Tyres

As part of your daily routine make a quick visual check of your tyres.

Watch the videos from Continental Tyres and read the text below before doing your daily checks project.

Walk around the car and look for any obvious tyre damage or pressure loss. If in doubt, check your tyres with a pressure gauge - despite popular opinion, you can't check tyre pressures by giving the tyres a good kick!

If you, or one of your future customers, runs hard through a pothole or bumps a kerb pull up at the first opportunity to double-check for tyre damage.

The small footprint of each tyre is all that is holding you on the road. Damaged or wrongly inflated tyres will simply let go in an emergency...

You should make a detailed inspection of your tyres once a week to make sure that you stay legal (fines of up to £2,500 per wheel), stay roadworthy and stay safe (a survey by a major tyre retailer showed that tyres are a major MOT fail item) .

For driving instructors tyres are not only essential for safety, but also for business - every year there are driving instructors who have driving tests refused because the examiner spots a problem with the tyres. This is an expensive error!

The cost to the conscientious instructor are:

• Test fee for the pupil's next test appointment

• At least two hours lesson time for the next test booking

• Two or three hours extra training as compensation and to maintain the pupil's driving standard until the next driving test appointment

All of this can add up to several hundred £££'s - the alternative for a less conscientious instructor is to loose a customer and risk any bad publicity if they take the story to the local press.

Incorrect tyre pressures are a major fuel waster!

Keeping your tyre pressures within the manufacturers recommended range will help save fuel, maximise braking efficiency and affect handling. Check tyres when they are cold.

Tyres must be the correct type for the vehicle (speed rating, etc.) and free from cuts and bulges.

The minimum tread depth for tyres is 1.6 millimetres across the central three-quarters of the tyre and around the whole circumference. your tyres have rectangular wear indicators within the tyre (running across the tread); when the indicators are level with the tread it's time to replace the tyre.

Front tyres will often wear quicker than rear tyres but tyres on the same axle should wear evenly; if opposite tyres wear unevenly, or a single tyre wears on one edge, you have problems...

If you are unsure about your tyres, consult a tyre specialist.

Next: Complete your Daily Checks Project using the workseet downloaded on the previous page.

After completing the checks move on to Step 5.