Tire Care

Importance of Routine Tire Care

At BMW of West Chester, we care about the safety of our customers, so we want to remind you of the importance of automobile tire care. Tire condition is a significant factor because it is the only part of your BMW in contact with the road. Routine tire care, such as tire pressure checks, alignment checks, tire rotations, and tire replacements are important. Well-kept tires ensure quality handling, traction, braking, and stability from your vehicle. Tire service is critical in making your BMW safe for you and your passengers. Along with safety concerns, receiving regular BMW tire service increases the tire life by decreasing wear. You also gain energy and fuel efficiency by having routine tire maintenance performed.

Tire Wear. Putting it simply, the condition of your tires will directly affect your safety when driving. This statement especially holds true on wet roads. According to ABC News, “the lower the tread depth, the more likely a car will hydroplane”. Industry guidelines initially suggested purchasing new tires when tread depth reached 2/32 inches. This guideline led to implementing the penny test to assist vehicle owners in estimating tire health. Recent AAA studies show a tire’s stopping effectiveness starts deteriorating at a tread depth of 4/32 inches. This updated information has caused the penny test to be updated to the quarter test when estimating tire health.

The quarter test is the same basic principle as the penny test. Insert the coin in-between the tire grooves upside down, so the top of Washington’s head is pointing towards the tread groove. As long as a part of Washington’s head is covered by tread, you have at least 4/32 inches of tread remaining.

As you can see on the accompanying graphic, wear on tires can add almost 100 feet to your BMWs stopping distance. Bald tires can dangerously inhibit your BMW’s stopping distance with almost 184 additional feet added as compared to new tires.

Tire Type. There are various seasonal tire types you can choose for equipping your BMW and offer benefits specific to the weather during that time of year. For instance, summer tires provide maximum traction for braking, accelerating, and cornering on either hot dry roads or wet roads. Unlike all-season tires, summer tires specialize in cruising either the exceedingly hot pavement or an immensely wet surface, which represent the extreme driving conditions of summer.

Since a seasonal tire is designed with advantages for driving in specific weather, we do not recommend driving a seasonal tire all year round. For example, a summer tire would not be effective during winter driving. There are all-season tires available for year-round driving, but these tires do not have some of the specific weather benefits that seasonal tires offer.

The graphic to the left shows the stopping distance of various tire types in different conditions. When running this test, Consumer Reports performed all stops designated from a speed of 62 miles per hour.

 

 

Tire Age. Tire manufacturer’s specify when their tires age out, which means the tires should be replaced, even if they are not worn out. In order to identify the age of your tire, refer to the DOT stamping on the tire’s sidewall. The end of that DOT stamping will include a 4-digit number, which represents the date code for when the tire was manufactured. The first two numbers represent the week and the last two numbers communicate the year. If your BMW’s tire has the code 1219, that code would communicate your BMW’s tire was manufactured the 12th week of 2019. Please keep in mind, a tire might age more rapidly in extreme warmth, when driven on at an improper inflation level, or if driven on at sustained high speeds.