How Often Should You Service Your Tires?
Your tires play a significant role in vehicle safety as the only part that touches the road. Your tires provide the necessary traction in good and bad conditions. Therefore, you need to rely on them to steer and stop you safely under various surface and weather conditions. In addition, you want them to be effective in typical and emergency-stopping situations. We use the following techniques to maintain tires:
Tire Inspections
We recommend you inspect your tires every week and suggest you do so when you stop to refuel. A quick walk around your car can reveal much. You want to look for signs of wear, low air pressure, and any damage. In many cases, you can’t tell if your tires have the right amount of air just by looking. Therefore, we recommend keeping a tire pressure gauge in your glove box. Gauges cost less than $10 and can quickly tell you if you need to add air.
In addition, we recommend you have a professional inspect your tires every oil change. This interval varies based on your make and model and can fall anywhere between 3,000 and 10,000 miles. Our certified technicians can inspect your tires while we drain your oil. In addition, we can fix or replace a tire if we find a problem. Our Tire Center carries an expansive inventory of tires that allows us to match your tire and install it immediately, often without adding time to your visit.
Rotating Tires
Your Toyota’s tires operate under different loads and conditions between the front and rear axles. For instance, tires on rear-wheel-drive vehicles provide traction for accelerating and braking, while the front tires must steer and brake. Conversely, on a front-wheel-drive car, the tires provide traction for accelerating, braking, and steering, and the rear tires are for control driving and braking.
As a result of the varying conditions, the tires wear at different rates between axles. Rotating your tires allows you to spread that uneven wear more uniformly over time. Thus, when you rotate your tires, you prolong their life and improve safe operations. We recommend you rotate your tires every other oil change.
Replacing Your Tires
Most tires last between 20,000 and 40,000 miles. The friction of the road wears away the rubber over time. How you drive can affect the pace of your tires’ wear. For example, if you love zipping in and out of corners at top speeds, you create more friction, and your tires wear faster. Other factors, such as extremely hot weather, can cause your tires to wear more quickly.
When you have to replace a tire, our Tire Center has an expansive inventory of tires to match your existing ones or find another type if you desire. For example, some drivers may want to put aggressive all-terrain tires on their Toyota Tundra or perhaps switch to snow tires in the wintry Cincinnati weather. If so, our tire technicians can find the perfect tire for your intended use.
Tire Installation
Once you decide to replace a tire, installing it takes three steps. First, the new tire is mounted on your wheel and inflated. Next, we balance it, an essential step in ensuring good performance and even wear. To balance a tire, we attach small weights to the rim. These weights help remove any wobble in your wheel as it spins, which causes premature and uneven wear. Finally, we perform an alignment, which places your wheels in the precise location within your steering system as Toyota specifies. Wheel alignments help improve steering and control and reduce the potential of uneven wear.
Technically, you don’t have to balance your tires or align the wheels. However, ignoring these steps almost certainly leads to premature and uneven wear and, ultimately, having to replace your tires much sooner.
Wheel Alignments
You might not need new tires, but you could need a wheel alignment. Sometimes, a jarring incident, such as hitting a curb or a minor accident, can cause your wheels to come out of alignment. Or maybe you travel over rough roads every day. Over time, the jostling of your commute can cause this condition too.
Your wheels may need an alignment if you experience a drift to one side while driving straight. Other symptoms include loose steering, unusual vibrations, or odd noises. If you experience any of these symptoms, we recommend bringing your Toyota into our service center and having one of our technicians diagnose the problem. You might need a wheel alignment or have a more severe problem with your steering, brakes, or suspension system.
Get Tire Service In Fairfield Today
We hope you rely on Performance Toyota when it comes time for tire service, whether a simple tire rotation or repair or even replacing all four tires. Our technicians have the expertise to handle all your tire needs. In addition, we’ve streamlined the service process with our online service scheduling tool. Book your appointment online for a time that fits your schedule, and count on us to get your tire service done right.