Tyres Online: 2009

Thursday 31 December 2009

For Your Car Tyres’ Sake: Driving Defensively

Driving away from a tyre bay on tyres so new that they still retain their labels can cause mixed feelings. Often, replacing car tyres is carried out to remain safe and legal, which is comforting. Sometimes, a set of replacement tyres must be bought far too early, because the originals went nowhere near fulfilling their expected life, through neglect and/or misuse. This scenario is irritating at best so knowing how to get the most out of your car tyres is valuable.

We all know tyres don’t last for ever but there are mechanical faults, road conditions and driving habits that significantly shorten tyre life. Let’s start at the ground and work upwards.

If a car’s wheels are misaligned, the tyres won’t live long, it’s a simple as that. Having your car’s wheel alignment checked and fixed if necessary isn’t desperately expensive and pays dividends in tyre life, performance and comfort. Under or over-inflated tyres also acquire strange wear patterns and stranger habits on the road – and they wear out sooner. Equally, wheels in need of balancing can compromise comfort, grip and tyre longevity; much the same goes for ineffective shock absorbers.

In many respects, your car tyres’ life is as much in your hands as your life depends on your tyres. Accelerating savagely, braking spectacularly and cornering to the squeal of tortured rubber may seem thrilling but such practices shred your treads depressingly quickly. You can’t, in general, choose the kinds of roads you travel upon but there are known tyre killers that you’ll certainly encounter. Dealing with these in the correct way can enhance your tyres’ life, your car’s life and your comfort. Whether you call them speed bumps, sleeping policeman or traffic calming measures, the potential outcome is the same.

The first rule is to never straddle a speed bump; doing so can knock your car’s suspension out of alignment. Doing so repeatedly can damage your car’s springs and suspension too. If you cross speed bumps with either the left or right wheels, your car will suffer less. Similarly, if you take a gung-ho approach to speed bumps and speed pads, you’ll pay in the long run. This even affects big, tough 4×4 vehicles so don’t be misled. Slow down, as the bumps necessarily dictate.

Kerbs are not so far removed from speed bumps, either in terms of their location or the damage they can do. Look in any busy town centre and it won’t be long before you see someone allowing their car’s wheels to mount a kerb or two. It’s an unarguable fact that despite the cushioning effect of the tyres, car wheels always come off worse in a fight with a kerb. This is especially true of alloy wheels, which are relatively soft and easily damaged. This can be verified in the abovementioned busy town centre. You won’t have to look far to find a wheel with a piece taken out of the rim by a kerb, or with an edge raked down to bare metal by the same culprit.

The bottom line here is that looking after your car and its tyres pays dividends, in terms of performance, comfort, longevity - and financially.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Tuesday 29 December 2009

Be Forearmed: Car and Car Tyre Checks for Winter

“Now is the winter of our discontent”, said Richard III. In fact, he meant that the time of unhappiness was past. However, if you don’t check your car tyres – and your car – before adverse conditions arrive, you could experience a highly discontented winter.

Anyone accustomed to living in ‘this sceptered isle’ (Shakespeare again) will be more than familiar with what we are liable to encounter. Dealing with anything that puts our cars and their tyres under stress isn’t all that difficult so let’s start with tyres.

Any car tyre, but for those with studs fitted, will not grip on sheet ice. However, well-worn tyres won’t grip too brilliantly in snow, slush or even in wet conditions. So first, check your tread depth. This should be a minimum of 1.6 millimetres of tread in a continuous band around three quarters of the tyre. This is only the legal minimum but a tyre that’s down to the wear indicators won’t cope well in winter. You may consider investing in a set of winter tyres but in any case, replacing tyres for the winter is a valid action.

It should go without saying that your car tyres should be at the correct pressure. Checking this is any easy job that should be repeated regularly throughout the winter. It’s also worth running a hand over your tyres’ carcasses to check for bulges, lumps, cuts or the evidence of misalignment. Remember also that you have a spare tyre that you might need in a hurry. Check first that you can dismount it, particularly if it lives beneath the car. In some instances, it’s so long since the spare tyre has seen the light of day that its fastenings under the car have long since corroded into immobility. It’s better to discover this at your leisure than at the roadside in mid-snowstorm or hurricane.

Many people see what’s under a car’s bonnet as fit and forget items. Wrong! Having enough non-freezing windscreen washer fluid is fairly important but if your car’s coolant, oil and hydraulic fluid levels are low, you could be heading for major difficulties, if not disaster. They’re easy enough to check and your car’s handbook will tell you all about which fluids should be used and where they should go. Bear in mind that a poor battery will almost certainly let you down as the temperature drops.

Apart from letting you see where you’re going on a black winter’s night, your car’s lights also announce your presence and intentions to other road users. Ensure that each and every bulb or LED on the car is fully functional; this includes less frequently used lighting like front and rear foglights. Carry a full set of spare bulbs and make sure you have the tools and know-how to fit them, if necessary. As an adjunct to vision, your car’s windscreen wipers are extremely important. Examine them and if any are ragged, loose or ineffective, replace them. Should you find any of these tasks too daunting, remember that your local garage will be happy to carry out your winter checks for you.

Finally, what to carry on a winter journey. What you take along can be tailored to the conditions you might meet. For example, you might need a torch, reflective waistcoat or jacket and a warning triangle, and some extra screen wash fluid for normal journeys. Whether you need boots, gloves, a shovel and a thermos of tea depends on where you’re headed.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Wednesday 23 December 2009

Monday 7 December 2009

Fit For The Road: Keeping Car Tyres In Shape

Unlike on 'Who wants to be a millionaire', your car tyres are your lifeline in the life or death sense. Their four contact patches, their 'footprints', are all that are keeping you and a tonne or more of moving metal away from a close encounter with the passing scenery or worse, with a moving 18-wheeler. Unfortunately, many drivers feel their tyres are forgettable but the old adage about looking after you're tyres so they look after you is ever true.

Tyre pressures are the first forgotten chore. Car tyres lose pressure as a matter of course; it doesn't mean they're leaking. Arguably, the best way of making sure you keep your tyres at the correct pressure is all about money. Look at it this way: if your tyres are underinflated, they flex more, run too hot, wear more at the edges and have a shorter life. Low tyre pressures also create greater drag so you'll use more fuel. Overinflated tyres wear out the centre section of their treads sooner, which is also a costly event. Should you have a tyre that has an air leak, it could let you down. Here, the best case is dealing with changing a wheel. The worst case is a one-way trip to casualty after a tyre burst, so get the leak fixed. As you can see, looking after tyre pressures is a money-saver; consider things like improved grip and enhanced safety as a bonus.

Bad wheel alignment represents another hungry mouth gnawing at your disposable income. Misaligned car tyres can wear out well before the end of their expected service life and having this fixed is simple and inexpensive. More importantly, especially in winter, misaligned tyres work at odds with your car's steering and suspension. Result? The car is running inefficiently and the cost is in fuel and driver fatigue. Much the same applies to unbalanced wheels, which also cause vibration and increased wear.

Getting up close and personal with your car tyres periodically pays dividends too. You can check your tyre treads' depth by studying their wear bars. When these, normally buried in the treads' grooves, start wearing themselves, it's new tyres time. You can also run an exploratory palm around your tyres, seeking an embedded nail, cuts, lumps, bulges or sidewall cracks. All spell the need for attention and a good tyre bay will advise you about what needs to be done. Adding a visual tyre health check to your car washing routine is a wise move.

Tyre rotation isn't something that happens every time you drive away. A front-wheel-drive car, for example, gives its front tyres a great deal of work to do. The front tyres have to cope with steering forces, braking forces and the transmitting of power to the road. It's no wonder that on such a car, the front tyres need replacing more often; giving them a tour of duty at the rear of the car evens things out.

Lastly, treat your car tyres with sympathy. Think of it this way: you only ever see a racing car surrounded by tyre smoke if it's in trouble. Wheel spin, tyres yelping on corners and smoking, squealing stops are all very well in the movies but remember that stunt drivers (a) don't own the cars and (b) don't pay for their tyres!

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Monday 9 November 2009

More Tyre Trivia: Fascinating And Fun Car Tyre Facts

Once more unto the breach dear friends, or rather, once more into the gripping world of car tyre trivia. So, did you know?

The word ‘tyre’ is derived from the word ‘attire’ i.e. clothing. This makes the American spelling ‘tire’ the more accurate.

The very earliest ‘tyres’ actually helped hold wheels together. The part that ran on the road was an iron band, which was heated and placed over the ‘felloe’, or rim, of a wooden wheel. When it cooled, the band shrank to fit the wheel tightly, adding strength to the structure.

Formula 1 tyres lose weight during every race. The high wear rate means that a tyre weighs 0.5kg less when replaced.

Speaking of weight saving, the tyre Goodyear developed for the Gulfstream business jet had aluminium, rather than steel, bead wires. This saved 1.3kg per tyre.

Bridgestone produces 40,000 Formula One tyres per year. The company reintroduced slick tyres to Formula One in 2009, after an 11-year absence (prior to this, grooved tyres had been used since 1998).

When travelling at 300km/hour, four car tyres can displace 61 litres of water per second.

A study by Continental Tyres found that 40% of motorists in Britain claim to have never checked their car’s tyre pressures.

To make matters worse, even fewer drivers said that they knew how to check tread depth; 70% didn’t know what the legal tread depth was anyway.

Happy checking your tyre pressures at the filling station? Driving there means that although the garage’s gauge may be accurate, your tyres will be warm and give a falsely high reading. The tyres are likely to end up 12 to 15 per cent underinflated.

Racing car and aicraft tyres are filled with nitrogen rather than compressed air. Why? Because in flight, aircraft can encounter temperatures of minus 40 degress Centigrade and frozen moisture in the tyres can cause vibration and balance problems on landing. In a racing car, using nitrogen reduces the tyre pressure variations that can adversely affect lap times.

The lessened amounts of in-tyre moisture and the reduced pressure loss are not enough to make using nitrogen economically viable in road tyres.

The world’s largest tyre manufacturer by volume, with interests in Dunlop and many other regional and second line brands worldwide, is the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

The world’s most prolific tyre maker made 330 million tyres last year. This doesn’t really count as the tyres were for toys and models, also made by the Lego Group!

In the 1964 film ‘Goldfinger’, the scene where the tyre slicer comes out of the rear axle of James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 was faked. A mocked-up quarter of the car was filmed on a small set. The tyres (and sills) of ‘Tilly Masterson’s’ 1965 Ford Mustang convertible were shredded – but not by the DB5.

Green credentials: Interfloor recycles used car tyres to make Duralay Treadmore high quality crumb rubber underlay. Every 10 seconds one used car tyre is turned into carpet underlay That’s 60,000 tyres a week and approximately three million a year, which would otherwise go into unfriendly landfill.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Thursday 5 November 2009

State of Readiness: Are Winter Car Tyres Worth Having?

Great Britain has a temperate climate. That no one seems to have told the climate about this is by the by: the sort of conditions we experience every year are officially classified as being ‘temperate’. Yet facts are facts and like all of us, our car tyres have to cope with markedly different climatic conditions. In high summer, the mercury can hit the 30-degree mark, in midwinter, it can fall well below zero. Can a single set of tyres handle this? Let’s find out.

In winter, accidents increase by a less-than-modest 267 per cent. This begs the question of what is a winter tyre? More appropriately, what is it about winter tyres that make a difference? Car tyres conform to a given set of physical characteristics – they must, to be safe, legal and functional. However certain elements among these characteristics can be ‘tweaked’ and it is these differences that make a winter tyre.

The first tweak is to the tyre’s compound, the mix of rubber used in its construction. Water freezes when the ambient temperature is low. Car tyres don’t freeze but they harden, especially when the temperature falls to under seven degrees Centigrade. Winter tyres have a softer compound through containing more natural rubber than conventional tyres and this improves their grip in cold conditions. This specifically softer tread element gives a significant reduction in stopping distance. It also has a knock-on effect in performance terms. Because winter tyres offer superior grip, your car’s cornering, acceleration and braking benefit, as does your confidence.

The next point contains a paradox. After all, isn’t it true that car tyres with a softer compound will wear faster? In a word, no. In fact, conventional tyres have a particularly hard time in winter, pun intended. In practice, they wear out up to 20 per cent faster in cold conditions, so winter tyres can save you money. Some suggest that winter tyres’ enhanced grip means that your car’s engine has less work to do than with conventional tyres, so that fuel economy is also enhanced. This may be a moot point but a Finnish tyre maker says of its winter product, ‘Lower fuel consumption by lower rolling resistance, shorter braking distance on wet road, stronger aquaplaning protection and better snow grip are its benefits.’

The final point concerns noise. Winter tyres have a more open tread pattern, the better to clear away mud, snow and ice. This might suggest they give increased road noise when in use. However, most manufacturers claim that their winter tyres are as quiet and comfortable as normal tyres. This makes sense, as the tread compound is significantly softer.

So, are winter tyres a worthwhile investment? The above suggests that they are. Ideally, it would be best to have two sets of tyres, one set for summer use and one set for when the climate forgets to be ‘temperate’. The bottom line is still more telling. Given the use of grit and salt on the roads during a UK winter, it would make a lot of sense to acquire not only a set of winter tyres but also a set of ‘winter wheels’!

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Elements, My Dear Watson: How To Drive Safely Whatever The Weather

Here are a few sobering figures. When you’re driving, the grip of your car tyres ultimately determines how quickly it can stop. At 30mph, the tonne or more of moving metal you’re piloting is travelling at 45 feet per second; every second equals 2.8 car lengths. At 70mph, every second’s travel is 105 feet. In ideal conditions, a car travelling at 30 mph takes 75 feet to stop; at 70mph, it’s 105 feet. In wet conditions, the 30mph stopping distance jumps to 120 feet and at 70mph, it’s a whopping 560 feet – that’s 35 car lengths. The strategies for coping when driving in poor conditions aren’t all obvious but the need for them will become so. Read on and learn.

It’s clear that when driving in rain, we need to leave more stopping space, to give your car tyres room to work with their reduced grip. Reducing your speed is a good idea too.

Car tyres have more to deal with than just surface water. If it rains after a long dry spell, the road surfaces’ build up of dirt and diesel, plus water, makes for near skid-pan conditions. Moreover, it isn’t just car tyres that are affected by rain. It’s a fact that vision is compromised on many levels by rain. First, a rain-sodden windscreen isn’t the same as a dry one, regardless of how efficient windscreen wipers have become. Furthermore, any car has areas of unwiped glass. Second, clammier conditions lead to misting up. This can be cleared by demisters and heated windows, but this is rarely instant and it obviously affects vision. Third, heavy rain and the resultant spray compromises vision yet more. Fourth and last, pedestrians tend to shy away from the rain and are unlikely to keep as sharp a lookout as they might.

Apart from attending to the elements of speed, distance and grip, you need to take further care in wet weather. A flood, for example, can cause major problems. Drive into one too fast and your engine could inhale a measure of water. This could do anything from causing it to stop to doing irreparable damage. What’s more, even if you negotiate a flood successfully, you’ll have wet brakes. Apply your brakes lightly until you feel them start to work properly or they won’t be there when you need them. Also, remember that anti-lock brakes let you steer when skidding but won’t necessarily reduce stopping distance as much as you might think. In fact, a June 1999 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) study found that ABS increased stopping distances on loose gravel by an average of 22 percent.

What about the still worse conditions of ice and snow, and fog. The former requires gentle, intelligent control inputs - you’ll soon find out how gentle you must be. Fog driving is all about vision. Some clearly feel they have magic tyres but the bottom line is if you can’t see or are following too close, you can’t stop in time, period. Remember to use your wipers when the fog droplets build up on your windscreen.

Lastly, it may seem odd to include ideal conditions, i.e. sunny, dry and bright, under defensive driving. If it does, try this. Picture yourself driving west, late in the day. The level sun is in your eyes, your windscreen’s grimy and your view of the road isn’t at all clear. This would be a good time to stop and clean your screen.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Monday 2 November 2009

Just The Ticket: How To Make Sure Your Car Will Pass The MOT Test

In the colourful parlance of the motor trade, an MOT test certificate is called a ‘ticket’. A tax disc is referred to as ‘money on the glass’ and since you can’t buy the latter without owning the former, making sure your car passes its MOT test is essential to keeping it – and you – on the road. Car tyres, unsurprisingly, are candidates for inspection.

Once your car’s passed its third birthday, an MOT test becomes a yearly occurrence. What is the test for? Easy: it is to ensure that your car meets road safety and environmental standards. Should it not meet them, it’ll fail the test, which can be an expensive shortcoming. However, knowing what is tested helps in making sure a pass is within reach.

Let’s begin with the obvious, the car’s wheels and tyres. The tyres must be the right kind, have no excessive wear or damage and have a minimum of 1.6mm of tread. All the wheel nuts must be present and correctly tightened. Oddly, the spare tyre isn’t subject to inspection.

The car’s wheels and tyres naturally can’t do their job unless the mechanisms that secure and control them are sound. So, the fitness of the suspension and steering components is checked, as are the brakes. For these, testing on rollers is de rigeur. The brakes – handbrake included – must perform efficiently and evenly, within set parameters. The state of the hydraulic components is also tested, so ragged brake hoses and leaking fluid mean a fail.

Dependent on the car’s age and the type of fuel it uses, the car must meet precise emission requirements, and so computerised exhaust sniffing is carried out. Moreover, the exhaust system should be without leaks or holes caused by rust or damage.

While looking at the metalwork, the MOT tester will check the car’s structure. Excessive corrosion, damage or sharp edges are fail points. It’s important that all the strong points in the body, those holding the hardware, must be free of rust and damage.

While considering structural elements, the tester must make sure that the car’s seats are secure in their upright position. Seatbelts must be present and correct in the front and rear, as well as working and in good condition. Next out, as it were, the doors must work properly, and have functional locks. The mirrors must also be present and fully usable – a cracked glass may cause a fail.

The matter of visibility comes next. The car’s windscreen must be free of all but the smallest amount of damage, the windscreen wiper blades must be in good order and the screen washer must work and have an adequate supply of fluid.

Now for the lights. All the lights – indicators and hazard lights included – must be secure, properly aimed and working. This just leaves two legalities, the number plates and the Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN. The ‘plates must be in good shape, legible and have the correct format and, so fancy typefaces and ‘plates modified to read in special way can earn you a fail. The VIN, which you’ll find on any car registered after the 1st August 1980, must be present and readable.

In practice, the four most common MOT failure points are suspension, brakes, lights and, of course, tyres. The checklist above will guide you towards winning an MOT pass, which will save you both hassle and money. However, if in any doubt about any aspect of your upcoming MOT test, it’s advisable to call in the experts. Consult a garage or tyre bay as necessary.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Car Tyre Technical Questions and Answers

The world of car tyres is awash with technical terms. You don’t need to know them but they sometimes come in useful. So try answering the following questions, each of which has only one correct answer. The answers are at the foot of the list and for those planning to scroll down and cheat - we’ll know what you did!

1: What is BS AU159f?

A: The British Standard for puncture repairs to car tyres.
B: The British Standard for puncture repairs to Australian car tyres.
C: A code to access holiday discount vouchers on the Internet.

2: What do the initials RWL stand for?

A: Reprogrammable Warning Lights.
B: Right Wheel Latitude.
C: Raised White Letters

3: What is an aspect ratio?

A: The number of attacks per bird experienced if you bend over in a chicken run.
B: The ratio of a car tyre’s height to its width expressed as a percentage.
C: The ratio of tyre pressure (in lbs per sq. in.) to tyre life (in miles).

4: What is a car tyre’s bead for?

A: Holding it on the wheel rim.
B: Keeping it in balance.
C: Threading on a string.

5: What is a butyl liner?

A: A rubber cruise ship.
B: A fine layer in a tyre that prevents sudden deflation if a puncture occurs.
C: A fine layer in a tyre that makes fitting it easier.

6: What is calendaring?

A: The method of assessing tyre wear per month.
B: Adding markings that denote when a tyre was made.
C: Part of the tyre-making process.

7: What is carbon black?

A: The measurable polluting content of a carbon footprint.
B: The marks left on a snooker table by the last ball to be potted.
C: A filler material used to make grey rubber into black tyres.

8: What is de-vulcanisation?
A: A process of mechanical and chemical decomposition that affects tyres.
B: The post court-martial execution of the first officer of the Starship Enterprise.
C: The final process in tyre manufacture.

9: What is a contact patch?

A: A damp chamois leather pad used with the electric chair.
B: The area of a tyre’s tread in contact with the road at any given time.
C: A place where you go to meet with business associates.

10: What is deformation?

A: An offence you can be sued for?
B: The flexing of a tyre in response to the forces acting on it.
C: The distortion a tyre undergoes during fitment.

11: What is an E Marking?

A: A marking all post-June 1997 tyres carry to show they comply with European requirements.
B: A marking carried by all post-May 1986 tyres to show they may be sold in Yorkshire.
C: A marking all post-July 1990 tyres carry to show their sell-by date.

12: What is a sipe?

A: A medium sized, skulking wading bird with short legs, a long straight bill and poor spelling skills.
B: A tyre-fitter’s contraction of the words ‘stand pipe’.
C: A narrow slit between two blocks in a tyre’s tread, designed to dispel water and enhance grip.

Answers
1A
2C
3B
4A
5B
6C
7C
8A
9B
10B
11A
12C

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Monday 19 October 2009

The Specials: Tyres for Unique Tasks

All car tyres may seem to be the same but they aren’t. Road tyres have different characteristics designed to maximise their performance for specific types of use. However, these differences pale into insignificance when you consider the different tyres offered for competition use.

Take rally car tyres. These must cope with a huge array of surfaces in innumerable different climatic conditions. In addition, rally car tyres usually have to be road legal and must last longer than racing car tyres.

Examining two types of rally car tyre in more detail gives an idea of how the various factors in the tyres interact. Gravel tyres have to clear away the top coating of soft dirt or loose gravel, just as car tyres must clear away rainwater. To do this, they have big, chunky blocks that are made of relatively soft rubber. This lets the tread’s blocks grip while protecting the reinforcing plies that lie beneath them. The tyre tread and carcass’s being rigid enough to resist tearing while being sufficiently elastic to return to their initial shape guarantee toughness and a long life.

Snow/ice tyres can boast an effective grip-enhancing addition. Some can have up to 380 carbide-tipped studs in their tread. This is tough on the surface beneath the tyre but the surface can be tough on the studs themselves. At 75mph, each stud hits the snow or ice 17 times…per second! The impressive part – other than that (most of) the studs are still present when the car stops – is that the car is running on a total of about 50 studs at any one time. The total area the studs offer is about the size of a postage stamp.

In some instances, the tyres have no tread at all. Such tyres are called slicks and are used in drag racing. ‘Top Fuel’ dragsters are the fastest and can reach 330mph in less than 4.45 seconds – the time it takes them to cover the quarter mile. Accelerating faster than the space shuttle launch vehicle or a catapult-launched jet fighter requires as much grip as can be found.

It’s common for all kinds of dragsters to do something memorable. The driver places the car so its rear tyres are sitting in two puddles of water laid down near the start of the drag strip. The driver then applies power, spinning the rear wheels in the water. The immediate result is huge clouds of rubber smoke and steam around the tail end of a car that’s standing virtually still at practically full throttle. Yet this isn’t for show. After a ‘burn out’ like this, the tyres’ tread surfaces are extremely hot and sticky – and therefore grippy.

Often, drag racing car tyres look distinctly soft as the car approaches the start line. This is unsurprising, as the tyre pressure used is around the 12 to 15 psi mark. Why so soft? For two reasons. Soft tyres give better grip but they have another benefit. As the wheels rotate faster, the tyres enlarge. This is like putting bigger wheels on the same car; drivers get a higher top speed from the tyres’ radial expansion.

As you can see, even from just these two forms of motor sport, specialist car tyres are essential. They do what’s asked of them and in doing so, they increase the performance of the car involved in whatever sport is concerned. Think about this the next time you find yourself believing car tyres are all the same!

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Monday 21 September 2009

Tread Carefully - Your Car Tyres’ Grip Depends on their Treads

Here’s something about car tyres that’s both interesting and thought provoking. Take a look at the sole of your shoe. Why? Well, you may not know it like the back of your hand but here, you’re looking at your shoe’s sole for a reason. The area of the sole of your shoe is approximately the same as that of a car tyre’s contact patch, the amount of tread it has on the road at any one time. Multiply this area by four and it represents all that’s stopping your car, and anyone on board, from sliding off into the scenery when travelling.

Now, say your car weighs one tonne. The car tyres’ four contact patches therefore have to keep one tonne on the straight and narrow. Or do they? In fact, they must often cope with greater loads. When you drive round a corner, you feel centripetal force (not centrifugal force) pushing you towards the outside of the car. Your car tyres create this force and while it’s unlikely that your car can create a cornering force of 1g, it might well do so under very heavy braking. So, during accelerationg, cornering and braking, that four shoe soles’ area is coping with keeping you on the road, rain or shine, summer or winter.

The law says that the minimum depth of the tread on your car tyres must be 1.6 millimetres, across the central ¾ of the tread around the complete circumference of the tyre. If you haven’t this amount of tread on your tyres, you might get 3 penalty points on your driving licence and a £2,500 fine. This is per tyre, so multiply it by four for the worst-case scenario.

There is, however, an even worse case scenario that affect car tyres. RoSpa, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents carried out some tests. On a hot rolled asphalt surface, a car with barely legal tyres travelled 36.8 per cent further before stopping. On a smooth concrete surface, the same car went 44.6 per cent further. Unsurprisingly, RoSpa recommends tyres be changed when the tread depth falls to 3 millimetres.

There’s another risk that worn car tyres create in the rain. You may have winter tyres, summer tyres, asymmetric tyres or run flat tyres. All have treads and when the treads are badly worn, their contact patches lose their ability to quickly dispose of surface water. When a tyre aquaplanes, it’s riding on a thin film of rainwater it can’t get rid of. Then, you have no appreciable grip and therefore very little control. There’s a memorable black and white picture, taken when Dunlop Tyre’s technical team identified aquaplaning in 1962. In it, a Mark Two Jaguar is shown at speed on a wet test track. White segments painted on its tyres’ walls show that the front tyres aren’t rotating at all – scary. Car tyres may have improved since then but like its cause, aquaplaning remains.

So, running your car tyres down the hilt tread-wise may be economical but it could cost you far more than you thought possible. Happily, you can keep a check on your tyre treads’ health. All tyres have tread wear indicator bars moulded into the tread pattern. When – or preferably a little before – these are no longer lower than the tread surface, it’s new tyre time. You can also buy a tread depth gauge from most motor parts outlets. Failing all else, you can check the tread depth using an old 10 pence piece. The ring of dots around the rim indicates 1.6 millimetres when the edge of the coin is pushed into the remaining tread. However, Matthew Dent didn’t retain this element when designing the ‘Royal Shield’ coins introduced in summer 2008.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Thursday 17 September 2009

The Venerable Bead: How the Professionals Change Car Tyres

In the past, people used to change car tyres by hand. Some still might but this arduous procedure has been semi-automated for a long time. Here’s how professional tyre fitters change a car tyre, using a tyre machine.

As the tyre to be replaced will probably have been in service for a long time, it’ll be reluctant to part from its wheel. The beads, where they abut the wheel, will be firmly stuck and this is where the tyre machine’s first weapon comes into play. After unscrewing and removing the valve to let the air out of the tyre, the fitter will position the wheel in the jaws of the bead breaker. One press of a pedal and the bead is ‘broken’ – separated from its location.

Next, the fitter will lay the wheel flat on the tyre machine, clamping it into place. Since wheels – especially alloy ones – are both delicate and expensive, the equipment is designed to not touch the wheel rims directly. Having levered the upper bead upwards over the wheel rim, the fitter will engage the hooked head of the tyre machine under the bead. Another pedal press sets the machine rotating, to skin the tyre off the upper rim. Repeating this process for the lower bead separates the old tyre from the wheel.

A little preparation of the wheel comes next. The old valve body is sawn off inside the wheel and if necessary, the inner faces of the wheel rims are cleaned. The old wheel balancing weights are removed. Having pulled a new valve into place with a special tool, the fitter will coat the wheel rims and the new tyre’s beads with a special compound. This is a lubricant that eases the fitting process though sometimes, a material with sealing properties may be needed.

The penultimate stage of tyre fitting is essentially the reverse of the removal of the old tyre. The fitter uses the tyre machine to force the new tyre on to the wheel, bead by bead. Finally, a compressed air line is used to inflate the tyre, until its beads pop outwards to seal against the inner faces of the wheel rim. Throughout the process, the tyre fitter has done the controlling, while electricity and compressed air have done the heavy work.

This leaves just the wheel balancing. The fitter will have already positioned the tyre correctly in relation to the wheel, using a coloured dot marking on the tyre. However, balance weights are virtually always required and there’s a machine to help with this task. The tyre fitter will clamp the wheel onto the machine. When the guard is closed and the machine starts, it will take the wheel up to a fixed speed, usually about 200 revolutions per minute.

Using its onboard sensors and electronics, the balancing machine points out where the wheel weights should be fitted and how much they should weigh. Having fitted the weights – stick-on or clamp-on as appropriate – the fitter will run the machine once more, fine-tuning the balance with other weights if necessary.

As we can see, what used to be an hour or more’s hard work is done in minutes. What’s more, if you watch the proceedings from the waiting area, you’ll know exactly what’s happening in the tyre bay!

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Monday 14 September 2009

Tyre Approval: Which Type of Car Tyre is Right for Your Needs?

All car tyres are round, black things with sidewalls and treads, and they need to be inflated from time to time. So, they’re all the same, aren’t they? In fact they aren’t all the same and to say they are is just like saying all houses are the same.

This is about the difference between common aspects and specifics. True, every house has a roof, doors and windows but a two-up, two-down terraced property and a mansion, though they’re both houses, are clearly very different. The same goes for tyres, albeit less obviously. Here, we can consider five distinct types of tyre, and these will illustrate the differences.

Standard or all-season tyres are the most commonly fitted type of car tyre. As their name implies, they’re the jack-of-all-trades of the tyre world. They work well in both dry and wet conditions. They aren’t too noisy on most road surfaces and their fairly hard rubber compound gives them a long life. These factors represent compromises, of a kind that work for most requirements – and for most drivers.

Performance tyres, on the other hand, balance certain factors in order to enhance certain characteristics. Car tyres of this kind don’t last as long as standard tyres but their softer compound yields better grip. Similarly, performance tyres don’t appreciate colder conditions, which is why they’re often called ‘summer tyres’. They also don’t readily suffer significant wear. Performance cars – and demanding drivers – deserve performance tyres.

Winter tyres are car tyres for use when snow and ice are liable to be encountered. These tyres have a more marked tread pattern, which is great for giving the best grip and preventing snow and ice from packing in the treads’ grooves. They are also made using compounds that remain flexible even when thermometers are reading low. Some even have integral metal studs to maximise grip. The costs for these specific characteristics are twofold. First, winter tyres create a lot of noise, even on smooth roads. Second, in normal conditions, they wear very quickly and can damage the road surface. The kind of conditions where you’d need winter tyres are obvious, as is the fact that they can’t be used year-round.

All-terrain tyres are the top of the range tyres for unfriendly conditions. Their big, open, chunky treads can grip on loose surfaces such as gravel and sand. Knowing that such surfaces are liable to be in rough country, manufacturers make all terrain tyres with tougher, stiffer sidewalls so they’re less susceptible to damage from potholes and debris. These tyres are sturdy and generally long-lived, at the cost of a considerable noise level on smooth tarmac. There is a still more specialized tyre for adverse conditions. Mud tyres have an extremely large tread block pattern and are suitable for use only in muddy conditions.

Car tyres of this kind are often used on the kind of four-wheel drive vehicles that are actually taken on rough roads; this includes 4×4s that specifically go off-road regularly.

Finally, run-flat tyres are car tyres that are capable of still being used even though they’re no longer inflated because of a puncture. Now appearing on more and more modern cars, they allow you to retain control of the vehicle despite being at zero pressure. However, they can run flat only for a given distance and at reduced speed – your car’s handbook will have the necessary details.

Which type of car tyres you choose to buy is clearly a ‘horses for courses’ decision, largely depending on what you want from the tyres. However, should you be in any doubt, the staff at any good tyre bay will be happy to give you their professional opinion on what type will be best for you.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Friday 11 September 2009

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: How to Change a Wheel Safely

Car tyres can be punctured and go flat. When it’ll happen is unpredictable, although it’s never at a convenient time, but you can change a wheel quickly and safely. Details follow, assuming you have the necessary equipment; you may wish to acquire some of the items mentioned.

There is a cardinal rule about wheel changing – never attempt it on the hard shoulder of a motorway or busy road. If reasonably close to an exit or turnoff, you can ‘nurse’ your car to a safe spot but if you can’t, call your breakdown service. Trying to change a wheel inches from a busy traffic lane is far too dangerous to contemplate.

Your safe spot needs to have a firm, smooth surface. Park your car, turn on its hazard lights and set up your warning triangle. Then find the equipment you need. Your car will have a jack and wheel nut wrench in its toolkit and the spare wheel will be either in or under the car. The handbook will tell you where the spare lives and how to extract it. Before starting, have any passengers get out of the car and stand well away from the car and passing traffic.

And so to work. Ensure your car’s handbrake is firmly applied and that the car is in gear or, if automatic, is in ‘park’. Then, chock the wheel diagonally opposite to the one you must change. Now to position the jack. Place it exactly where the handbook says – nowhere else will do – and raise the car just enough to check the jack is firmly seated. Remove the wheel trim if one is fitted, cutting through any cable ties retaining it. Alternatively, if there are any, remove the wheel nuts’ caps.

Loosening the wheel fastenings can involve applying considerable force. Ensure the wrench engages completely before starting to turn each fastening – they’re usually loosened anticlockwise. The car’s weight stops the wheel turning and all you do now is slacken the nuts or bolts. Always apply force downwards. You may stand up and press on the wrench with your foot but support yourself against the car. If one fastening is an anti-theft locking nut/bolt; there’ll be a fitting you can use with the wheel wrench to loosen it.

Next, jack the car up until the wheel with the flat tyre is off the ground – and never place any part of you between any part of the car and the ground. Now, remove all but the topmost wheel nut/bolt. Then, you can support the wheel, remove the last nut or bolt and take the wheel off. Note that a wheel and tyre combination can be heavy so make sure you lift it with a straight back and a firm footing.

Now to fit the spare wheel. Lift it into place on the hub, align the nut/bolt holes and fit the topmost one. Turn it finger tight then replace the remaining fastenings, also finger tight. Lower the jack and remove it, then fully tighten the fastenings in a diagonal pattern. You can now put the equipment you’ve used – and the offending wheel and tyre – back where it belongs.

All finished now? Not quite. Nowadays, wheel fastenings must be torque tightened to a specific degree. You also need to check the pressure in the spare tyre, adjusting it if necessary; and of course, have the punctured tyre repaired or replaced. The first two tasks should be carried out as soon as possible, for safety’s sake.

Two further points remain. The first concerns making wheel changing as easy and safe as possible. Refinements exist and you may want to take advantage of them, buying a pair of heavy gloves and a reflective waistcoat, and acquiring anything else you might need. You may also want to practise a wheel change at home, when it’s warm and dry.

The second and final point concerns ‘space saver’ spare wheels. Your car may have one and restrictions of speed (usually 50mph) and distance apply to them. In some cars, after a space saver spare is fitted, some dashboard warning lights may illuminate. Some ABS, traction control and automatic gearbox sensors can be confused by the presence of a space saver spare. Once again, your car’s handbook will tell you about this.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Monday 7 September 2009

How Not To Wear Out Car Tyres

Knowing how to maximize the life of your car tyres isn’t only a simple way of saving money in the long run. Looking after your car tyres also keeps you safe and legal; being neither can be very costly in more than a financial sense.

Run the tyres at the right pressure

This is a good starting point. Too little pressure wears the edges of the tread prematurely, lets the tyres flex too much and can cause overheating. Too much pressure increases the wear on the centre of the tread. Remember that, comfort and safety aren’t the only issues – running tyres at the wrong pressure is illegal.

Make sure your wheels are properly aligned

Misaligned wheels are another sure-fire tyre killer. Misalignment can make your tyres wear unevenly, wear the inside or outside edges and cause problems with both braking and steering. Moreover, a significant amount of such wear means you’ll have to throw your tyres away far too soon.

Drive sympathetically

Your car may have traction control and ABS but you can still trash the tyres effectively despite them. How? By driving aggressively. Make sure you accelerate as gently as possible whenever you can and use the brakes carefully, not as though every stop is an emergency stop. Don’t forget that unnecessarily hard cornering shortens the life of your tyres. On a front wheel drive car, the front tyres wear more quickly because they have to transmit power to the road, and take steering and braking forces.

Drive slower

Consistently driving fast will wear out your car tyres sooner.

Choose the right tyres

You could get ‘long life’ tyres for your, which wear more slowly though they tend to be a little noisy. Tyres having a softer rubber compound will be nice and quiet and will wear more quickly. Always follow the tyre fitter’s recommendation of the best compromise for your needs.

Always keep your car under cover

All car tyres degrade over time. If you can keep your car in a garage, out of the sun, you can be sure your tyres will last longer. If you see a fine lattice of cracks has appeared in your tyres’ sidewalls after, say, five years, the tyres are unsafe and must be replaced.

Give your tyres a break

Remember that ‘traffic-calming’ measures shorten the life of your tyres but you can help your tyres out by driving intelligently. Always cross speed bumps slowly. Never straddle speed bumps. Instead, make sure that the only wheels on one side of your car pass over them. Keep an eye out for potholes, avoiding them where you can. When parking, make sure you never mount a kerb. Apart from making life easier for your tyres (and your wheels), these actions will prevent your wheels being knocked out of alignment, leading to wear – and possibly worse.

Using these proven top tips means your car tyres will last longer. This means you’ll save money by not having to replace your tyres before their useful life ends.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Monday 24 August 2009

Trivia about Car Tyres - Fun Facts on Wheels

Car tyres might seem to be pretty mundane things but a little research reveals some fascinating facts and figures about them…

The first inflatable tyre was made of leather

In 1887 John Boyd Dunlop developed the first practical pneumatic tyres; not a car tyres but ones for use on his son’s bicycle. However, his December 1888 patent only lasted two yours – Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson had patented the idea in France 41 years earlier.

Dunlop Tyres is the sole supplier of tyres to British Touring Car Championship for 2003 to 2006 and the V8 Supercars Championship from 2002 onward. The company also supplies tyres to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters and the American Le Mans Series.

In 1910, the BF Goodrich Company was the first to extend the life of car tyres by adding carbon black to tyres’ rubber compound.

In 1946, Michelin introduced the first radial car tyre.

Car tyres leave their mark. In the US, nearly 50 million pounds of rubber is worn off tyres every week. That’s enough rubber to make 3.25 million new car tyres.

Americans throw away between 240 and 260 million worn car tyres every year. Car tyres make approximately half a million cubic yards of landfill every year in New York State alone.

Not car tyres but truck tyres this time – it takes half a barrel of crude oil to make just one.

In Australia in July 1964, Donald Campbell set a new land speed record and took the car tyre to a new level. His car, the Bluebird CN7, had tyres 8.2 inches (21cm) wide and 52 inches (1.32 metres) high. Each tyre weighed 50 lbs (23 kg) and was filled with nitrogen at a pressure of 100psi. The car reached 403.10 mph.

A top Formula One pit crew can change all four car tyres and refuel in just 3 seconds.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Thursday 20 August 2009

Tyre Hieroglyphics - What Car Tyres Sidewall Markings Mean

Have you ever noticed that tyres have moulded markings on their sidewalls? You’ll probably have spotted the maker’s name but does the rest mean anything to you? Can you tell what 205/70R14 88 T is all about? Perhaps not yet but understanding these codes could save your life. Why? If they show your tyres aren’t the right ones for your car you can arrange replacements.

We can start by breaking down the example above; the markings denote the tyre size, construction, and load and speed rating. How? Like this…

205 – This is the width of the tyre’s section in millimetres. The section 205 is a little over eight inches wide.

70 – This is the tyre’s aspect ratio, the sidewall’s height expressed as a percentage of its width. Here, the height is 70 per cent of the width. ‘Low profile’ tyres are fashionable so aspect ratio figures go as low as 30. Ultra-low tyres like this give tremendous grip but you pay for it, in a poorer ride quality and very little protection for your wheels against kerbs, potholes and speed bumps.

R – The next letter indicates the tyre’s construction. Here, R means radial.

14 – This next number is also simple. The figure 14 refers to the diameter of wheel the tyre will fit, in inches.

88 – Not so simple but extremely important. This tyre load index is a code for the maximum load capacity of the tyre when driven at its maximum rated speed. The figure 88 denotes a rating of 560 kilograms. Car tyres need to be correctly rated for load.

T - The last letter indicates the tyre’s speed rating. The letter T means the tyre can cope with extended use at a maximum speed of 118 miles per hour. The top speed rating is Z, which appear on tyres for cars capable of maintaining 149mph and above.

There are other tyre sidewall markings but most are for the attention of the tyre fitter. Markings show the tyre complies with EEC, ECE and US regulations. There might be an arrow symbol showing the tyres’ direction of rotation and there’ll be a ‘TWI’ mark indicating where the running surface’s tread wear indicator lies. There will also be a safety warning, perhaps the country of manufacture, whether the tyre is tubed or tubeless, and coloured markers showing the fitter where to fit the tyre in relation to the wheel’s valve.

All these are largely for the fitter’s information but there’s one marking you’re advised to note. The last four digits in the ‘DOT’ code reveal the tyres’ date of manufacture. Four-digit codes began after 2003 so if you see, for example, the code 3 0 0 8, the tyre was made in the 30^th week of 2008. You should never use tyres over 6 years old but a good tyre fitter won’t fit ‘new’ tyres that are beyond their sell-by date.

It’s true that checking your tyre markings could save your life, simply because underrated tyres could fail, especially under high speed/load conditions. The right tyres could save you something else –under-specified car tyres can invalidate your insurance.

For more advice about which car tyre is best for your car then ask our experts at Merityre.co.uk.

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Anatomy Class: what a car tyre's made of and how they’re produced

Your car tyres are all that keep you on the road and in dealing with heat, cold, wet and dry conditions and various surfaces, they have a hard life. Knowing what tyres are made of and how they’re built will help you understand how they cope.

Car tyres are built round an inner liner of halobutyl rubber sheet with additives that help keep air inside the tyre. The next part out is the body ply, which consists of three layers, one of rubber, one of reinforcing fabric and a second layer of rubber. Rayon, nylon, polyester or Kevlar have replaced cotton as the reinforcing fabric and it is the tyre’s one or two body plies that give it structural strength while making it flexible.

Externally, the car tyre’s sidewalls make it resistant to abrasion and chemical attack. Sidewall material includes antioxidants and antiozonants to help maintain strength and flexibility. This goes on in and behind the sidewalls on which you can see the tyre maker’s name and the various code digits that the confirm tyre’s size and rating.

The tyre beads lie at the edges of the sidewalls. They are bands of high tensile steel wire, coated with an alloy of copper or brass to prevent corrosion. The beads, inside their rubber casings, are strong points in tyres. They are what holds it firmly to the wheel and help seal in the air. The apex is the section that joins the bead and sidewall. Triangular in section, it is the cushion between the two.

Now for the belt package, the part that lies beneath the tread. This consists of a two rubber layers sandwiching a layer of steel cords. Here’s where ‘radial’ tyres gets their name; the cords run radially in the package. This steelwork gives the tyre the strength to resist dents from road impacts.

Like the sidewalls, the tread is a visible part of a car tyre. The tread compound is as important as the tread pattern. Tyres made of hard compounds wear well, while softer ones grip the road better. ‘Compromise’ is the watchword.

How are car tyres built? This process starts by wrapping the inner liner, body plies, sidewalls and beads around a special drum. The belt package and tread are then added. During this process, the components are ‘spliced’ together, before the ‘green’ (uncured) tyre is blown up and shaped. These tasks are generally automated.

Now comes the curing process. Though spliced, the various parts of the tyre have yet to be bonded together. This involves applying heat in a mould, to speed the chemical reactions between the different materials. During this stage, a rubber bladder, the equivalent of an inner tube, is used to force the tyre into the mould. Unlike an inner tube, the bladder is filled with steam, hot water or an inert gas. Tyre curing is done at very high pressure – about 350 psi – and at around 350 degrees farenheit. A passenger car tyre can be cured in around 15 minutes. Finally, the tyre is run on a mock road surface, to test for imbalance and local inflexibility. All tyres are visually inspected, some are even X-rayed.

So as this shows, there is more to a car tyre than meets the eye. It’s no wonder car tyres are tough enough for the tough job they have.

Merityre are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Why not visit their website at www.merityre.co.uk and see where you can buy your next set of tyres.

Monday 10 August 2009

For the Sake of Your Car Tyres: Wheel Alignment

Most garages selling car tyres offer a wheel alignment service but not all customers know what this is or what it’s for when they come to buy new tyres. As its name suggests, wheel alignment is to ensure that your car’s wheels are parallel to each other and perpendicular to the ground. Aren’t the wheels like this anyway? They should be but wear and tear, especially that aggravated by speed bumps, can put the wheels out of alignment, as can damage caused by touching a kerb or hitting carriageway debris. Misalignment can cause a braking car to pull to one side or the other, give inaccurate steering and drastically shorten tyre life.

What is involved?

There are usually three factors to be checked and if necessary, adjusted.

The first test is to ensure the wheels are vertical as viewed from the front of the car – this is checking the camber angle.

The second check is slightly more complicated. A car’s front wheels are turned from side to side when you steer. Imagine looking at a front wheel from the side of the car. If you had X-ray vision, you’d see that the steering pivot isn’t vertical but leans back at the top, towards the rear of the car. This is the castor angle, which, if out of adjustment, can cause all manner of strange steering behaviour when you drive.

The third and last check is the tracking. Again looking from the front, the car tyres are usually ‘cross-eyed’, they ‘toe-in’. This is so slight you can’t see it but the setting is important. The tyres are generally set to toe-in so that the when the car is driven, the forces acting on the front wheels and suspension make the front wheels run parallel to one another. If the tyres ‘toe-out’ (think Marty Feldman) through misalignment, or toe-in too much, steering accuracy will suffer and tyre wear will increase. On many cars it’s also possible for the rear wheels to be misaligned.

Should car tyres be worn through misalignment and/or have worn or damaged steering or suspension parts, or even the wrong tyre pressures, correct alignment could be difficult or impossible. The technician will ensure you know about what, if anything, needs adjusting, repairing or replacing.

Man at Work

Wheel alignment used to be achieved with mirrors, weights and string. But such paraphernalia is old hat now; technicians usually use computerised, laser-equipped measuring installations. With these, they can measure and adjust wheel alignment quickly and extremely accurately. So while you enjoy a refreshing cup of tea or visit the shops, your car’s wheels will be aligned with precision, which will extend the life of your car tyres.

What is involved?

How can you keep them this way? Simple – all that’s needed is a little care when you drive. Avoid any debris on the road and watch out for potholes. Take your time over speed pads and straddling speed bumps damages tyres and suspension; drive so that only the wheels on one side of the car go over the bump. Most importantly, when manoeuvring, do not hit kerbs.

Why not drop in to Merityre and get your tyres checked?

Friday 20 March 2009

Useful 10 Point MOT Checklist

A useful 10 point checklist to ensure your car passes its MOT first time:

1. Brakes

The car’s brakes are tested on a ‘roller brake tester’ to assess their condition, performance and efficiency. Brakes that ‘lock up’ when applied will fail. Other areas to watch out for are loose brake pedals and signs of leaking brake fluid.

2. Doors and Mirrors

Ensure the doors open and close correctly, from the inside and the outside of the vehicle. Car locks need to work adequately. Wing and rear view mirrors must be present and in good condition. A cracked wing mirror will result in a fail.

3. Exhaust System and Emissions

The car will need to pass specific exhaust emission requirements, depending on its age and fuel type. The exhaust system must not have holes or leaks, often caused by rust.

4. Car Bodywork

Excessive rust corrosion, damage or sharp edges on the car’s bodywork will result in a fail.

5. Wheels and Car Tyres

The tread depth on a car tyre must be a minimum of 1.6mm. The car tyre needs to be the correct type for the vehicle and have no signs of excessive wear or damage. It is recommended to consult a car tyres specialist to check this. Ensure all the wheel nuts are present as any missing will result in a fail. Spare tyres are not tested.

6. Windscreen, Wipers and Washer

The wiper blades need to be in good condition and the windscreen washer must contain fluid. The windscreen cannot have any large cracks and must have clear visibility.

7. Lights and Indicators

All lights and indicators need to work correctly, including the hazard lights. Check that the headlamps dip to the correct angle and are not loose.

8. Seats and seatbelts

Ensure all seats are secure in the upright position. It is compulsory for seatbelts to be fitted in the front and back of a car. They must be the correct type and in good, working condition.

9. Steering, suspension and horn

All three need to be in good condition and work correctly. Make sure the horn is the right type for the vehicle. Ensure the wheels are correctly aligned and the car tyre pressures are correct, as these can affect the vehicle’s steering.

10. Registration Plate and Vehicle Identification Number

The registration plate needs to be in the correct format, legible and in good condition. Every car used after the 1st August 1980 must have its vehicle identification number clearly displayed.

At Merityre.co.uk we have a '10% OFF your next MOT' voucher that can be downloaded from our website.

Best Car Tyres

Popular motoring magazine Auto Express have published their top 16 car tyres.

After a series of simple assessments in the wet and the dry the car tyres that came out on top were:

1. Goodyear Hydragrip

2. Vredestein Sportrac3

3. Continental Contipremium- Contact 2

4. Michelin Primacy HP

5. Bridgestone Turanza ER300

6. Uniroyal Rainsport 1

7. Toyo Proxes T1R

8. Dunlop Fastresponse

9. BFGoodrich G-Force Profiler

10. Maxxis Victra MA-Z1

11. Kumho Ecsta Sport KU31

12. Fulda Carat Progresso

13. Matador Aquila Evo

14. Hankook Ventus Prime K105

15. Yokohama C.Drive

16. Pirelli P7

For more advice about which car tyre is best for you then ask our experts at Merityre.co.uk.

Basic Legal Requirements for Car Tyres

Check car tyres regularly for any signs of wear. This is important as they are the only point of contact between a car and the road. Any deterioration of the tread or damage to the sidewalls may be risking an accident.

The basic legal requirements for car tyres are:

a) Tread Depth must be a minimum of 1.6mm. This applies to the entire circumference of the tyre. A bald patch on a tyre, where the tread depth is below the minimum requirement, is against the law. Check a tyre after a skid or emergency braking as this is when bald patches can occur.

b) Tyres must be inflated to the correct pressure. Consult the vehicle manufacturer's handbook to find the recommended pressure. Not only is this a legal requirement, it improves the vehicle's handling and reduces fuel consumption.

c) All four car tyres must be compatible and in good condition. If a car tyre needs replacing it will need to be in the same condition as the others otherwise all four will need to be changed.

View are website at Merityre.co.uk for handy hints about car tyres.

7 Factors That Affect The Rate Of Car Tyre Wear

Factors that can affect the rate of car tyre wear include:

1. Make of Car Tyres

Every car tyre is designed differently to meet specific criteria. Long life tyres are made from a harder rubber compound. This can increase the noise when driving. A softer tyre compound will be quieter but will wear out faster. A car tyre specialist such as Merityre can offer advice on the different types of car tyre.

2. Position of Car Tyre

Front tyres wear out faster than back tyres, especially if the car is front wheel drive. The extra wear is caused by the movement through steering. On a four wheel drive vehicle the front car tyres should exceed 20,000 miles. This is half the expected life of the back tyres.

3. Weight of Vehicle

The heavier the vehicle the faster the car tyres wear.

4. Tyre Pressure

A car tyre that is inflated below its recommended pressure will wear faster because of its higher operating temperature and the extra flexing of the rubber. Over inflation can also increase wear due to the decreased size of the contact area between the tyre and the road.

5. Speed

Driving at high speeds increases the car tyre temperature and accelerates the wear.

6. Car Tyre Alignment

Incorrect alignment of car tyres causes uneven and increased wear.

7. Driving Style

Aggressive cornering, accelerating and braking excessively are all causes of car tyre wear.

One factor that is unavoidable is time. Tyres deteriorate naturally over time due to the effects of the weather. Car tyres on vehicles kept outside will degrade faster than those kept in a garage. Cracking due to sunlight exposure usually becomes evident on car tyres that are five years or older. When this happens, as with any signs of wear, replace the car tyre immediately.

Visit our Special Offers at Merityre.co.uk to see how much you can save off your next car tyres.

Ten Creative Ideas for Reusing Old Car Tyres at Home

There are ways we can reuse car tyres at home rather than sending them to specialist disposal companies. Here are 10 great ideas:

1. Raised Beds
Car tyres are ideal for creating a raised bed for planting flowers, herbs or vegetables. A single tyre works well for lettuce and herbs. Use two or three tyres to grow potatoes.

Paint the car tyre bright colours to create a wonderful display when planting flowers.

2. Resoling Shoes
Use the rubber from the car tyre to resole shoes. It is very hard wearing.

Alternatively add a piece of leather and create a pair of sandals or flip flops.

3. Car Tyre Swing
Most people have memories of playing on a tyre swing when they were young.

Just use some strong rope and securely attach the car tyre to a sturdy tree branch for hours of fun.

4. Boat Bumper
Boat owners can attach the car tyres to the boat's sides, to act as protective bumpers. Very useful when docking a boat.

5. Children's Playground
Rather than spending a fortune on equipment from a garden centre, use a little imagination, some old wooden planks and a few car tyres to create a great adventure playground for the children.

6. Forcing Rhubarb
Forcing Rhubarb (growing rhubarb in dark conditions) has been practised since the early 19th century. It produces vibrant pink rhubarb that is far more delicate in flavour than the usual variety.

Place two or three car tyres around the plant just before it starts emerging from the ground. Cover the tyres with a piece of wood to create a warm, dark environment. From December to the end of March you will be enjoying succulent and sweet early rhubarb.

7. Sand Pits
Large tractor tyres are perfect for making a sandpit for the children. Just buy the special sand from a garden centre and fill the tyre.

8. Mini Greenhouse
Cover the car tyre with a piece of clear polythene to create a mini greenhouse or propagator. The thick rubber wall of the tyre is excellent insulation for creating a warm environment to germinate seeds.

9. Table
Place a flat piece of wood on top of two or three tyres for an easy to assemble table, suitable for the indoors or outside. Paint the tyres for a better effect.

10. Composter or Wormery
Three or four tyres stacked together create a simple composter. The warm environment created by the car tyres will make short work of composting kitchen waste and grass clipping. Access the compost by removing one tyre at a time from the top.

Car tyres maybe essential when driving a vehicle but they are also extremely useful around the home and garden.

Merityre.co.uk are a leading UK independent supplier of car tyres. Visit their website for free vouchers, including 10% off your next MOT, free wheel alignment check and free locking wheel nuts.

Check Tyre Pressures to Save Fuel

Car tyres inflated to their correct tyre pressure can save the motorists up to 10% on their fuel bill. But a survey by TyreSafe reveals many are ignoring this advice.

The survey coincides with the start of Tyre Safety Month; a campaign to highlight the dangers of driving without the correct tyre pressures.

Maintaining the car manufacturer's recommended tyre pressure can:

1) Increase safety by improving the vehicle's braking, steering and accelerating performance.

2) Prolongs the life of car tyres.

3) Save money by reducing fuel consumption. Under inflated tyres have a larger contact patch with the road surface, which increases drag and causes the car engine to work harder.

4) Have a positive environmental impact by reducing the number of tyres that need to be disposed of and reduce harmful gas emissions from the car engine.

TyreSafe's advice is to check air pressures at least once a month and always before a long journey. Motorists should use the manufacturer's recommended tyre pressure. This can be found in the vehicle's handbook or on a plate inside the fuel filler flap.

While checking air pressure conduct a visual inspection of the car tyre to ensure it is in good condition. Look for cracks or unusual bulges. Stones lodged in the tyre tread should be removed. If in any doubt about the tyre's condition consult a specialist such as Merityre for a free car tyre check.

It's a legal requirement to maintain a tread depth of a minimum 1.6mm in a continuous band throughout the central three-quarters of the tread width and over the whole circumference of the tyre. Most tyres have a tread wear indicator. Look for a horizontal bar of rubber located between the tread patterns, at a depth of 2mm. When the height of the tread wears down to the height of this bar it is time to replace the car tyres.

Other tips suggested by TyreSafe include:

1) Check the pressures when the car tyres are cold.

2) Adjust the car tyres pressure when travelling with increased weight from passengers or a heavy load. Towing a trailer or caravan will also require the pressures to be increased. The vehicle's handbook will advise on the correct tyre pressure required.

3) Don't forget to check the pressure of the spare tyre.

4) Ensure the pressure gauge used is reliable and accurate.

5) Always replace the dirt free valve cap.

Rob Beddis, TyreSafe chairman, says; 'By taking just a few minutes every month to check the pressure of each tyre and adjust it to the recommended level, significant improvements to road safety will be made and motorists could also save money through reducing fuel consumption.'

For more information about the TyreSafe campaign visit their website at http://www.tyresafe.org/.

Five Facts About Car Tyres

There are several different types of car tyres, not just budget or expensive. The type of tyre you choose depends on factors such as the vehicle's make, the desired performance, how you drive your car and the driving conditions.

Five different tyre classifications are:

a) All Weather
b) Wet Weather
c) All Terrain
d) Mud
e) Performance

A wet weather tyre will handle the harsher conditions of winter better than a performance tyre, which is suited to summer driving.

The tyre types differ in the rubber compound used (soft or hard) and the tread patterns. These can affect driving in terms of grip, performance, tyre noise and wear. For instance All Terrain tyres have large tread block patterns that are very noisy on normal roads but have great grip when driving off road.

If in doubt about which type of car tyre is best for you then contact us at Merityre for advice.

2. Over 40 million car tyres are disposed of by tyre retailers, garages and vehicle dismantlers every year. Responsible companies pay for the tyres to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly fashion.

A 2006 EU directive banned the disposal of almost all tyres in landfill sites. Many are re-used after having new tread applied. Others are shredded and used in carpet underlay or for road re-surfacing. An emerging market is energy recovery. It is hoped that tyres could partially replace coal as a fuel source for many industries.

Car tyres can be re-used at home in the garden. Ideas include as a raised bed for planting flowers or herbs, a basic composter, as part of a children's playground or the old favourite- a car tyre swing.

3. Car tyres inflated to the vehicle manufacturer's recommended pressure can improve fuel economy by 10%.

Under inflated tyres increase the rolling resistance on the road and if one tyre is a different pressure to the others an imbalance is created. It makes the car engine work harder, using more fuel.

4. The legal minimum tread depth for a car tyre is 1.6mm. This applies to the entire circumference of the tyre. Most tyres have a tread wear indicator built into them. It is a horizontal bar of rubber located between the tread patterns, at a depth of 2mm. When the height of the tread wears down to the height of this bar it is time to consider replacing your car tyres.

5. New car tyres need running in. A new car tyre is formed in a mould which is lined with a non stick coating. The coating is needed to be able to remove the tyre from the mould. It creates a wonderful shiny appearance on a new tyre but also reduces grip. It can take up to 500 miles to scrub the coating from the tyre. During this time it is advised to take extra care when driving fast, on corners or bends and driving in the wet.

Visit our website at Merityre.co.uk for free vouchers, including 10% off your next MOT, free wheel alignment check and free locking wheel nuts.

Five Ways Your Driving Style Can Reduce Car Tyre Wear

It is not just fuel consumption that your driving style has an impact on. The rate of tyre wear can be directly linked to the way your car is driven.

Here are five ways your driving style and habits can reduce car tyre wear:

1. Careful cornering

Aggressive cornering will cause extra wear on your car tyres. If you corner harder one way than you do the other way, then expect to get uneven wear on your car tyres. It also puts unnecessary stress on key components of your car's steering and suspension mechanism, helping to wear them out faster too.

2. Gradual acceleration

Accelerating hard from a standing start will put extra wear on your car tyres, especially the front tyres, which wear out faster than the back ones in any case. It also puts strain on your car's drive shaft and gearbox, as well as several other components. All of these parts are expensive to replace.

3. Keep to the speed limits

Driving regularly at high speed will help to wear out your car tyres faster than if you travel at a more reasonable speed. At high speeds the temperature of tyres increases. This wears out car tyres faster.

4. Avoid hard braking

Braking hard places the entire load onto the front tyres, which helps to accelerate wear. It also wears out brake pads faster and puts all kinds of stresses on the whole car. Of course you will need to brake hard in an emergency; that's what the brakes are for, but remember to go easy when you don't have to.

5. Maintain recommended car tyre pressures

A car tyre that is inflated below its recommended pressure will wear faster because of its higher operating temperature and the extra flexing of the rubber. Over inflation can also increase wear due to the decreased size of the contact area between the tyre and the road.

Driving with unequal pressures in your car tyres will lead to increased wear. It can be potentially dangerous as the balance of the car is upset and cornering with unevenly pressurised tyres can lead to unpredictable results.

Visit us at Merityre. Our tyre specialists will be able to inspect your tyres to ensure their road worthiness and provide advice on how to adjust your driving style based on their wear.

Five Important Winter Car Care Checks

1) The condition of your car tyres is particularly important. They are the only contact that your car has with the road. Your car tyres will have to work extra hard when the road is wet or icy, to give maximum traction and control.

Car tyres should have a good tread and as little wear as possible. Think about changing to winter car tyres when conditions demand it.

The alignment of your wheels is another thing you should consider as part of your winter car care checks. Wheels that are out of alignment will create unnecessary wear on your car tyres, which will cause extra steering problems when driving on wet or icy roads.

2) You should regularly check the engine coolant level. Add the correct mixture of anti-freeze before you need it to protect your engine from possible frost damage. Add the proper proportions of anti-freeze to the windscreen washer as well. This allows you to wash your screen even when temperature falls below freezing.

Check the engine oil levels on a weekly basis using the dipstick. It is important to maintain the oil level between the minimum and maximum marks indicated. The best time to check the oil level is when the engine is cold.

3) The pressures of your car tyres are important. Maintaining the recommended pressure improves a car tyre's performance in difficult driving conditions.

Remember to check the spare tyre's pressure and tread depth. Make sure that it is a similar condition to the other tyres or is adequate to use for a short period of time, until the damaged tyre can be repaired or replaced.

4) Your car lights are important, especially in winter when there is reduced daylight and much of your driving will require the lights to be used. Check that all bulbs are working properly. It is best to carry spares, as well as the tools to replace them. Have the alignment of your lights checked at a garage to give yourself the maximum vision possible, and to prevent blinding other drivers.

5) Check the condition of your windscreen wipers. Make sure they clean the screen adequately to allow a clear view of the road. If in doubt then replace them; it is not expensive to do.

If you are not comfortable doing the checks yourself, a local car garage will be able help. They will inspect the car to make sure everything is in good working order, ready to endure the adverse weather condition and the darker nights that the winter season brings.

As an extra precaution there are some items that are useful to carry in your boot at all times. A reflective jacket, shovel, tow rope, jump leads, water and extra screen wash will help in most situations. And a warm coat, gloves, boots and some biscuits will certainly be appreciated if your car breaks down in an isolated location.

Call in to Merityre and we will check your car tyres for free.

Top 5 Classic James Bond Cars

The latest Bond car for the film "Quantum of Solace" is the Aston Martin DBS. Low-profile 20inch car tyres, smooth lines and curves, flared wheel arches and an overstated front grill; it is the epitomy of British cool with which to save the world.

The Aston Martin's 6.0-litre V12 engine has a distinctive throaty roar that is capable of 0-62mph in 4.3 seconds and has a top speed of 191mph.

This has to rate as one of Bond's best looking cars but to compare I have compiled a list of 5 other classic Bond cars:

1) Recently voted the most iconic car of all time, the Aston Martin DB5 appeared in 'Thunderball', 'Goldfinger' and more recently 'Casino Royal'.

It was originally introduced in 1963. Its film debut was in the 1964 Goldfinger, starring alongside Sean Connery. Its distinctive silver livery, streamlined bodywork and large front grill was new for its time.

However the aesthetically pleasing body hid a vast array of lethal surprises to confound even the most troublesome of Bond's enemies. You may remember a scene in Goldfinger where one rear brake light spurted oil onto the road. And the other released triple-spiked nails to burst the car tyres of the pursuing villains.

Other clever features devised by Q included a revolving licence plate, an exhaust that expelled smoke-screen canisters and wheel hubs that revealed knives to slash car tyres.

2) The white Lotus Elite used by Roger Moore in 1977 'The Spy Who Loved Me' surprised everyone with its ability to be driven underwater.

In an attempt to escape a pursuing helicopter the Lotus was driven off a pier into the sea. At the time you would have thought this was the end for the car. But with typical Bond creativity the car tyres retract and it was transformed into an operational submarine, complete with fins and a periscope. The persistent helicopter soon meets its demise with a missile fired from the car beneath the water.

3) The 1987 film 'The Living Daylights' saw a return to the Aston Martin. This Aston Martin V8 had a powerful engine to compliment its macho looks. It used a fuel injection system that replaced carburetion. Due to the compact nature of this new technology the car could be designed with a flat bonnet, unlike the curved bonnets of its predecessors.

As with any Bond car there were a number of clever additions including self retractable spikes in the car tyres for extra grip on icy surfaces, lasers behind the front hubcaps and missile launchers behind the headlights.

4) It was bold move not to use a British manufactured car in the 1999 'The World Is Not Enough' but BMW Z8 soon won over the Bond fan. Its retro styling and red leather interior was backed up by a 400-horsepower V8 engine that had a top speed of 158mph.

Hidden accessories included missile launchers in the side vents and a windscreen that displayed important data. The car could be operated remotely using the key chain.

5) The Aston Martin was back in the 2002 'Die Another Day' starring Pierce Brosnan. This time it was the V12 Vanquish, sometimes referred to as 'a DB9 on steroids'.

The classic styled V12 nearly met its match when confronted with the villain's Jaguar XKR. But the front mounted Gatling gun, rocket launchers in the doors and bombs in the boot soon put paid to that.

Two other clever features, which eventually won the battle for Bond, were the car's ability to become invisible and the spikes hidden in the car tyres. The latter helped the car drive up an ice wall to avoid the fast approaching enemy, causing the Jaguar to have a unceremonious demise at the bottom of a lake.

As wonderful as the Bond cars are, thankfully features like spikes in car tyres have not become common place on our modern vehicles. If they ever do be sure to consult a specialist before changing a punctured car tyre.

Visit our website at Merityre.co.uk to join our discount club and receive a fabulous 5% extra discount off future purchases from their massive range of top brand car tyres, alloy wheels, batteries and exhausts.

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