-
Service
and
Appearance Care
When It’s Time for New Tires
One way to tell when it’s time for new
tires
is
to check the treadwear indicators,
which will appear
when
your tires have
only
2/32
inch (1.6 mm) or less of tread
remaining.
You need a new tire
if
0
You can see the indicators at three or
more places around
the
tire.
0
You can see cord or fabric showing
through the tire’s rubber.
The tread or sidewall is cracked, cut
or snagged deep enough to show cord
or fabric.
The tire has a bump, bulge or split.
.
.
,186
0
The tire has a puncture, cut, or other
damage that can’t be repaired well
because of the size or location
of
the
damage.
Buying New Tires
To find out what kind and size of tires you
need,
look
at the Certificationnire label.
The tires installed on your vehicle when it
was new had a Tire Performance Criteria
Specification (TPC Spec) number on each
tire’s sidewall. When you get new tires,
get ones with that same TPC Spec
number. That way, your vehicle
will
continue to have tires that are designed to
give proper endurance, handling, speed
rating, traction, ride and other things
during normal service on your vehicle. If
your tires have an all-season tread design,
the TPC number will be followed by a
“MS”
(for mud and snow).
If you ever replace your tires with those
not having a TPC Spec number, make
sure they are the same size, load range,
speed rating and construction type (bias,
bias-belted or radial) as your original
tires.
Uniform Tire Quality Grading
The following information relates to the
system developed by the United States
National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration which grades tires by
treadwear, traction and temperature
performance. (This applies only to
vehicles sold
in
the United States.)
Treadwear
The treadwear grade is a comparative
rating based on the wear rate
of
the tire
when tested under controlled conditions
on a specified government test course. For
example, a tire graded
150
would wear
one and a half
(1
1/2)
times as well on
the
government course as a tire graded
100.
The relative performance of tires depends
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