What should you check car tire?.
Besides proper tire inflating and tire wear in the previous section, the car owner should know what to do with tire check and maintenance. There are 3 different tires and wheel checking, which is very important for safe driving.
1. Tire rotation
2. Tire balancing
3. Wheel alignment
In this article, we will give more information about tire maintenance. The car owner would get benefits more than ever if you follow the instruction. You could do it by yourself or bring your car to a mechanic or tire service shop to check periodically.
tire rotation
Tires on the front and rear axle have a different function and load. The front tire always loads more weight than the rear because of engine weight. Tire wear on the front wheel is much more than the rear. Car and tire makers are always instructed to have tire rotation every 5,000 – 7,000 miles or 10,000 km. approximately.
There are two types of tire tread, non-directional or symmetrical and directional or asymmetrical tire. The non-directional tire has its tread design for a roll in both directions, forward and backward.
The directional tire has a more specific design for a good grip and sheds water. This tire can also roll both directions but it has a different mounting point, inside and outside. It must be installed correctly, inside must always be inward.
The car with a non-directional tire can rotate its tires directly from front to rear or rear to front and from left to right or right to left. It differs from the directional tire which rolls in one direction only. Therefore, you are needed to rotate the directional tire from front to rear and rear to front.
tire balancing
Tire balancing is different from wheel alignment. The tire unbalancing causes vibration or shake at high speed from wheels. If it is the front wheel, you can feel from the shaking steering wheel. It can happen in both front and rear, from a normal daily drive, tire repair or tire strongly hit something.
Tire maker may advise doing tire balance within 7,000 miles or 10,000 km.. but no need to pay more money if it is drive as normal.
The tire balance can do by the mechanic at the tire shop as it is needed tire balancer.
There are two types of balancer, dynamic balancing, and static balancing. Dynamic balancing machine will have weight sensors to check all three axis of tire then they will put weigh (a piece of lead) to the rim at the specific location till the tire balanced. Static balancing is more simple, the wheel will be set on a vertical stand and leave the wheel roll its heaviest side to the lowest position. The mechanic will then add weight to the opposite side of the wheel plane to make tire balances. The static uses with motorcycle tire more than cars.
Wheel alignment
Wheel alignment is a specific wheel measurement settings specified by a car maker. Its setting for example are toe in, toe out, caster and camber angle. We would not talk in depth about these technical terms in this section. Car owner should understand that whenever wheel alignment is out of spec, it causes of uneven tire tread. The tire with uneven tread or wear will affect to your driving like a pull to the side or drifting. Proper wheel alignment adjusted by the technician is essential for your car then.
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