When do tires have to be changed?
This guide should help you inspect your car, so that you can respond in good time...
When do I have to change my tyres?
The state of your tyres is of paramount significance when it comes to your safety and your driving comfort. Old or worn tyres have a higher braking distance and skid more quickly, making them dangerous. Therefore, it is important to monitor the state of your tyres and to change these in good time. Following are some explanations of how to know if you should change your tyres.
Examine Tyre Tread
You can examine the tread depth of your tyre by measuring it, or by checking the wear indicator (a small bar in the tread). The minimum legal tread depth is 1.6mm, which is achieved when the wear indicator is on the same level as the tread.
However, as the safety-relevant driving characteristics of a tyre are significantly deteriorated before this point, it is recommended that you change your tyres before they reach the minimum tread depth. Summer tyres should be replaced when the tread depth of the tyre has reached 3mm, and winter tyres as early as at a tread depth of 4mm.
Tyre Age
Age has a considerable influence on the safety-relevant driving characteristics of your car when it comes to worn or improperly stored tyres. Over the course of time, the rubber hardens and becomes brittle, which can lead to problems with grip and pressure. It is thus important to know how to determine the age of a tyre in order to change your tyres appropriately. To guarantee safety, old tyres (around 8 years old) should also be changed, even if their tread is still good.
Each tyre is labelled with a DOT code on the side, on the edge of the tyre. This four-figure number indicates the calendar week (the first two numbers) and the year (the last two numbers) in which the tyre was produced.
The tyre on the right, for example, was produced in the 6th calendar week of 2017.
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