Is it possible that poor driving habits can kill your tyres? Or even cause them to wear out sooner than they realistically should? The very short answer is yes! Let’s have a look at the longer answer: what bad driving habits are and how they affect your tyre’s lifespan.
Bad Habit One: Speeding and Sudden Braking
While not the absolute worst thing for your tyres – see Bad Habit Four for that! – sudden increases and decreases in speed can play havoc with your tyres, wearing away the rubber and even causing chunks of it to crumble, as the forces caused by the change in velocity are absorbed almost entirely by the tyre. Drive at a safe and sensible speed and always try to allow for unexpected stops by maintaining a sensible distance between you and other road users. This will make your tyres last a long time, so you won’t need to replace them as quickly. Poor driving habits can significantly impact the health of your tyres, so it is very important to drive sensibly. However, if your tyre health has deteriorated; you should not take any road safety risk. There are many local garages in UK which offer tyre replacement and fittings. For example if you are in Buckinghamshire; then you can get car tyres near you from Broadway Autocentres – you can book online or call their experts.
Bad Habit Two: Rough Roads and Potholes
Some roads are bad and cannot be avoided. However, driving carefully on these surfaces, weaving around potholes, rather than simply bumping over (or through, in some deeper cases) them can all help to prevent damage to your tyres. Treating poor roads as an inconvenience to be ignored can really chew through your tyres, damaging the tyres’ structural integrity and starting problems which will rapidly worsen if not taken care of right away.
Bad Habit Three: Ignoring Your Tyres
Which leads us to point three: not taking care of your tyres. This can mean everything from not paying attention to your tyres at all to something as apparently mundane as leaving them caked in mud and debris (which, apart from being extra weight and not something the tyre is designed to carry, can also stop you spotting the early, subtle, signs of damage). Get into the habit of checking your tyres at least once a month (and preferably weekly if you drive a lot), seeing if the tyre looks to be in good shape (no cracks, no missing chunks, no dents or distortions in the sidewall, good amounts of tread and correct inflation levels). Knowing what your tyres look like when they are in perfect working order means that you will recognise the earliest and smallest changes as soon as they occur, so you have time to fix them promptly.
Bad Habit Four: Things You Really Shouldn’t Be Doing Anyway!
Stunt driving: donuts, handbrake turns and other risky manoeuvres are death to your tyres and they are extremely dangerous, both in their execution and in the aftermath, when an abused and weakened tyre could suddenly fail, causing an accident.
In summary, your tyres are just like anything else: treat them well and they will last a long time. Treat them badly and ‘kill’ them – and they just might return the favour.
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