.
This means:
- Check and inflate at the lowest temperature for the day (mostly in the morning)
- Check your pressure before driving the car. Your tires warm up as you drive hence the pressure will be slightly higher
If you check and refill at a service station, chances are your tires will always be hot. You are bound to be off by some PSI no matter how hard you try.
You can compensate by overinflating so that your tires will still have sufficient pressure when cold.
Even though experts recommend overfilling by 4 PSI, I found that trial and error is the best way to know the correct offset.
- Overfill by 2 PSI in the evening when headed home
- Let your car sit and read the pressure in the morning.
- If it is OK, you have found your offset for that weather. If it is not, overfill by 2 PSI again and repeat
- Never overfill your tires by more than 4 PSI at a time
- Never overfill your tires if they look old and worn out.
You can avoid all this guesswork by getting a portable air compressor that you can use to check and top up air pressure at home in the morning before leaving.
What Happens If I Overinflate My Tires?
While fully inflated tires could improve mileage, pushing them further and inflating the tires could be dangerous. Some of the risks of overinflating your tires include:
Compromised Safety
Overinflated tires are at an increased risk of blowing out. A burst tire brings undesired dynamics to a drive and could easily lead to serious accidents.
Moreover, safety features like traction control and ABS won’t work well since they are designed to work under optimal tire conditions.
Increased Damage and Wear
Overinflated tires are stiff, inflexible, and bulging. This makes more susceptible to damage from any uneven surfaces. Simple things like debris or even tiny bumps could damage the tire or the wheels (rims)
The bulging tires present a smaller contact area with the most pressure towards the center of the tires. This part will wear out faster and the car will have less grip since the entirety of the tire isn’t evenly pressed to the surface.
Moreover, excess pressure lowers a car’s ride comfort.
The Fix: Fixing overinflated tires is as easy as letting out some pressure. You will need a pressure gauge, and a compressor (even if a small portable one) just in case you let out more pressure.
Use the gauge or compressor to let out enough PSI so that your tires sit at their inflation sweet spot.
What Happens if You Underinflate Your Tires
If your tire has too low pressure, a bigger patch of the tire touches the road. This increases friction. Friction causes heat.
More heat degrades tires faster. Over time, it will lead to blowouts and possible accidents.
Always check and refill your tire pressure even if the tires don’t appear underinflated.
Underinflation also causes the tires to drag more hence reducing your fuel efficiency.
Should I Replace All 4 Tires or Just 2?
Replacing all four tires at a go is wise and responsible. After all, car tires age at the same rate assuming you rotate them well and are not involved in an accident that could puncture, tear, or blow out one.
However, there are times when you could replace two tires and get away with it.
You could replace two tires if your car is a two-wheel drive. The only catch is you must replace all the tires on each axle at a go. This means all the two tires should either go to the front or the back and never to one size.
However, if you have an all-wheel or a four-wheel drive, changing only two tires at a go could throw a couple of things amiss.
Since the tires now have different properties, ABS, Traction control, torque vectoring, and other technologies won’t work well as they will have different working data. Some cars will even light up error codes for these specific systems if you try the wrong tires or swapping just two tires.
Moreover, your car will drive differently and the tires will wear unevenly.
Are Cheap Tires Worth It?
If it is cheap, some corners were cut – unless it is designer. Since there are no designer tires perse, cheap is almost always a bad idea.
The cheapest tires are made of low-quality rubber and don’t have as many safety features as top brand more expensive tires.
As such, they give worse grip, shorter lifespan, and shorter stopping distances. They are even more susceptible to blowouts. They also give you more road noise and terrible gas mileage.
If you are on a budget, go for mid-range tires from a reputable brand. They will be affordable and very safe.
Don’t pay the extra for premium tires. In most cases, the extra safety and mileage aren’t worth it unless you are a performance driver or hope to put A LOT of miles in before changing the car.
ProTip: The sweet spot is the middle
Why Are My Tires Wearing Unevenly?
Normally, your tires should wear evenly. Any emphasized wear at one point of the tire could point at one or more problems. The most common culprits are:
- Overinflated tires
- Underinflated tires
- A worn out or damaged suspension
- Improper wheel inflation
What Causes Excessive Edge Wear?
Tires that wear out the edges faster than the center are most probably underinflated. Check our section on inflating tires right to find out how you can fix this problem.
Why Are My Tires Wearing Out at the Center More?
If the center of your tire wears out faster than the rest of the tire, you’re definitely running on more PSI than you should. Check the section we did on inflating tires to the right pressure above to correct the problem.
Tires Wearing Out on the Inner or Outer Side?
The market also calls this type of wear ‘toe wear’ or ‘camber wear.’ It means that something is wrong with your wheel alignment. Got to a mechanic or service station to have your wheels aligned. If the wear is too much, you might have to replace your tires while at it.
Why Are My Tires Wearing in Patches?
Patches of wear on your tires mean your wheels are out of balance. Getting them balanced and rotated should mitigate the problem.
It is also good practice to have your tires rotated and spun at least every 5000 miles. Your owner’s manual will give you more details about this for your car.
Why Are My Tires Squeling?
Tires squel when you change direction or speed fast. They will squeel when you corner hard and fast, when you accelrate hard and when you brake hard.
The noise is from slippage as your tire tread skids against the surface trying to gain traction.
However, if you are noticing the noise when driving and turning slowly, your tires might be flexing a lot due to under inflation. You could also be riding wheels that are out of inflation.
Also note that tires that are growing old and have less or uneven tread depth will squeel more as they have less grip on the road. The squeel could even come through when driving on low traction surfaces like a cabro surface.
If the noise comes under hard braking, accelarating or cornering only, it is normal. Avoid pushing that hard though as it could wear your tires faster.
If it comes when driving normally, have your tire pressuer, alignment and tread depth checked.
Why Are My Tires Losing Air?
The biggest reason tires lose pressure is a puncture. However, your tires could still lose air even if they don’t have a hole in them. Some other things that could lead to pressure lose include:
A Faulty Valve Stem
The valve stem is the small protrusion on the inside of your rim that lets you put air into the tire. It lets air in and keeps it from escaping. However, over time, it could deteriorate and leak slowly but constantly making your tires to lose pressure over time.
An Improper Mounting Seal
Your tire forms a seal with the rim that gets airtight as you inflate the tires. Since the invention of tubeless tires, any defects on the lip of the rim could tamper with this seal.
The imperfections could be due to rust, dirt, or a dent picked as you drive over a porthole or against the kerb.
Temperature Fluctuations
We earlier on saw how much temperature can change tire pressure. The fluctuations can be up to 5 PSI depending on temperature changes. If you see fluctuations, take note of the different temperatures and find out if there is a pattern. If there is, this is normal as long as your cold temperature pressure is to specifications.
Are Nitrogen-Filled Tires Worth it?
Theoretically, nitrogen will stay in your tire for longer since it’s larger than air molecules means it will seep out slower. You will maintain tire pressure for longer. Also, your tires will oxidize slower since the inside won’t be exposed to oxygen.
However, the extra money you pay for a nitrogen fill up isn’t really worth it in a family car.
You can mitigate pressure loss free of charge by checking your tire pressure on a monthly basis. I even check mine weekly and I don’t mind it.
Moreover, the little gains you get can’t possibly stretch your tire’s lifespan beyond the estimated average. You will still have to change your tires after five or so years. The only difference is you’ll have paid more for gas than someone who didn’t nother.
How Often Should You Rotate Car Tires?
Tire rotation is a great way to keep your tires wearing out evenly. The reason you rotate tires is because they all wear out differently .
For instance, a front wheel drive car uses its front tires more.
- They brake harder
- They drive the car
- They bear the extra weight of the front mounted engine
- They are in charge of all that cornering strain
Logically, they will wear out faster than rear tires.
You can have your tires share your straing by rotating them every 3000 to 5000 miles. Rotate them every time you go for an oil change just to be safe. Remember to follow the correct wheel rotation pattern depending on the type of car you drive.
Bottom Line
Taknig good care of your tires could be the difference between stopping on time and crashing into something. Changing them on time and maintain them for perfect wear will give you longer lifespan without compromising your ride quality and safety on the road.