Tire Maintenance

Rick Walker is our Keeler Mercedes-Benz Service Manager. He has been with Keeler Mercedes-Benz for over 20 years. Rick will be writing articles for our blog regarding service and maintenance of your vehicle. If you have anything you would like Rick to write about please comment below. We're very excited to present to you Rick's first article...Tire Maintenance

Safety and security, something that seems to be on everyone’s mind these days. When I speak to people about their vehicles they are always quick to point out their due diligent on maintenance for the safety, security, and longevity of their cars. We speak about proper oil changing, replacing brake pads and the occasional burnt out bulb.

I am always surprised at the lack of attention to the single most important component of your car directly involved with its safety and security, the tires! If all goes right the tires are your vehicle’s only contact with the world around it, they are responsible for accelerating, stopping, maneuvering, high speed stability, and any other movement your vehicle makes. Ironically your tires are wear items, they must wear to perform so why do we generally ignore our tires? It seems each new generation of vehicle becomes higher performance and more powerful and tire manufacturers attempt to keep up by developing tires that grip better. Tires for today’s modern high performance vehicles are “lower profile” or less side wall creating less “slip angle” or less flexibility in the tire, which gives us very responsive steering but also greatly increases the load directly on the tread itself. This coupled with softer compounds and less tread depth make it more important than ever to “maintain” our tires.

There is a lot more to tire maintenance than one might initially think. If your car has the same size tires all the way around, tire rotation approximately every 5000 miles is one of the most important maintenance items. Tire pressure is also very important. Tire pressure must be periodically adjusted because air molecules can actually penetrate the rubber and exit naturally over time. There can also be parasitic loss between the tire and rim bead seal as well as the seal around the tire valve. Temperature changes also effect tire pressure, 10 degrees of ambient air temperature is equal to approximately 1 pound of air pressure in your tires. So adjusting tire pressures with the change of seasons is very important. Tire manufacturers recommend checking tire pressures monthly. You should be aware of your tires each time you walk up to your car, you can get a nail at any time and if any of your tires appears to be low on air there is a strong possibility it is very low on air.

Tires are considered to be worn out when they reach the manufacturers built in” wear bars” molded in the tread which is approximately 2/32in. or 2-3 mm of tread depth. And remember... as the tire wears down and the tire becomes thinner tire punctures become much more likely.
All new vehicles as of 2008 must have a tire pressure monitoring system. This is a very useful system that can save you from having a road side break down. It can save a repairable tire before it becomes unrepairable and it could even save your life! Unfortunately the system cannot work unless proper tire maintenance is carried out and the tire pressure monitor system is properly reset each time the tire pressure is reset. If this is not done then the system becomes an annoyance because the warning light is on more than it is off and people begin to ignore the warning. This can be a fatal mistake. A little time spent learning the very simple tire pressure monitor system and basic tire maintenance is a very smart investment.

by Rick Walker, Keeler Motor Car Company