Millions of people drive their cars every day with no regard for their tires. Considering how important they are to your cars’ overall performance and safety, you would think that people would change (or at least check) their tires more often. If more people knew the differences a new set of tires could make to overall safety, perhaps there wouldn’t be so many tire-related road accidents.
The differences between new and old tires can be as impactful as night and day, and they include new tires having better traction, safety in terms of stopping and braking power, cornering better, overall comfort, gas mileage, and overall safety. Ways in which they do not differ include how much compound is in a tire and how much air pressure a tire requires.
This article will briefly cover tires and how important they are in relation to your car and its overall performance. Then it will take a look at how to check your tires to determine if you require a new set giving your seven methods to do so. Then we’ll take a look at all the differences and impact new tires can have on your car, its performance, and its safety, finally concluding with ways in which new tires and old tires aren’t that different so you know what to consider when you purchase a set.
Tires overview
When an average motorist considers various aspects of their car when asked about performance, safety, fuel economy, and more, many will advocate that the engine plays the most significant role. This may be correct to a degree; however, nobody ever thinks about the critical role tires play in a car. It is the only part of your car that touches the ground, after all, and because of that, they take a ton of abuse, which they need to be able to withstand.
Tires that are worn and damaged can compromise your car’s ability to withstand many factors on the road, with the very least being able to respond to your inputs. You may think that this is not such a big deal, but sluggish input equates to poor handling, steering, and braking. Getting yourself a new set of tires will not only compensate for these errors but many more as well (which we will discuss shortly).
Let’s consider before we get into the differences and advantages of new tires over old ones when you should actually be looking to replace your tires. This should be your forethought because you do not want to spend your cash on tires when you don’t need to, and you need to know when it is time to replace them.
When should I replace my tires with new tires?
Before we dive into the factors that determine when you should purchase a set of new tires, let’s consider the NHTSA’s general conditions. The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) recommends that, on average, tires should be replaced at least once every six years and when the tire tread depth measures below 2/32 of an inch. These are guidelines to keep safety measures standardized because some tire manufacturers claim that their tires can last up to 10 years (which is something to take note of).
7 ways to check your old tires need replacing
Check the age of your tires
Every tire has an expiration date that is imprinted on the sidewall of the tire. This is a 16-digit number, with the last four numbers representing the week and year they were made. You can recognize the start of the number because it will most likely start with DOT representing the United States Department of Transportation.
Always check this to make sure your tire’s lifespan has not been reached. As we said, the average life span of a tire and that regulated by the NHTSA is 6 years. After this amount of time, the tire’s rubber is more likely to degrade due to many factors, including environmental conditions and how hard the tires are driven.
Penny test your tires
The penny test is probably the easiest way to test your tire’s tread to see if it’s worn down. Here is a visual aid from Continental
that will help you see where the correct amount of tread is for a good amount of tread, worn tread, and tires that need to be replaced due to almost no tread.
However, all you need to do is grab a penny and put Abraham Lincoln’s heading facing the inner part of your tread, and if his head is visible, then it’s time to go out and get a new set of tires.
Check the tire tread indicators
Most tires that are manufactured typically come with a treadwear indicator that will be embedded in the rubber, possibly near the outside edge of the tire. What is pretty cool about these tread wear indicators is that when your tire gets worn down, these indicators will make a sound every time they hit the road, prompting you to take note that your tire is worn down.
Check your tires for uneven tread wear
Uneven tread wear is easily spotted, and you should constantly check your tires on a regular basis. You will notice uneven tread wear by the fact that some parts of your tire will be much more worn down than other sections.
This can also be noticed when your treadwear indicators start pushing through on specific sections of your tire, and overinflated tires typically cause uneven tread wear. Furthermore, uneven tread wear can be caused by your car’s alignment, suspension, and vibration.
Check your tires for visible damage
Checking for visible damage is a task that is easily managed. This means you should check for cracks, nails, punctures, and other forms of damage to your tires, including bubbles and warping. Some of these damages that your tire or tires have incurred may be repairable, but some may not.
Bubbles, cracks, and warped tires should always be replaced and are a severe safety hazard that could cause you to have an accident. This is because the tire’s structural integrity can be compromised and cause the tire to pop or even explode.
Check your tires when driving for vibration
One thing you should take note of is how your car feels when you drive. Take care to notice any forms of vibration or loss of control when driving. These signs could be a symptom of tire damage and then what you should do is check the above methods to see if your tires are damaged.
In other cases, the vibration could be due to a misaligned tire or due to your suspension, which will defineatly cause uneven tire wear and possibly damage them. These factors can create problems for your car all around and should be taken seriously. The consequences could result in a blowout and are not worth the risk.
Poor vehicle handling
What type of new tires should I get?
Without getting into too much detail, many people also don’t know that you can get various types of tires depending on the terrain and weather. You will need to purchase new tires according to these criteria; otherwise, you may be finding yourself purchasing another set of tires. So consider these options before you go spending your hard-earned money;
All-terrain tires
These types of tires are used primarily for four-wheel-drive vehicles. Though not explicitly suited for any one terrain, they offer a good compromise between off-road and on-road driving capability.
Winter tires
As you would have guessed, these tires are specifically designed for snow and are more effective than any other form of tire for these conditions.
Summer tires
These tires are designed to be warm weather tires and will not handle temperatures that drop below freezing and offer almost no traction in the snow or on ice.
All-season tires
All-season tires are typically the ones you will purchase from the store when your tires wear down unless you specifically ask for others. These tires are designed to have traction in most conditions, although the traction will not be as efficient as that specifcally made for snow, mud, racing, or other scenarios.
8 reasons new tires make a difference
New tires make a difference in traction (grip)
Tread life and the compound of a tire will significantly determine its performance on various road types as well as weather conditions. This means your tires’ performance in states like snow, mud, rain, dirt, cold, and heat. This is why you get various types of tires with differentiating tread patterns. Tires that are made specifically for snow and mud will be softer and have a “meatier” tread pattern, and on new tires, this tread will help significantly with traction.
Remember that when the tread of your tire wears away over a long period of time, the tread grooves will decrease and cause less displacement of dirt, snow, water, etc. This is because it is cheaper to create tracks that are shaped this way (decreasing in size). However, Michelin has done a ton of R&D (Research and Development) and have manufactured tires with grooves that expand when they get worn down. This means that overall traction remains steady when the tires get worn down.
This means that if you don’t specifically have tires that are manufacture with grooves that counteract getting worn down, you are much better off purchasing a new set of tires that will give you total control and traction.
Another factor to consider in purchasing new tires and why they make a difference is that when considering traction (grip), you may have to have different sets of tires for various situations. Suppose you live in a region with snow in winter and boiling summers or use your car on the track. In that case, traction is essential, and new tires, unless otherwise explicitly designed, will offer the most significant amount of traction.
New tires make a difference to the handling
By far, when a person considers a car to be safe and suitable to drive, more often than not, they refer to how it feels when they drive it and the responsiveness of the vehicle—this relates to the handling of a car, which is directly affected by the tires.
Again, we can relate this to traction; however, handling is separate because it is how the car responds to your input of the steering wheel and not the physical aspects of how it affects contact with the road or any form of debris on the surface of the road.
New tires have the maximum amount of tread available and therefore traction and thus more control of the surface area that is forcibly put onto the road. This means that handling will be precise and responsive to a much higher degree than that of worn tires
New tires make a difference in stopping power
Braking distance is interchangeable with stopping power, and this equates to how fast and far it takes for your car to stop dead in its tracks when you hit the brakes with all your force. Tires that have been worn down have less tread, and as we now know this from our previous heading, the tread grooves of a tire become thinner as the tread wears away over time. Less tread means less traction overall.
In order to stop quickly and completely, tires need to have traction, hence tread, and you only have that when your tires are not worn down. Sure, you do get traction no matter how much tread you have because the tires still effectively make contact with the road, but the amount of tread is directly proportional to the traction, and the more traction you have, the quicker and more suddenly you can stop.
You may argue that Formula 1 tires have no traction at all; however, you need to consider the speed and temperature of those tires when they are going around the track. Not to mention the braking force that is applied to the breaks.
New tires make a difference to Improved overall safety
Safety is undoubtedly the most important factor to consider with any car, and that goes for an average everyday driver who commutes to work and for racing drivers as well. Tires play a critical role in the overall safety of your car. As we discussed with stopping power, new tires will enable you to stop quicker and with less distance.
Another factor we covered is handling. Suppose you are able to respond in a split second for any reason on the road, and that responsiveness is able to be applied to the tires and thus the momentum and direction of the car; in that case, your chances of not getting into an accident are significantly increased.
New tires provide an array of factors that contribute towards overall safety when driving (we discussed two), which old tires just cannot give you. An additional factor is a traction in both wet and dry circumstances. Depending on what type of tire you have purchased for various conditions, you will have better traction for a multitude of scenarios. Worn-down tires are a safety hazard, and according to the NHTSA, approximately 11,000 (eleven thousand) tire-related accidents happen each year in the United States alone. The figure equates to 30 tire-related accidents a day and 1,2 every single hour of every single day.
New tires make a difference in comfort
For many people, comfort is a necessity when driving in a car, and many people consider this paramount. When you are driving around with worn tires, you are more likely to feel every aspect of the road, including bumps, divets, pebbles, and such. Not to mention that in conjunction with your shocks, a new set of tires will help alleviate the feeling of driving on a normal road in comparison to driving off-road.
New tires are designed not only to give you better traction, handling, cornering, and more but with the purpose of the road condition you are driving on, creating a smooth driving experience. Thus when a new tire is designed, all aspects of the road are taken into account.
Old tires can not only get worn down, but the rubber starts to stiffen and crack, making the tires hard, and as we said, this will play a role in you feeling every little thing you drive over. Besides new tires compensating for the type of condition you are using, the rubber is new and more flexible.
In some cases, this even causes a little bit of shaking when driving, known as tire “squirm,” but do not stress this is only a condition that sometimes happens at high speeds until the tires are worn. This is not something serious to concern yourself with unless you’re driving 250mph on the autobahn with brand new tires.
New tires make a difference to increased performance
Performance in a car can relate to a few things. We considered breaking and stoping power where new tires will definitely outperform old tires. There’s also the aspect of speed and power, which the quality of your tires control. This determines how much power your car can put to the road. It comes in the form of the speed at which you can enter and exit a corner and turn.
Many tires nowadays have performance in mind and are made with stickier compounds for good traction and control, increasing overall performance. Due to the fact that old tires deteriorate, they are more likely to become frigid and hard, and overall performance decreases drastically with regards to all aspects of performance, including handling and speed.
Hence, because tire quality is directly proportional to performance, it is more beneficial to drive on new tires than old ones. An example of this is if you want to have the same control and handling as you do with a new set of tires, you will need to slow down in speed if you are using old worn tires.
New tires make a difference to gas mileage
Tires (even though many individuals are unaware of this) play a prominent role in efficiency when it comes to mileage and gas. Tires that are worn down typically have a low rolling resistance which means you may be getting to your destination on less amount of fuel, but the flip side is because your worn tires have less traction and require less force, the stopping power of your car is greatly diminished.
New tires are designed to make contact with the road where they need to and thus, increase traction and rolling resistance. This is not to say that your vehicle will start guzzling an obscene amount of gas. It will typically only be 2% – 4% on a new set of tires. Suppose you instantaneously swop your tires for the exact same set but new ones. In that case, the rolling resistance is increased by 20%. Because the automotive industry estimates that a 10% rolling resistance equates to a 1% – 2% decrease in fuel economy, we can calculate an average of 2% – 4% for new tires.
New tires make a difference to the overall better driving experience
We covered many reasons why new tires outperform old worn tires, and there are many reasons to consider and take note of why new tires make a difference compared to old tires. If we consider and combine all these factors, the result is a better overall driving experience.
Taking into consideration better overall handling, stopping power, speed, traction, control, cornering, and smoother driving, these are all factors that are considered the main aspects of driving and are elevated when you have a new set of tires.
2 reasons new tires don’t make a difference
New tires don’t make a difference considering compound
The compound is a critical part of any tire’s formula and crucial in how it grips the road. The grip of a tire can be grouped into three categories and is a combination of all three, namely;
- Construction
- Compound
- Tread pattern
The tire’s construction provides the overall shape of the contact patch and will change with a new tire compared to an old tire, and the same goes with the tread pattern. The only aspect of a tire’s grip that does not change with new vs. old is that of the compound, which stays the same in both. We said it is critical; in fact, it is the most important because how well the tire sticks to the road determines how well it performs.
The only thing to consider is that you want the most available compound in a tire when choosing wet and dry tires (old or new, the amount of compound won’t change in a tire).
New tires don’t make a difference when considering air
The amount of air you need to put in your tires won’t make a difference when new tires are considered over old ones. All tires have a certain pressure threshold and a specific amount that they require. Pressure for tires is measured in PSI (Pressure per Square Inch), and depending on how much air you put into the tire, it will affect its contact with the road.
If tires don’t have enough air, they will wear down faster, and your vehicle will become hard to handle. In addition to that, the extra resistance caused by the tire in conjunction with the road will result in decreasing gas mileage.
Oppositely if there is too much air in your tires, they become less flexible and rigid. This will cause them not to make contact with the road’s surface properly, causing uneven wear and tear. These problems can occur with both new and old tires.
Conclusion
We discovered that there are many differences that new tires offer when compared to old ones. We even looked at how to check your tires to see if you should replace them, covering many methods to evaluate their condition.
In most regards, new tires outperform old ones in every aspect only with the exception of fuel mileage. However, this is low with a 2% – 4% decrease, and without a doubt, all the other positive factors override this negative.
The positives include improved traction, handling, safety, braking, and more. There were only 2 factors that we could consider where old and new tires had no bearing on one another. Thus, if you are wondering if you should get new tires, the resounding answer should and is always going to be a yes. If you think you need new tires, then you probably do, and the benefits regarding safety alone should make your decision an easy one.