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How Long Should a New Set of Tires Last

Clean Car's How Long Should a New Set of Tires Last?
Content Provided by CarAndDriver.com

A pile of old tires and an automotive service technician repairing car wheels

It may be tentative, but tires do have an expiration date. There is a general consensus that most tires should be inspected, if not replaced, at about six years and should be absolutely be swapped out after 10 years, regardless of how much tread they have left. How do you know how old your tires are? There’s a code on the sidewall that you can read about here. Wear is a far more straightforward consideration: Tiremakers and safety advocates say a tire is worn out when its tread depth reaches 2/32 of an inch. That’s all fine, but what most car owners want to know is how long to expect a set of new tires to last before they need to be replaced.

“I wish it were simple to say how long each tire might last, but tires are different,” said Dan Zielinski, a spokesman for the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association (USTMA). “Some tire manufacturers offer a warranty as high as 80,000 miles or more, reflecting confidence in that particular product’s longevity based on its engineering, technology, and design. Other tires may be built to provide 30,000 miles of service.” Or less; some high-performance tires on cars driven aggressively will be worn to the 2/32-inch point without ever seeing 15,000 miles, but those are extreme cases.

The average American drives between 14,000 and 15,000 miles a year, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration. Zielinski said that, if you’re kind to your tires—that is, you aren’t constantly peeling out at stoplights and you properly maintain them—most new tires on the market today will last about 60,000 miles. For what it’s worth, the USTMA did a review of several thousand recently scrapped tires and found that most were three to four years old. There was no way of telling how many miles were on those tires, but it’s easy enough to multiply four years by 15,000 miles annually to confirm the rough approximation of tire durability.

If you want to figure out how soon you’ll wear out the tires on your car, Zielinski said it would be a good idea to start by determining how many miles you drive each year. Divide the number of miles on the odometer by how many years you’ve owned the car (starting, obviously, from when you first got the car and accounting for any mileage it had on it at that time). Then you can compare that with any advertised warranty on the make and model of the tires and figure out how many years of service to expect. If you live where winter tires are advisable and swap those onto the car for some months of the year, your regular tires will get less use and will endure for a longer period of time, but remember the caveats about tire age.

Zielinski also noted that if you hit the wear bars at 50,000 miles on a set of tires with a 60,000-mile warranty, for example, tiremakers that offer such coverage will typically  prorate the price of a new set. In this example, you could expect a discount on the new set equal to one-sixth their price, or about 17 percent. You might not get it, though, if you decide to change brands.

Original Source: CarAndDriver.com, September 4, 2017, David Muller

Clean Car's Top Ten Car Care Tips

Clean Car's Top Ten Car Care Tips
Content Provided by KBB.com
What you can do yourself to keep your car on the road?
If everything on TV were true, then keeping a vehicle running great, looking good, and lasting a long time would be the easiest thing ever. Advertising will tell us over and over that all we really need to do to keep that car or truck running forever and looking brand new for years is to pour some bottles of miracle liquid into the crankcase, sprinkle magic dust on the paint, or spray some sort of ionized wonder water on the interior. Unfortunately this is not the case.

Following the old adage that "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" comes the news that regular, proper care and maintenance are what really keep vehicles going into the high six-figure mileage ranges. Miracle cures, magic fairy dust, mystery polymers and the like are all fine and good for infomercials, but most likely won't do much good for your vehicle.

Regularly scheduled maintenance and lubrication using the manufacturers recommended type and formulation of oil, grease and liquids is what will do the trick. Replacing normal wear-and-tear parts such as timing belts before they break is also a good path to follow on the road to long vehicle life. Taking good care of your vehicle can make the difference between being the proud owner of a good looking, long lasting, reliable machine, and saying goodbye to a rusty, faded-paint jalopy that fell apart or broke down long before it was designed to.

Automotive service technician repairing vehicle engine

  • TIP 1: Check and change the oil. No single step will help an engine last more than regular oil and filter changes will. Conversely, nothing will destroy an engine faster than neglecting oil-level checks or fresh-oil changes.
  • TIP 2: Flush the cooling system and change coolant once a year. A 50/50 mix of coolant and distilled water will keep the cooling system in good shape and prevent corrosion and deposits from building up inside the cooling system.
  • TIP 3: Change out transmission and differential oils. While not requiring frequent service, these fluids must be changed according to service intervals. Always use transmission fluid or gear oil of the recommended type and viscosity.
  • TIP 4: Keep it clean. While washing the outside of the vehicle is obvious, most everything the vehicle ran over can also get stuck to the underside. Hosing off winter salt and road grime is a good idea.
  • TIP 5: Everything with moving parts needs grease to survive. This ball joint went into early retirement due to poor lubrication.
  • TIP 6: Nothing keeps paint looking good and protected like a coat of quality wax. Apply wax at least every six months.
  • TIP 7: Driveline components such as u-joints also require regular lubrication. The driveline may have to be removed to access the zerk grease fitting.
  • TIP 8: Protect the interior plastic by parking the vehicle in the shade, using a window deflector screen, and applying a UV protectant to prevent the plastic and vinyl from drying out.
  • TIP 9: Inspect, clean, and repack wheel bearings with wheel bearing grease according to service intervals. Wheel bearings and grease are inexpensive compared to spindle and hub replacement, or liberated wheels rolling down the road ahead of you.
  • TIP 10: Brake fluid is hygroscopic. This means it is adept at attracting moisture. Moisture causes components to corrode and fail. Replace fluid and bleed system once a year. Brake fluid is cheap. Calipers, hoses, and sensors are expensive.

Original Source: KBB.com, Mike Bumbek

Clean Car's DIY Car Detailing Hacks

Clean Car's DIY Car Detailing Hacks
Content Provided by Esurance.com and Facts Verse

13 Genius Car Cleaning Hacks 


Give Your Car the Love It Deserves: DIY Detailing in 9 Steps 
Original Source: Esurance.com, By: Ian Civgin

Automotive specialist detailing vehicle with hand cloth

Chances are, your car isn’t as clean as it could (or should) be. You’ve taken it to the hands-free car wash once every couple of months for the past 3 years, but these days, the robotic brushes and industrial blow dryers just don’t seem to do the trick — you can still see paint swirls, minor scratches, and bird poop stains — and boy oh boy, the interior could use some love. If this scenario sounds familiar, you and your car could benefit greatly from a thorough DIY detailing.

Convinced DIY detailing’s for you? Good! Let’s get started.

  1. Rid the interior of dust, dirt, and debris
  2. Cleaning the insides of your windows
  3. Restore leather and vinyl
  4. Clean your wheels
  5. Wash and dry the exterior
  6. Removing residual contaminants with paint clay
  7. Polish to perfection
  8. Wax on, wax off
  9. Make your tires shine
Phew! You’re finally done, and I bet your car looks amazing. Now all that’s left to do is admire your achievement, and oh yeah, go for a drive!

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