Knowing the tread depth number left on your tire gives you a mental reminder of how quickly that replacement time is coming. Ask your automotive maintenance shop, when you trade out your tires for the season, to measure the tread depth and give you their calculation of the time left. Tire manufacturers and safety regulatory bodies say a tire must be replaced when the tread depth reaches 1.6mm or 2/32 of an inch.
Summer tires should be replaced at 3mm tread depth and winter tires should be replaced at 4mm tread depth.
We Canadians love to drive our cars. Canada is the second largest country after Russia, meaning we have lots and lots of kilometres of highways and roads.You can use the number of kms you drive per year to give you an idea of how long your tires will last based on your driving habits: Divide the number of kms you’ve driven by the number of years you have driven the vehicle. Look up the tire’s make and model to see how many years of service you can expect the tires to give.
Does a particular choice of tire increase its longevity? How long should your tires last? Some tires are built to reflect a warranty of approximately 100,000 km while entry-level tires have a warranty of approximately 60,000 km.Specialty tires are built for different driving conditions; high-performance tires are engineered to heat up quickly to grip the road making their life expectancy shorter.
All-terrain tires are made with rubber compounds designed to withstand off-road conditions which means they must be changed more often than regular tires.
How the tire is driven. Running the sidewalls of your tires against curbs and hitting potholes can reduce a tire’s overall life. Pushing the limits of your high-performance tires will lessen their time on the roads.
Tire rotations and alignment. Change a tire’s position on your vehicle every year to lengthen the life of your tires. Tire rotations are normally done when you switch the tires seasonally.
Underinflated tires. Did you know that driving underinflated tires leads to more sidewall flexing which causes them to run hot? It is especially important to have properly inflated tires if you are driving on highways a lot because they run even hotter at high speeds.
Underinflated tires driven at highway speeds, can lead to tread separation or even blowouts, and we don’t mean the hairdo kind.
Summer and winter tires. Do you divide your tire-usage time between summer and winter tires? That too, will extend the life of each kind of tire.
The age of the tire. Have you ever pulled an old rubber-jar-sealer out of a box after a few years? It has given up its ability to remain in its original form. It sticks to the jar and pulls apart. In some cases, depending on the rubber’s composition, as with vehicle tires, it turns brittle and hard over time as the components degrade.
Even if a vehicle has been sitting quietly waiting for you in someone’s dusty garage, the rubber breaks down, and the reinforcing cords lose their strength, increasing the tire’s risk of failure.
The question, "How long does a tire last?" tends to be followed by several others like, “What causes a tire to wear? When should tires be replaced? What can be done to make tires last longer?” Fortunately, we can help provide clarity around these questions.
There is no exact answer to how long a particular tire will last, but there are things a driver can do to get the most out of their tire investment and avoid driving on unsafe tires. On average, people drive between 12,000 to 15,000 miles a year, which means the average good quality all-season tire will last somewhere between three and five years, depending on maintenance, driving style and conditions, etc.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) states a driver is three times more likely to be involved in a crash caused by poor tire condition.
Safer is smarter when it comes to the health of tires, so if there is ever a question on tread wear or age, have the tires checked.
Multiple factors play a role in how long a tire may remain in service. Miles driven, road conditions, driving style, maintenance and age all affect how long a tire lasts.
Worn vs. Aged
Tires naturally wear the more they are driven and worn out tires provide reduced traction compared to those with adequate tread, especially in adverse weather conditions. Most drivers understand worn out tires (remaining tread depth at or below 2/32”) should be removed from service.
Many drivers are not aware that minimally used tires, like the ones on recreational vehicles, collectible cars, or even spare tires, tend to experience aging instead of wearing, due to a lack of driving. An aged tire has a substantial amount of tread; however, the structural integrity of the tire is weaker because the tire needs to be driven for the chemicals in the rubber to remain effective.
Curbs, Potholes, and Other Hazards
Hitting curbs or driving on roads in poor condition (potholes, broken pavement, poorly graded railroad crossings, unpaved roads, etc.) can cause misalignment, and suspension damage that affects tire wear. If your daily drive includes these challenges, be sure to schedule annual suspension, alignment and tire checks.
Weather Conditions
Driving in poor weather conditions like ice, snow, and rain can cause tires to wear quicker because they must work harder to maintain traction. Purchasing tires that are specially engineered to perform in specific weather conditions can provide drivers with an extra measure of traction and control (meaning greater safety) while delivering good treadwear.
Bridgestone offers different types of tires designed to keep you and your car safe during any weather or road condition. For example, Bridgestone's Blizzak tire series is built to perform in harsh winter weather conditions providing durable traction on snowy and icy roads, and the Dueler tire series is one of several that offer a secure grip on wet road conditions for areas that experience heavy rain.
Poor Driving Habits
Poor driving habits like hard cornering, quick acceleration, and sudden braking can increase the stress on tires tremendously, causing them to wear rapidly. Drivers can extend the life of their tires significantly by avoiding aggressive driving.
Neglected Maintenance
It is important to regularly have tires checked for damage, to maintain air pressure levels, and to keep tires aligned and rotated. Without proper maintenance, tire life can be reduced by as much as half - even more, in some cases.
If the below signs are evident with your tires, it may be time to have them replaced.
Low Tread Depth
Tread loss is a significant sign a tire needs to be replaced. Low tread is a sign driver can physically see happening on their tire. Depending on the part of the tire that is wearing, there may be other problems with the vehicle.
Pronounced inner or outer shoulder wear: tires are misaligned
Edge of the shoulder wear: tires are under-inflated, need to be rotated or both.
Center wear: tires may be overinflated or have been subjected to extremely hard acceleration.
Cupped wear: the vehicle is experiencing suspension problems
All tires have tread wear indicators built-in, but if the tread looks low take time to do the penny test on the tires.
Rough Drive
If you’re experiencing a vibration (particularly if it just started), or high (and increasing) levels of tire noise it may be a sign your tires are out of balance, not wearing properly or have a structural issue. In some cases, this may affect safety, so have your tires checked by a qualified professional asap.
DOT Number
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) number on the tire’s sidewall is another way to help keep track of when they need to be replaced. It’s easy to identify - look for the letters “DOT” followed by eleven or twelve letters and numbers. On tires made after the year 2000 the final four digits signify the week and year of manufacture.
So, a tire with “3618” would have been made in the 36th week or 2018. A tire that has a 3-digit week-and-year code means the tire was made before the year 2000 and should be replaced due to age.
Bridgestone recommends that its Bridgestone or Firestone brand tires be removed from service after ten years regardless of their remaining tread depth. They also recommend periodic inspections by a qualified technician for damage such as punctures, impact damage, signs of improper inflation or overloading, or other conditions resulting from the use or misuse of the tire.
Tires are both one of the largest maintenance expenses a vehicle owner is likely to face, and one of the most critical in terms of driving safety and performance. For both reasons it’s important to care for them properly. Bottom line: good maintenance and driving habits help keep drivers safe, and it saves them money by extending tire life.
Easy Does It
Tire life can be reduced by as much as half when they’re subjected to a lot of hard braking and aggressive acceleration from a standstill.
Avoiding tailgating to reduce the need for frequent hard braking will increase tire life. Easing into the throttle when pulling away from a stop reduces strain on the tires and improves wear. Slowing before sharp corners also reduces stress on tires, as does avoiding potholes and broken pavement when possible. If you’re interested in spending less on tires, following these steps can help.
Regular Maintenance
Another way to extend tire life is to keep up with the proper maintenance of a vehicle and its tires. A couple of things you can do yourself are to check the air pressure and tread depth. You should have a qualified technician periodically check their balance and alignment and be sure to have tires rotated at regular intervals. maintenance is essential for your tires to perform their best and last their longest.
According to manufacturers, car tires should last up to 10 years, but this is the maximum period.
The recommended service life of tires is no more than 5-6 years - in practice, after such a time, it is necessary to change the rubber, since it loses its consumer properties. This is very important, as is seasonal replacement, as worn tires greatly increase the risk of an accident, especially on wet or icy roads. Where you can confidently drive at a speed of 70–80 km/h on new tires, it is easy to lose control on worn tires already at 55–60 km/h. Therefore, every motorist needs to know about the service life of tires so that the operation of the car is not only comfortable, but also safe.
The specified service life of 5–6 years is rather arbitrary. More important is not the date of issue of rubber, but the degree of daily wear and mileage .
The main factor influencing tire life is the vehicle type , which determines its load capacity. We are talking about what the maximum load a car can carry and whether its tires can withstand, which can be understood by their load capacity index.
Overloading the machine by 20% shortens the service life by 30%, so the vehicle must not be allowed to carry loads that exceed its carrying capacity.
In addition to the type of car, the list of factors that affect the life of tires of any type includes:
It is necessary to control the optimal pressure in the tires of your car during all seasons.
It is important that the tires are correctly mounted on the rim and rotate in the exact direction indicated on their sidewall. Otherwise, the performance properties of tires will be significantly worse, regardless of the type of driving, and wear will occur faster. Regarding the correct rearrangement of tires, we prepared a separate and detailed material, which you can find at the link.
Based on the list of influencing factors, we can conclude that reduces the life of tires:
Critical tire wear can be determined by special indicators that are carried out during tire production. These are transverse protrusions (lintels), reaching a height of 1.
6 mm.
When the indicators become visible, the tire has begun to wear out.
The location of the indicators is indicated on the sidewall of the tire using the triangle symbols or the letters TWI meaning Tread Wear Indicator.
Critical tire wear is indicated by:
Summer and winter, passenger and truck tires have their own minimum residual tread depth, which is determined by wear indicators. You can measure this value with a special depth gauge: if it is below the set limit, then the rubber needs to be replaced.
Measuring is difficult due to uneven wear. In this case, it is necessary to determine the suitability of rubber in the area where wear is most pronounced .
When the tread edge wears out on one side, we can speak of a violation of the toe-in angle . In this case, you need to contact the service station.
Tires also have numbers that wear out as they wear, which also helps to determine its degree.
Learn more about the types of wear and what it can threaten in the article.
The average load capacity of passenger cars is 2 tons , and the tire mileage is about 45 thousand km. Depending on the driving style, the characteristics of the car itself and the season, you can drive on passenger tires from 40 to 70 thousand km .
Summer tires tend to last longer than winter tires because the operating conditions are less severe. All that summer tires can face on the road is high temperatures, hot or wet asphalt. The last to be determined is the safe value of the residual tread depth - for summer tires it is 1.
6 mm . With a shallower groove depth, water drainage becomes impossible. Although the behavior of the tire on the road becomes unsafe already at a tread depth of about 3 mm.
Summer tires are more rigid than soft and elastic winter tires. The peculiarity of the composition and less difficult operating conditions explain the longer service life: an average of 5-6 years with careful driving on a flat roadway.
Winter tires have much less time and almost always fail due to tread wear, because the tread of a new tire is 7-8 mm, and the working height remains only 3-4 mm.
In the case of studded tires, very few metal elements are retained with such wear, so it can no longer provide proper road safety.
Friction (not studded) tires with similar wear also lose most of their performance.
In reality, winter tires have an average mileage of not exceeding 30,000 km .
Some motorists decide to re-roll "bald" tires in the summer, but this is dangerous, because the grip on the heated road surface will be very low.
So, the service life of winter tires differs depending on their type:
You can find detailed recommendations on choosing winter tires for your car here.
Residual tread depth for winter passenger tires is 4 mm . The value was chosen taking into account the fact that to ensure safe driving on winter roads: snowy, icy, covered with wet snow. In the latter case, a phenomenon akin to aquaplaning occurs - slashplaning, i.
e. sliding on snow slush (slush), which occurs at speeds above 50 km / h. The wheels seem to "float" over the road at high speed.
The tread must have sufficient height to ensure that the slush is quickly removed from the contact area with the road. This is due to the fact that the thickness of the layer of wet snow can be several centimeters. Grooves that are too shallow just won't do the job.
It has also been proven that directional tread tires resist slashplaning better. The direction of rotation is usually indicated by an arrow and the word Rotation.
Light truck tires are designed for light trucks, pickups, buses and light commercial vehicles that have load capacity from 2 to 4 tons . The average mileage of the tires used on them is 60 thousand km . This is due to the fact that such tires belong to the category of commercial tires with a reinforced structure.
To prolong the life of your light truck tires, we recommend checking the pressure at least once a week, preferably every morning before driving.
Measurements must be made on cold tires , i.e. not less than 3 hours after the end of the trip.
The choice of the correct size of tires depending on the season also helps to increase the resource: appropriate wide models are more suitable for summer, and winter and narrower ones are better in winter.
Trucks have the largest load capacity - more than 4 tons . Accordingly, their rubber has the greatest resource, which is 65–70 thousand km . In this case, the residual tread depth is 1 mm .
Increased wear resistance is due to the fact that truck tires are primarily designed for intensive use, often daily throughout the year. The decisive role in the service life of such tires is played by:
Tires quickly deform, overheat, become covered with cracks, which in the end can even lead to a rupture.
The issue of service life for such tires is also important because it affects the cost per kilometer (CPC), which is important for evaluating the performance of rubber, optimizing fleet costs and determining the profitability of freight transportation. Recall that the indicator is calculated according to the following formula:
UPC = (Tire cost + Maintenance costs - Carcass price) ÷ Mileage (km).
From the formula it becomes clear: the greater the mileage of the tires, the lower the UPC, which means that the freight transportation is more profitable.
Therefore, companies conducting such activities seek to increase the resource of tires. This is possible by following the basic recommendations that are suitable for all tires:
When choosing truck tires, you need to take into account the operating conditions of the truck and the category of goods transported, depending on what they buy:
It also matters the type of axle where the tires will be installed: trailer tires cannot be placed on the steering axle due to the incorrect operation model and the load calculated by the manufacturer. These actions can not only significantly reduce the life of the tires, but also be dangerous for driving on the roads.
It is equally important to follow the recommendations for driving, in particular, do not drive at high speed with a heavily loaded car, move smoothly, do not accelerate too quickly.
Tire life is as important for agricultural machinery as for trucks.
The cost of operating rubber here reaches 20% of the total cost of per car. And during the service life of equipment , rubber has to be renewed 3-4 times .
Due to the operation in difficult field conditions, tires for agricultural and special equipment have an increased resource. High wear resistance is provided by a multi-layer construction (6–24 layers) of the sole and sidewalls, reinforced reinforcement, a special tread compound and stiffeners.
But even with a special design, tires for agricultural machinery usually last less than for passenger cars - sometimes is less than 5 seasons , which is explained by difficult operating conditions. To extend the service life, you must follow a number of rules:
The wetter the ground, the higher the lugs should be. To work on soil with a high level of adhesion, lugs are needed, located as far apart as possible. When driving, pay attention to whether the vehicle is pulling to one side. If this happens, then a swap is required.
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How do you know when tires are completely worn out and it's time to change them? Everything is simple. For summer tires, the limit is 1.6 mm of residual tread depth, and for winter (or all-season, used in winter) - 4 mm. Modern summer tires can cover from 40,000 to 70,000 km depending on driving style and vehicle characteristics. An average motorist rolls such a mileage on summer tires in 2-3 seasons.
Moreover, wear implies not only a decrease in tread depth. For millions of cycles of deformation, the strength of the carcass and its adhesion to the layers of the rubber compound are violated. In short, every 2-3 years you should buy a new set of tires.
In case of irreparable damage to one of the tires and a relatively high total mileage of the kit, it is also worth considering replacing it. Well, or about buying at least a pair of new tires, which, for any type of drive, should be installed on the front axle. We put two tires back - the most decent of the remaining ones.
Many motorists drive only a few thousand kilometers a year. This does not mean that the tires will serve you for several decades. According to Russian requirements (GOST 4754-97), the service life of passenger car tires is 5 years from the date of manufacture. And for example, Continental recommends that all car tires (including the spare tire) older than 10 years old should be replaced with new ones.
Therefore, with small runs, you can navigate for ten years. The date of manufacture of the tire is indicated on the sidewall. Usually it is an oval with four numbers. The first two are the ordinal number of the week in the year, the last two indicate the year.
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Tires should be rotated periodically in accordance with the vehicle manufacturer's recommendations - information on this can be found in the owner's manual.
We can advise you to carefully use the tires and, most importantly, to store them correctly in the off-season. First of all, during storage, it is important to exclude direct sunlight from hitting the tires, which greatly age the rubber. Tires without rims should be placed vertically, and stacked on rims.
And before installing tires on a car at the beginning of the season, evaluate their condition.
There should be no cracks in the tread and sidewalls. The tire should not be dry, it should remain rubbery and not look like baked plastic.
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Winter tires have a much shorter life span. They almost always fail due to the wear of the treadmill, because the tread of a new tire is 7–8 mm, and only 3–4 mm remain working height. If the tires are studded, then with such wear there are very few metal elements left, and the tire will not provide adequate safety when driving on a winter road. However, not only spikes, but also Velcro, with such a degree of wear, also lose most of their capabilities.
The real life of winter tires rarely exceeds 30,000 km. "Bald" winter tires without studs can be re-rolled in summer, but their grip on hot road surfaces will be very poor. This must be taken into account, especially when braking.
