Checking your car tyres correctly

Car tyres are an integral part of your vehicle, it is what keeps your car on the road, they ensure when you steer left your vehicle turns left and when you apply the brake pedal the tyres ensures that you slow down and stop.

Checking your car tyres regularly and correctly could save your life.

The best way to check your front tyres would be to turn your steering on full lock, so that you can see Checking the rear tyres are a little more difficult as you need to get down to the tyres level, you may want a mat or something to kneel down on.

Things to look out for,

• Any nails, glass large stones or cuts in the tread, having someone to drive the car backwards slowly so that you can see all around the tyre.

• Tread depths in 3 places, inside and outside edge and centre, all needs to be above 1.6mm

• The valve, to make sure it is not excessively deteriorated, twisted or damaged by the wheel trim,

• The tyres side walls, both inside and out.

The image below shows a car tyres side wall, both inside and out, the outside is fine, no perishing at all, but the inside is so badly perished and cracked all around the tyre that it failed the annually MOT test, for exposing the tyres cords, the crack was so deep that it showed the insides of the tyres structure.

INSIDE SIDEWALL

OUTSIDE SIDEWALL

 

 

 

 

The owner was oblivious to the fact that his car tyre was badly perished, as he had checked them that morning to ensure that they went through the MOT. He was correct, all the car tyre treads were in good condition, but he had not looked at the sidewalls, especially the insides.

This tyre could have ‘blown out’ causing the tyre to deflate rapidly and vehicle to swerve across the road.

Just having your tyres checked once a year, with the service and MOT is a long time for things to go wrong. Our tyre page has more details on what to check for.

Check your tyres weekly, if in doubt go to a garage and if there not safe replace them; replace them before it’s too late.

How to fit a car headlamp bulb.

 

Now is the time when we need the lights on our car or van to work the most.

With dark mornings, grey and miserable days and dark when we are leaving work to go home.

How often do we actually check that our car lights work, twice a year? Just before the MOT and when it gets serviced.

For some drivers I would say less than that. I am an MOT tester and on many occasions I fail a car within the first 5 minutes of testing a vehicle. No not because I am mean or because I make any extra money failing cars, it is because most vehicles have either a side light bulb out, a stop lamp bulb not working, an orange indicator bulb that has turned white or a headlamp aim that is either too high or low or is of an incorrect image.

I have seen many times when a car headlamp bulb has been fitted incorrectly, for example not fitting flush with the bulb holder making it shine at an angle, with the upper tag not being fitted vertically allowing it to sit correctly and upside down.

This will cause your headlamp to have a poor image reducing the distance of visibility for you. This will make it harder to see wildlife or pedestrians in the road.

 

Fitting a car headlamp bulb can be quite tricky, I know Halfords fit most lights for £5 or something, But if you did want to fit it yourself.

Here are a few pointers to help.

• Get a small torch so you can get into the back of the headlamp., a large 2 million candle power torch might be great for walking the dog but you will not be able to get close enough to see what you need to do.
• Get a small hand mirror, an old interior car mirror, a spare door mirror glass or a make up mirror, just something that you can get close enough to see the retaining clip on the back of the car headlamp.
• Before you carry out a bulb change pay particular attention to how the retaining clip holds the bulb in place, use your torch and mirror, also how the bulb is located. There are usually three different types of bulbs, two bulbs have three tags and the single tag points up, and the third choice has a straight edge on a circular bulb.
• Remove the bulb keeping it up the correct way to make it easier to go back in, check against the new bulb to be fitted, to ensure it is of the same type.
• Carefully hold the bulb by the electrical contacts, avoiding the glass itself. Then fit the headlamp bulb back into the hole the correct way up to ensure it fits flat against the holder.
• Put the retaining clip back in place to hold the bulb securely, the torch and mirror might come in handy again, connect the wires back on, put the bulb cover back on and test.

Now you can feel a little more at ease knowing that you can see and be seen.

 

 

Since October 2012 we have decided to donate to charity, a charity that we feel strongly about, and with your help we would like to keep on donating many pounds to the vunrable children who need it.

EVERY TYRE WE SELL WE WILL DONATE £1 TO NSPCC

Make a donation, make a difference
Every single day, thousands of children experience terrible abuse and
suffer in silence. But with your help, we can put a stop to this.

By making a donation today you can help us be there for more abused
children. It´s simple, just start by choosing how much you´d like to donate.

 

To find out how much we have donated so far check out this page.

About New Tyres Quick

Meet the face of New Tyres Quick and read our complete story.

I started in November 2010 and spent a reasonably large amount of money on learning how to own and run an online business, with rough sketches of a layout and ideas of how I wanted to portray my message to you. Then I alongside my wife came up with a catchy name and slogan. Clickety Click, New Tyres Quick.

New Mot Updates

If your vehicle was tested on or after 18th November 2012 your next Mot certificate will now show the vehicles recent mileage history, this has been introduced as part of a governement initiative to reduce vehicle crime. Where available, the mileage history will show the readings of the three most recent test passes, along with the dates of those readings.

If you find a mistake in the mileage reading recorded with the current test, the MOT garage that conducted the test will be able to rectify the error within SEVEN DAYS of the test and issue you with a replacement certificate.

Please note if there is a error in an earlier mileage recording then this CAN NOT be changed.


Also from the 18th November 2012 Classic and Historic vehicles, those manufactured before 1 January 1960 will be exempted from the MOT test. Classic and Historic vehicles are often very well maintained by their owners and have a much lower accident and MOT failure rate compared to newer vehicles. The current requirement for an MOT Test goes over and above the obligations set out in European legislation.

Owners of pre 1960 vehicles will still be able to take exempt vehicles for an MOT test on a voluantry basis and will be tested in accordance with the current test standards.

 

Check out our complete help at http://newtyresquick.com/what-is-an-mot.html

Does a Car Tyres Age Make a Difference

Tyre Age

 

Tyres are fantastically engineered products keeping your car on the road come rain or shine, however like everything else age can take its toll on tyres.

 

This image was taken August 2012 as you can see from the tyres DOT code, (Department of Transport) code to identify when a tyre has been made, it clearly states 0202. This tyre was made between the 8th and 15th of January 2002.

 



 

This tyre is still driving around on the rear of a 2002 Peugeot 206.  Which the driver was blissfully unaware, obviously the weekly tyre pressures and tyre checks were not taking place.

 

Were not saying that 10 year old tyres are unsafe to drive on but surely you would feel safer with out the large cracks running around the circumference of your tyre, but these cracks are between 2 - 3mm deep in places. 

 

 

Driving down the motorway at 70mph and the outer tyre tread starting to separate. Loosing control of your vehicle at high speeds and the vibration and noise would be horrendous. Applying your brakes and having one tyre not fully functional would cause an imbalance of your braking causing your vehicle to swerve across the road.

 

For the cost of 2 new car tyres, to replace them on the rear, surely this price is nothing compared to body repair works to your car, increased insurance premiums or even Funeral costs for your loved ones to deal with.

 

Check out the tyre prices at newtyresquick.com

Budget Car Tyres

The economic climate that we live in today makes us search for the best deals around, if it means saving a few extra pounds we will look for it.

Saving an extra £7 on eye brow treatments or finding a new local to save an extra 70p per pint or driving out of our way to save 3p a litre on fuel.

We at New Tyres Quick feel the same. That is why we start with a low priced tyre, offer savings when you buy 2 or 4 tyres, and have no hidden charges.

With many brand patterned tyres there maybe an option of different load or speed ratings. Correctly select your speed and load to see the fully inclusive price, tyre, vat, insurance and delivery.

For really low cost car tyres come to New Tyres Quick and we will impress you with our prices, our understanding of car tyres, van and 4x4 tyres are next to none, check out our About Tyres page.

Where can I buy good quality Budget tyres from is a question that we hear quite often, which is why we have set up a designated page to help you understand how and why we can supply you with car tyres at such a low price.

Cheap Car Tyres

Mot updates

The new MOT rules were due at the beginning of April 2012 but are still yet to be confirmed. Speaking to Colin at VOSA he says it is due any day now, but a date is still yet to be announced. Take advantage of the extra time given to you. Once the new items are classed as part of the test, your vehicle will need to conform to these new set of rules. The vehicle can be presented for an MOT test upto 30 days before the current one expires, check your current certificate for the exact date.

The MOT test is compulsory on any vehicle which reaches 3 years old or more, and then every year there after. This test is a routine which contains over 150 checks on your vehicle, cars, vans, and motorbikes are all tested.

The mot test is the minimum safety standard that your vehicle should be in, if your vehicle is serviced regularly and any problems resolved it should always pass the basic MOT test.


10) NEW
7) SERVICE
3) MOT
0) SCRAP

A new vehicle coming out of a show room will have a safety standard of 10, when your vehicle is serviced the safety standard of 7 will be achieved, when your vehicle is MOTed the minimum safety standard will be only 3 and when your vehicle becomes at the end of its life ready for scrap it will be zero, as you can see that the MOT is the basic minimum safety standard and should not be susbstituted for your regular servicing.

Your vehicle's pass certificate relates only to the condition of the components examined at the time of the test. Not the whole vehicle is tested and it does not guarantee the safety for the whole year.

It does not confirm the vehicle will remain roadworthy for the validity of the certificate.

Any advisory items that are brought to your attention should be resolve to keep the vehicle at the MOT standard and not falling below during the MOT certificate validity.

Checking your lights, wiper blades, tyres, tyre pressures and oil level weekly will help ensure that your vehicle will stay safe and legal.

With the new EU directive coming into play in April/May with a much stricter MOT process will this mean safer roads for Britian. For the complete list on what is new to the MOT check out what is an Mot page at newtyresquick.com.

Budget Tyres

Introducing a much larger selection of high quality budget car tyres, with a wide range of load and speed ratings available in most sizes.

Budget all season and winter tyres, not just for the winter. These cold weather tyres perform best with temperatures of 7 degrees Celsius because of their flexible structure, they manage to flex and grip to the contours of the road, unlike summer tyres.

We offer more that low cost tyres, we give you all the information needed to get the information needed to get them fitted at the lowest price, which ever is convenient for you.

New Tyres Quick is full of useful information and are available to contact for help and advice. Also check out what is an MOT page, for the new items that were introduced in January 2012 and new additions due in April for your car or van.

Happy New Year

We would like to wish all of our friends and customers from 2011 a Happy New Year. We look forward to taking care of you in 2012. For all you car and tyre care information and help, look no further than New Tyres Quick.

Contact me @: david-h@newtyresquick.com

Many thanks and we hope for your continued support.