In the spectrum of day-to-day car checks, engine oil and tyre pressures are generally taken care of – but what about the condition of tyre tread?
One check which is frequently overlooked by private motorists is tyre tread and overall tyre ‘health’. eBay is warning drivers on the risks of driving on worn tyres, with new research highlighting that 11% of participants were not confident when checking the tread on their tyres and 10% stating that they have no idea about the recommended tyre pressures for their vehicle.
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With this in mind, eBay has relaunched its tyre purchasing and fitment service for customers, allowing buyers to order the correct tyres for their vehicle, choosing a local fitment centre and selecting a time and date for when the new tyres to be fitted. eBay’s programme allows customers to choose from more than 250,000 tyre listings and over 3,000 installers across the UK.
Alongside the launch of the online service, on the 29th of this month eBay hosted an event at Millbrook Proving Ground in the UK, which allowed participants to brake test a vehicle with new tyres, as well as one with extremely worn tyres to highlight the dangers. Data from Frankie’s brake distance test drive can be seen below:
Good Tyres
Speed 70mph: 65.7 metres
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By GlobalDataSpeed 60mph: 48.2 metres
Bad Tyres
Speed 70mph: 75.6 metres
Speed 60mph: 55.1 metres
Frankie Youd spoke to Hannah Gordon, eBay specialist and mechanic, to learn more about the risks of driving on tired tyres and how people can stay on top of checking.
Frankie Youd (FY): What are the risks of driving on damaged tyres?
Hannah Gordon (HG): I was reading something recently which said on average there are 152 deaths – in the UK – a year due to tyre issues. I think that was just one less than those from people distracted by their mobile phones. It’s one of those things that seems to be overlooked. Every year we push it out to the media, but you still have people driving on dangerous tyres. It’s the un-sexy part of the car to talk about!
Every time you run flat tyres, the rim impacts on the tyre, and actually damages it internally. There are a lot of hidden dangers. It might be that there’s been some tyre damage on the tyre side or wall as well, like a tyre bulge, which you wouldn’t automatically think is to do with a tyre being under-inflated.
I was reading something recently which said on average there are 152 deaths – in the UK – a year due to tyre issues. I think that was just one less than those from people distracted by their mobile phones.
Sometimes you can’t see the inside of the tyre because if your tracking is out, you could have tread on one side and not the other; it’s also important to check right across the tyre – there’s a lot of things that people don’t realise.
When it rains in the summer, and we’ve had a period of hot weather, the road is potentially slippery, so it’s really important to make sure you have sufficient tyre tread. When it rains the water dissipates out the side of the tyre, if you don’t have tread the water can’t go anywhere.
Why are the correct tyres so important, especially with EVs?
With EVs, tyres are really important because the power that the EV has puts a lot of pressure on the tyres. With EVs being silent, you also have EV specific tyres as well that give off lower decibels.
If someone has got an EV, they should be putting on EV-specific tyres.
If they don’t, they might get a tyre that is louder; you would get a lot of tyre noise through the car. EVs have instant power; the tyre needs to have that ability to withstand that instant power.
People don’t realise because they’re probably not told when they buy an EV and many consumers are new to an EV.
When you look at a tyre you’ve only got a small patch of that tyre section on the road; it’s part of the car that is so often overlooked. I think that when we buy new cars, we are so used to jumping in and it tells you that there’s a bulb out, tells you your tyre pressures are low and son on – but people get lazy and don’t actually check because the car tells them these things, but the car can’t tell you about tyre tread.
How can eBay help with purchasing the safe and correct tyres?
On eBay, if you are going to think about buying not brand-new tyres – most of the ones we sell are brand new – but if you are thinking of that extra cost saving, with part worn we do have certified recycling schemes.
This means the tyres have been verified, that they don’t have repairs. The condition is listed on site so you can save money in a safe way.
eBay’s tyre service makes the process of buying replacement tyres really simple. You put in your tyre size, select your tyres and then the site will find you a local installer.
With a lot of manufacturers, you’ll get Continental tyres, then they have other brands, where you are you still getting a quality tyre, but they’re maybe a ‘budget brand’; they’re still actually made by say Continental, but a lot of people don’t realise.
What more can people do to stay on top of tyre checking?
I don’t want people to think that they’re bad people for not checking. I work in the car trade, and I don’t always do it! Life gets in the way and things like that. If you just check them, even if it’s every three months, just when you remember, or when you’re walking towards your car.
I don’t want people to think that they’re bad people for not checking. I work in the car trade, and I don’t always do it!
With four-wheel drive cars, you should really be changing your tyres in pairs. Because of how the four-wheel drive system works; you’ve got the diff in the middle, and you don’t want a tyre that’s low one side and high the other – you could end up damaging the gear box.
