The second thing you need to know is that you shouldn’t pull it out to see if it leaks… for obvious reasons!

Try to pump the tyre up if you are near a gas station and then if during working hours head for your nearest tyre shop.

One of the most annoying things people say when they bring in a flat tyre is that all the airs gone to the top. Its not funny after hearing it 1000 times, so try to remember that!

The tyre fitter will probably pull the screw out before they take the wheel off the car, that is because sometimes the screw has not penetrated the casing of the tyre, so it may not even need repairing.

If the screw or nail is near the sidewall of the tyre be prepared for the worst news of all, the tyre may not be able to be fixed and you may well be forking out for a new tyre. The tyreshop is not trying to rip you off, when it comes to tyres safety is the number one priority.

A tyre flat spot is gennerally caused by one of three things.

Emergency Stop
An emergency stop by a vehicle that does not have ABS brakes. This can cause the wheels to lock up and skid along causing a flattened area of the tread.

Poor Suspension
Sometimes if a tyre has been on a car with worn shock absorbers the tyre can take on a strange wear pattern that is generally known as scalloping. Sometimes if you have a front wheel drive car and never rotate the tyres a similar kind of problem can occur. Easily avoided though by rotating your tyres regularly and check your shock absorbers.

Vehicle left sitting
The other reason that tyres can become flatspotted is if the vehicle has been left sitting on the tyres for long periods of time. So if you are leaving your vehicle for more than a couple of weeks, its recommended to place the vehicle up on blocks, rather than leave it sitting on the tyres.

Tyres

There are several options that you have regarding the purchase of your next set of tyres. Depending on your budget, location and requirements we look at some of the choices you have available to you.

Most Expensive
For convenience and if you don’t mind paying the full retail price (or more) you can buy a set of tyres through your vehicle service centre. Because the service center will need to organize the tyres with their local tyre dealer and spend time arranging the fitting and so on, expect to pay a premium for this type of arrangement.

Normal Method
The normal method is to phone around your local tyre shops, and find which store will do the best deal for you on a set of tyres. Tyres are a necesary item and often it’s a matter of you need to get them, in order to get a WOF for your car. The more time you have to phone around and compare deals, the better price you will be able to get.

Least Expensive options
There are other options. Trademe has a large range of traders and shops selling tyres at very competitive prices. Sometimes you may be lucky and find a great deal. Remember though to check a traders feedback, you should be looking for near to perfect, or perfect feedback before you fork out your hard earned money to a trader.

You can also try car wreckers as they can also be a source for tyres. When purchasing from a car wrecker check the tyres extremely carefully especially for things like flat spots (caused by brake lock-ups)

Rims & Wheels

Most Expensive way to buy Wheels
As with tyres the most expensive way to purchase wheels is from your vehicle dealer/service center. Another expensive way is to buy them from a tyre shop that does not deal in high volumes of alloy wheels. Because they don’t have the buying power that an alloy wheel specialist has the price could be at a premium. Watch spur of the moment purchases when it comes to wheels, you can save alot of money by ringing around.

Normal Method to purchase rims and wheels
Most people buy their wheels from an alloy wheel specialist. Something I would like to point out though is once you have decided on the type of wheels (and probably tyres as well) that you want and have a price for them, make sure you do your homework and ring around several dealers. An alloy wheel sale is significant and no shop will want to the sale to go to their competitor so by comparing prices you should be able to get a fantastic deal.

Cheapest options
Again auction sites like trademe and car wreckers can provide deals for the savy wheel buyer. You need to know what you are looking for though, and check the wheels for fitment to the vehicle, uniformity and cracks before handing over your hard earned cash.

From a legal point of view in NZ the NZTA provide guidelines in their Vehicle Inspection Requirements Manual that ALL the tyres on a vehicle registered or re-registerd from 1-Oct-2002 need to be the same carcass type – so if they are not (ie a mixture of ROF and standard tyres) this will provide a valid reason for rejection.

If you would like to do further investigation around this here is the link to the NZTA website.

As always we have a range of other sizes and brands however we thought it was worth making special note of these, you will save hundreds of dollars buying them from us.

Tyres for sale have now been operating for approximately three years. Over one thousand tyres have been sold in this time to customers from all over New Zealand.

Check out the auctions on trademe or send me a comment for a special deal.

205/55 16 Kumho Solus 91h – Set of 4
Closes: Fri 6 Apr 9:42 am (#462771019)

205/70 R15 693 Bridgestones – Set of 4
Closes: Fri 6 Apr 9:42 am (#462771020)

215/70 r16 Yokohama Geolanders – Set of 4
Closes: Fri 6 Apr 9:42 am (#462771021)

215/50 r17 91V Yokohama Advan (4)
Closes: Fri 6 Apr 9:42 am (#462771022)

225/55 18 Bridgestone HT684 – Set of Tyres
Closes: Fri 6 Apr 9:42 am (#462771024)

215/50 r17 RE050A Bridgestone (4)
Closes: Sat 7 Apr 9:24 pm (#463265946)

205/60 x 16 Bridgestone er300 92h – set
Closes: Sat 7 Apr 9:27 pm (#463267292)

205/50 17 CONTINENTAL SPORT (set of 4 )
Closes: Sat 7 Apr 9:29 pm (#463268247)

225/65 17 Bridgestone ht687
Closes: Sun 8 Apr 9:42 am (#462771023)

265/65 17 Bridgestone ht684
Closes: Mon 9 Apr 9:22 pm (#463265192)

195/65 15 Bridgestone b250 Set of 4
Closes: Mon 9 Apr 9:26 pm (#463266827)

Fortunately the answer is fairly straightforward for once. Car tyres across the board tend to have a tread depth of 8mm.

4WD tyres normally have between 8mm and 14mm depending on the type/application.

The more tread that your tyres have the less chance you will aquaplane. You can read our article on how NOT to aquaplane for more information.

If you are selling a second hand set of tyres with this information you can now measure the tread that is remaining and accurately state how close to new they really are!

Here are a few things that you can check.

1- Stud pattern
The first thing you need to check is does the stud pattern fit. If your car has 5 studs and the wheels have 4 then obviously you are going to have a problem.

I found a fairly decent stud pattern reference online, you will need to scroll down to find your vehicle.

2 – Overall diameter with the tyre
You need to make sure that once you have your new rims and the tyres on them, that the overall rolling diameter is similar to what your car originally is fitted with, otherwise you could encounter a myriad of issues. (e.g wrong gear ratio, tyres rubbing on guards etc)

3 – Offset
The offset of wheels is also important. The offset of a wheel is described as the distance from the wheels hub mounting surface through to the centreline of the wheel.

This is often the “unconsidered” dimension, however it’s a very important one. If the offset is too much different from the original the whole handling of the vehicle can be adversely affected.

If you want to measure the offset of your wheels this is how it’s done.

• Measure the overall width of your wheel (don’t take the numbers on it, as that is flange to flange)
• Divide this value by 2 – this gives you the centerline of the wheel
• Next measure from the mounting surface of your hub to the inboard flange, this is what is called your back spacing
• Subtract your centreline from your back spacing and that is your offset

Remember if in doubt, best not to do it, you don’t want to be stuck with a set of rims that not only doesn’t fit your car, but you have no idea of what car they will fit.

For each tyre..

Tyre tread depth – do you have enough tread to get you through the next 6 months?

Condition – make sure there are no cracks or nails, screws etc in the tyres

Pressure – Ensure your tyre pressures are correct, if you are not sure what to pump them up to refer to our previous article regarding tyre pressures – we spell it out.

Alignment and Balance – Does your car have the shakes or jitters? Does it pull to one side or perhaps the tyres are starting to wear in an uneven manner? Head along to your local tyre shop and get it checked out.

Remember the two most important things on cars are tyres and brakes, if either of those are in dodgy condition you may not stop when you really need to in a hurry!

We also have one set left of the popular 225/65 17 rav four tyres (Bridgestones).

In stock we have several sets of 245/70 16 Bridgestones – contact us for a special deal.

Stock is hard to come by right now so we appreciate your patience when we cannot immediately get hold of the tyres you require.

Remember now is a good time to book in for a wheel alignment after all the holiday driving. Its a small cost compared to the price of wearing out your tyres quicker than what they should.

Safe driving!