The owner of any car or pickup truck will have plenty of repair and upkeep needs on their hands, and a responsible car or truck owner will keep a log to that effect. That owner may note what sort of repairs were done on the vehicle and when, and this includes work for the rims and tires, too. When someone visits tire shops or tire stores to buy tires for their car, they may log that too, mainly for their own reference. To buy tires is to get a car back into good driving condition, but when you buy tires, there are many options to choose from. A car owner may buy tires designed for off-road driving, or buy tires of a very high quality that last a long time. Yet other tires are designed for driving over snow or ice on the roads. What is there to know about proper tire care, and what about aluminum wheel rims?
What to Know About Car Tires
All cars and trucks have tires, and many shops are dedicated entirely to selling tires of all sorts. After all, there are many millions of cars and car owners, so there are just as many sites where a driver may buy tires. A car owner may look them up if they don’t already know a place, such as entering “where to buy tires” online. Such a search may be narrowed down somewhat, such as entering “buy winter tires near me” or “top rated tire shops in Boston MA”.
Why might someone need to buy tires for their car? Often, tires need to be replaced simply because they are old and worn out, and can’t function as well anymore. This is more serious than it sounds, and younger car owners will soon learn the benefits of tracking how old their car tires are. Older tires slowly deflate even if they are not violently punctured, and these partially deflated tires may make a car’s performance sloppy and unreliable, or even dangerous. Incidents may occur because a car has semi-flat tires. These old tires may also have their grip worn off, which means worse performance, and the car may slide out of control at times. So, when a car’s owner buys tires, they should note when the tires were purchased and what the car’s odometer says. In this way, the owner will know when their tires should be replaced. This maintains a car’s performance and safety alike.
Of course, trauma may also impair a car’s tires. A car may run right over something sharp and hard, such as broken glass or scrap metal, which will puncture it and let all the air out. Tires might even explode, in some cases. The same may happen if vandalism occurs, when a person slashes a car’s tires to ruin them and let all the air out. If a car gets a flat tire, the driver may pull over and fit on a spare, if they can. Otherwise, the car’s owner may call a tow truck so they can get the car taken to a tire shop.
As mentioned earlier, some tires offer different attributes than others. Standard tires are designed with ordinary, paved roads in mind and may suffer if they drive off road. But car enthusiasts or stunt drivers may get rugged, specialized tires that can handle off road driving. Meanwhile, if the weather turns cold and the roads have ice or snow on them, a car’s owner may have winter tires fitted on. These tires have the proper grip and surface to drive safely in such conditions without slipping or going out of control.
A good guideline for upkeep is to rotate the car’s tires every 3,000 to 6,000 miles, or whenever the car’s oil is changed. Tires can be realigned and balanced every 5,000 to 6,000 miles or so.
Rims
Aluminum rims give the wheel its shape and hold the tire, and they may get dents or scratches after trauma. These rims, and their hubcaps, can have dents pounded out with expert help, and dirt and mud can be washed right off. But steel wool should not be used to scour them, since steel wool will badly scratch the soft surface of aluminum rims or hubcaps.