Tyre Law

Are you legal?

The law demands that car tyres have a tread depth of 1.6mm and motorbike/scooter tyres have 1mm in a continuous band around the centre three quarters of the tyre.

This represents the absolute minimum tread depth and tyres worn to this limit should be replaced immediately.

To help you judge how much tread you have on your tyres, manufacturers often mould tread wear indicators bars at roughly 1.6mm & 1mm. If you can see these bars your tyres are about to become illegal and unsafe.

Recent research conducted by the independent automotive research and testing centre, MIRA, has proved that there is a significant deterioration in wet braking distances when a tyre wears below 3mm.

If in doubt call in and let us check them for you, stay safe and avoid points on your licence.

What causes a tyre to wear prematurely?

Often tyres have to be replaced long before their full life run has been reached basically because of rapid or uneven tread wear.

Mainly due to poor tyre pressures.

The most common causes of avoidable tread wear are:

• Under Inflation, Causing rapid wear along the edges of the tread.
• Over Inflation, Causing rapid wear along the centre of the tread.
• Incorrect wheel balancing, Causing bald spots around the tread of the tyre.
• Incorrect wheel alignment or ‘tracking’, Causing rapid wear along the inside or outside edges of the front tyres.

Call in, we'll check your tyre pressures for you Free of Charge...