Why Are My Tires Wearing Out So Quickly?
If you’ve been driving long enough, you’ve probably asked this question, especially when suddenly faced with one or more low, uneven, or worn tire treads. After all, you didn’t spend all of that money to only get 30,000 miles out of your 60,000 mile tires. And let’s be honest, buying cheaper, low-quality tires still costs a couple hundred bucks, which isn’t exactly cheap.
It’s this often unexpected, cost, and the time needed to have new tires properly mounted, balanced and installed, that make replacing your tires prematurely, a really tough pill to swallow. But, as the one connection between your car and the road, tires are (arguably) the most important part of the vehicle. Because of this, your tires deserve a little extra attention, so you get the most (life) out of them, while making sure your vehicle is safe to drive.
Tire Check Tuesday
At Next Tires we like to encourage, more frequent, weekly inspections of your car or truck tires. More frequent checks will help you catch and correct any potential issues early, helping extend the life of your tires. For example, catching an issue in your tires tread or sidewall in seven days, versus thirty days, will limit the damage done and go a long way towards extending the tires tread life on the road.
Of course, no tires for sale are immune to tread wear. Even the highest-quality, truck tires, the most durable, all-season tires, and the most innovative high performance tires, will all have to one day be replaced. But, with proper care and maintenance, normal tread wear can be slowed, and premature tread wear can be prevented. When it comes to tires, being proactive is the best approach. By seeing, feeling, and paying attention to the performance of your tires, you will get much better life out of your tires and you will enjoy a more comfortable ride and safer driving experience.
Below are a few tips for protecting your new tires against premature tread wear.
What To Look For With Premature Tread Wear
Paying attention to subtle hints can help you understand why tires wear out quickly:
(i) Tie rod wear is usually indicated by the presence of tire feathering. You’ll notice this when one side of the tire is more clearly worn than the other. For example, the tread ribs on your tire may be rounded on one side and sharp on the other.
(ii) Cupping is an uneven wearing of your tires due to an irregular bouncing of your wheel. When tires display a cupping pattern, in most cases bad shocks are the problem.
(iii) When there’s excessive center tread wear, it means you have over inflated tires. For example, if your recommended tire pressure is 32 psi and you’re driving with 36 psi in your tires, you’re more likely to wear out the tires center tread sooner than the outer treads.
(iv) When there is excessive wear on the tires outer treads it means you have under inflated tires. For example, if your recommended tire pressure is 32 psi and you’re riding around with 28 psi in your tires, you’re more likely to wear out the tires outer treads sooner than the tires center tread.
(v) When the tire tread wear is all over the place and there’s no clear or explainable pattern, your vehicle may have a combination of the above or various other issues.
Let’s review a few more common, red flags for premature tread wear.
Other Causes of Premature Tread Wear
Improper Tire Alignment
It’s hard to (always) be prepared for all of the poor conditions on today’s roads and highway’s, like pot holes, uneven pavement, speed bumps, and road construction, all of which contribute to wheel and tire misalignment. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to things like, cement blocks in parking stalls, curbs, and other stationary objects when driving and parking, multiple times daily.
Service professionals will blame an unlikely foe for alignment issues, while drivers insist nothing in the road was hit or bumped. Even slight bumps in the road, over time, can contribute to a bad alignment, meaning the angle of the wheels are no longer pointing forward and your car or truck tires are wearing at improper angles.
We suggest you not only keep an eye out, but also have a feel for your car while driving. When your alignment is off, you’ll notice your car pulling to one side or the other. The constant pushing, pulling and straightening of the steering wheel, versus the natural angle the tires are pointed and wanting to drive, is a recipe for uneven tire wear.
Ball Joints Problems
Often drivers maintain they’ve hit nothing in the road while driving, yet their car or truck tires are out of alignment, even though the wheels and tires are pointing in the right direction. In this case, the most likely suspect is worn ball joints, which connect to the tie rods. Ball joints are a flexible ball and socket that allow the suspension to move with the wheels, like when the roads are bumpy. With bad ball joints you’ll have less steering control, which may cause a wheel to loosen, causing faster tread wear than usual.
Issues With Camber
Camber is the relationship between the vertical axis of two things: the wheels used for steering, and the vehicle, when viewed from the front or rear. When the inside of the tire tread is showing greater signs of wear than the middle or outside tread, this is usually a sign of misaligned camber.
If It’s Broke… Fix It.
Too often drivers believe these issue will fix themselves with additional mileage, but that’s unlikely. In fact, what’s most likely is the problem worsens, interfering with your comfort and compromising your safety. Louder, unusual tire noises, rougher rides, and abnormal vibrations, will likely increase as issues go unresolved.
And, while there are other reasons for tire wear, such as weather, road stability and quality, the above issues are among the most common when tires need to be replaced prematurely. If you notice any of the tread wear patterns shared above, please have your vehicle checked by a service professional right away.
Thank You For Shopping at NextTires.com
Thank you for allowing us to share with you these tread saving, online tire buying tips. It is our hope you’re now more confident when shopping for and buying tires online at NextTires.com!
If you have questions about any part of the online tire buying experience, including access to a larger selection of brands and tires not featured on the website, we encourage you to give us a call at 1-800-360-5459. We have access to most of the high-quality, name brand tires you’re familiar with and we’re here to help! You can also email us at support@nexttires.com. We’d like the opportunity to save you some money and earn your business as a Next Tires customer!
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