How do I determine tire tread wear?

Question

How do I make a case for defective tires?

Answer 1

Most tire company's put "wear bars" (small raised section of rubber between the treads) If the tread is worn down to these small bars, the tire must be replaced. For a case of a defective tire, you must read the fine print on your purchase agreement and see if you fit the criteria.

Answer 2

Difficult to do.  You have to prove that the tire is bad from the start and that your cars alignment and your driving did not cause the problem.  Unless the tire tread is separating from the casing, or there is a recall on this tire, you are out of luck.  Buy some new tires and have the car four wheel aligned.

Answer 3

Most tire manufactures warranty tread wear based on several things.  Basically, the best way to check tire wear is to use a penny.  If you can see the top of Lincoln's head, you dont have enough tread.  

As far as defective tires, you will have to file a treadware warrant claim.  However, the tire manufacture will make you prove that you rotated you tires at the appropriate times.  They will also check the tread wear.  If your wheels are out of allignment, or have been under or over inflated they will show a particular type of wear.  The tire company will use this to decide if they will pay your claim.  A lot of times they pro rate, and give you a discount on new tires.

Answer 4

depends on the tires mileage and wieght limit are and if your car has a good suspinsion and alignment

Answer 5

You determine tread wear by measuring the amount of tread wear that is left.  There are too many variables with differences in your driving style, alignment, load, wheel balance, worn suspension parts, etc.

I doubt if you can prove defective tires unless there is an obvious flaw in them.  If there was one, then it should have been caught when they were installed.

Answer 6

Lori,

First, I would stop by your local auto parts store and purchase a tire tread depth guage. If you feel your tires are defective then look up the tire manufacturer's name and search on line for their phone # for customer service. Most tire companies have a customer service dept. and will help you through this.

Answer 7

The harder the tread compound, the longer they last, but the performance such as handling and braking is less. Softer tread compounds give superior handling and braking etc, but the tread life is less. My friend got 20,000 miles out of his tires driving a Corvette and my father in law got 50,000 miles out of his tires driving a Honda Accord. The Corvette tires handle a lot better than the Accord tires but the Accord tires lasted a lot longer.

Temperature is a big deal too. Hot climates make the rubber compound softer so they wear down faster as opposed to cooler areas of the country where tires last longer.

If that is not enough, you have to keep a close eye on your tire inflation. Under inflated tires run hotter so they wear faster. Run them too low, too fast, with too much weight on board and the internal temperature can reach the temperature that they were made at and guess what, they can start to unmake themselves and come apart. Wheel alignment must also be correct or tire mileage will suffer. I ruined a set of Goodyear tires a few years ago in less than a year because my alignment was out. Easy to do, even for a tire guy.

You may notice some tires have a mileage warranty and some don't. The ones that do are usually the ones that use a harder tread compound and mileage is a primary issue. The ones that don't are usually the high performance type where performance is the primary issue and mileage is secondary.

Tire manufacturers set most mileage warranties. I have noticed over the years that the marketing guys have the most say about the length of the mileage warranty, not the engineers. They are always trying to outdo their competition, which can cause a certain amount of exaggeration at times.