by Nick Taylor

A Professional Tire Inspection – The Trainer Video Series

Motor Age — Often overlooked and often abused, tire condition can make the difference between “safe” and “unsafe”.

Tire-related accidents made national headlines in the ‘90s when Firestone announced a massive recall in the wake of rollover accidents involving SUVs riding on their rubber. Arguably, there was more to the problem than a defective batch of tires and if you’ve been in this business for even a little while, you know what one contributing factor was already.

Under inflation.

I’m willing to bet that nearly every car you’ve ever worked on has had at least one tire that was significantly low (more than 10%). Tires that are low on air run hotter than normal and increase the risk of failure. One element of the TREAD Act of 2000 was the requirement that manufacturers develop a means to warn drivers when their tires were dangerously low and TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) was born.

Underinflated tires also have more rolling resistance than those that are properly inflated, impacting emissions and fuel economy. The state of California’s Air Resource Board considered it a cause for increased green house gas emissions and enacted a regulation back in September, 2010 requiring shops to check and adjust the pressure on every tire of every vehicle (GVWR of 10,000 pounds or less) they performed any type of work on.

And while under inflation is likely the most common issue you’ll find when inspecting your customers tires, there are others you should be aware of. Has the tire been repaired and if so, has the repair been done properly? Are there any visual signs of damage and if so, what caused them? Does the age of the tire make a difference? These topics and more are the subject of January’s “The Trainer”!

Source: Motor Age