Tyre check
What tyres does my car take?
Enter your registration and we'll show you the vehicle we have on record along with the tyre size the manufacturer fitted.
Looking up your vehicle…
1.6mm minimum
The legal limit across the middle three-quarters of the tread, all the way round.
Free checks
Bring it down to Albert Street and we will check tread, pressures and condition free.
Or we come to you
Needs doing and you cannot get here? The van brings the tyres to your door.
Do it yourself
Checking your own tyres takes five minutes
You do not need a garage to tell you whether your tyres are getting close. Do this on a Sunday morning with a 20p piece and you will know exactly where you stand.
Tread
Put a 20p coin into one of the main grooves. If you cannot see the outer band of the coin, you have got more than about 3mm and you are fine. If the band is visible, the tread is getting low and wants measuring properly. Check in three places across the width of the tyre and at three or four points around it, because tyres almost never wear evenly.
The legal minimum is 1.6mm, but grip in the wet falls away long before that. Water has to go somewhere and the grooves are what move it — less tread, less water shifted, longer stopping distances in exactly the conditions where you need them short. Most of the trade changes tyres around 3mm and so do we.
Uneven wear is telling you something
Worn on both edges with plenty left in the middle usually means the tyre has been run under-inflated. Worn down the middle only is the opposite. Worn on one edge alone is normally a tracking or alignment problem, and fitting a new tyre without sorting that out just wears the new one the same way. Feathering — where the tread blocks feel sharp running your hand one way and smooth the other — points in the same direction.
Damage
Run a hand round the sidewall and look for cuts, scuffs and anything sticking out of the tread. A bulge or blister in the sidewall means the cords inside have broken, and that tyre needs replacing straight away — it is the one that turns into a blowout. Fine cracking round the sidewall is age rather than impact, and it means the same thing.
Pressures
Check them cold, once a month and before any long run. The right figures are on a plate in the driver door shut or inside the fuel flap, not on the tyre — the number moulded into the sidewall is a maximum, not a recommendation. They often differ front to rear, and again for a fully loaded car. Do not forget the spare, if yours still has one.
Age
There is no legal age limit for a car tyre, but rubber hardens and cracks whether the car moves or not. The four-digit code on the sidewall gives the week and year it was made: 3219 means the 32nd week of 2019. Low mileage cars are the ones that catch people out — plenty of tread, tyres well past their best.
Not sure what you are looking at? Bring the vehicle down and we will look for you, free and without a sales pitch. If you have got another winter in them, we will say so.
Questions
What people ask us
If yours is not here, ring or send a WhatsApp — we would rather answer it than have you guess.
In the UK, cars and vans must have at least 1.6mm of tread across the central three-quarters of the tyre, all the way round. Below that it is an MOT failure, and on the road it is three points and a fine per tyre.
It is moulded into the sidewall, in the form 205/55 R16 91V. That is the width in millimetres, the profile as a percentage of that width, the rim diameter in inches, then the load index and the speed rating.
The load index is how much weight the tyre can carry and the letter is the speed it is rated to. Both need to match or exceed what the vehicle manufacturer specified — it matters most on vans, which run much higher loads than people expect.
It is the manufacturer fitment we hold for that vehicle. Sizes vary by wheel and trim, and plenty of cars have been changed over the years, so always confirm against the size printed on your existing tyre before ordering.
Some cars, mostly performance and rear-wheel-drive models, run a staggered fitment with wider tyres on the back. If your vehicle has one, the lookup shows both sizes separately.
There is no legal age limit for cars, but rubber hardens and cracks over time. The four-digit code on the sidewall gives the week and year it was made — 3219 is the 32nd week of 2019. Anything much past ten years is worth a proper look regardless of tread.
Once a month and before any long run, checked cold. The correct figures are on a plate in the driver door shut or inside the fuel flap, and they often differ between front and rear and when the car is loaded.
Rather we just looked at it?
Bring the vehicle down to Albert Street for a free tyre check — no appointment needed, no obligation.