How Do I Know If the Tires are Bad on a Used Car?

A lot of people who are new to buying used cars often take the car's tires for granted

. They usually think that the tires need less attention since they are replaceable anyway. However, checking the tires can just be as important as checking everything else.

A single high quality tire costs a lot, with the price ranging from $80to more than $200 per tire depending on a particular car's usage requirements. To make matters worse, should a tire replacement be needed, automotive experts often recommend changing tires ALL AT ONCE. This is due to the fact that older tires may have undergone much tread wear, thus making wheel balancing very difficult if the tires are not the same age and wear.

The bottom line: for prospective buyers, bad tires can cause considerable financial headaches in the future, often in the tune of several thousand dollars four tires plus professional installation fees. Thus, making sure that a used car's tires are in good condition is essential so that you will not have to shoulder the costs yourself. But how do we do that? I will identify the most common signs of bad tires and discuss each of them in detail.

Note: Our best friend throughout this article is a tread depth gauge, a simple tool that can be bought at any hardware store for less than $5.

Excessive or uneven tread wear.

This one is quite simple, actually. The tire is so old that its treads are already so worn out.

While a car can still run on old, worn out tires, safety issues still arise. A tire whose treads are excessively worn does not provide sufficient traction should the need arise like driving on slippery surfaces when it is raining or snowing. Furthermore, worn tires increase the minimum distance it takes for the car to stop fully after hitting the brakes something that is indispensable for every car owner who doesn't want to run over anyone.

Another issue with tires on used cars is uneven wear and tear. This happens due to various reasons like over-inflation, under-inflation, and poor wheel balancing. Tires must be evenly worn so that they can provide the maximum grip possible. While it is true that unevenly worn tires can be fixed by proper inflation and wheel balancing, the damage has already been done.

How to inspect

Using the tread depth gauge, check if the tires still have sufficient tread depth. The higher the number is, the better . Ideally, tread depth should be at least a third of an inch. Furthermore, compare the tread depth on each tire and see if they're almost equal. This ensures that all tires are evenly worn.

Final notes

Do not forget to check the tires if they were recapped in the past that is, when a worn out tire was covered with another layer of new rubber to make the treads look new. This dangerous practice can increase the risk of accidents as the additional layer can fall off anytime. This can be detected by a slight indentation on the tire's side wall, an indentation that does not look like a regular feature in the original mold.

Helpful Tip:

Excessively worn out tires can give you a clue about the car's age and mileage. Use this "hidden" information to your advantage this can show you if the car seller is lying or not.

How Do I Know If the Tires are Bad on a Used Car?

By: Jim Baz

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