8 mistakes when changing shoes for the summer. There are dangerous!

Slow to change wheels

In the spring, motorists are not in such a hurry to change shoes as in the fall. Then, with the first snowfall, all the drivers rush to the tire shops at the same time. There are no queues in the spring. The car behaves as usual on the road and it seems you can take your time with it.

But there are several good reasons not to put off changing shoes. The tread of winter tires is made of a soft rubber compound (so as not to tan in the cold). Therefore, both Velcro and studded tires wear out quickly. And the latter also lose spikes that soft rubber no longer holds.

Contributes to this and the growth of the average speeds. In winter, even reckless drivers drive in a “whisper”. And when it gets warmer, everyone starts at full throttle. And for the next season, the tires may not even have the minimum allowable profile height of 4mm.

Anyone who is too late to change tires runs the risk of colliding with a car on which the driver has already changed his “shoes”. At positive temperatures, the braking performance of both studded and winter friction tires is noticeably lower than that of even cheap summer tires. And it will be very disappointing if ten centimeters is not enough to brake.

And the stability of the car during sharp maneuvers on winter tires is much worse.

Tires not inspected

In the summer we drive faster than in the winter. Therefore, the integrity of the tires must be treated with due care. If the tires do not have rims, you should inspect them for internal inhomogeneities, wear and protruding sharp objects that may not be completely visible from the outside. And from the outside, you need to evaluate the profile height – will there be enough tires for the season?

We look for the presence of large cuts and, worst of all, steel cord wires that have come out. If the wires have climbed, the tire must be replaced. It is also necessary to remove stones and especially glass fragments from the grooves of the tread, which cut the tread to the cord, through which moisture gets in.

Install it any way

Did you look? Now you have to decide which one to put on the front axle and which one on the rear. I recommend putting the best tires up front. The fact is that not every driver at speed can cope with a fracture of the front wheel. And before such modes, when you need the best “grip” of the rear axle, 95% of drivers simply do not accelerate. That is why we put forward the best tires, both in terms of condition (punctures repaired, cuts) and in terms of remaining profile height.

And if according to the results of the tire inspection you have to buy a few new ones after the winter, those should also be brought forward. Maybe even for a few seasons so that the treads are trimmed on all wheels.

Distort thresholds

To save time, workers in tire shops often lift the car in the middle of the threshold so that two wheels lift off the ground at the same time. If your car is old and corrosion has weakened the body, such a lift is contraindicated. Warn the workshop staff about this so you don’t have to figure out who is to blame and what to do later.

Forget maintenance

Changing shoes is a good reason to assess the technical condition of the car. After all, with the wheels removed, almost all components and parts of the suspension, steering, braking system and wheel drives are visible.

Carefully inspect all the mentioned systems yourself or ask a tire mechanic (albeit for a small fee). On our broken roads, suspension and steering don’t get much attention. But you can be sure that the brake pads are not worn, body parts are not rusting, mudguards and mudguards have not lost their fasteners.

Even leaks of oil or other fluids from the engine or transmission are easier to see when the wheels are removed.

Don’t remember “secrets”

If you have lost the key to the “secret” bolts, it is better to go to a good service to remove it. When mounting tires, problems can arise with loosening particularly stubborn secret nuts (bolts), which require, for example, electric welding. The risk that a tire mechanic will damage expensive and beautiful alloy wheels is greater.

But these are not all the problems that “secrets” can bring. Remember that secret nuts (bolts) are loosened first and tightened last. And it is better to do this with a torque wrench, where the tightening torque does not exceed what is allowed for this car. Immediately leave the workshop when you see them trying to unscrew the “secret” with a pneumatic impact wrench. If they break the code element, you won’t have any problems.

Screwed in a hurry

Before installing the wheels on the car, clean the mating surfaces of the disc and hub from dirt. Copper grease should be applied to the hub. The ingress of even small foreign objects or bits of dirt will cause the wheel to vibrate – tightening the fasteners can loosen.

Do not forget (if necessary) to place spacers between the hub and the center hole of the disc.

Nuts or bolts must be tightened by hand to avoid damaging the threads. You can tighten it in any way – from a regular wrench to a pneumatic or electric wrench. But I strongly recommend doing the final tightening with a torque wrench.

Often balancing

If you have one set of wheels and two tires, it will definitely be in balance after each wheel assembly. And if you have two complete sets of wheels, you can save. If the wheels were wrong last season (you can see that there are no traces of loss of balancing weights, the tire is flat), they cannot be balanced.

And if you do not notice a noticeable knock after installing the wheels, the experiment can be considered successful and money can be saved. Otherwise, you must enable the workshop for balancing.

Helpful advice

If you only have four wheels and two sets of tires, I recommend getting another set of cheap wheels (maybe steel) to save money. It is necessary to mount winter tires on it and put alloy tires on it for the summer. This way you can save a lot on changing shoes and tires that are not “raped” with a tire changer even every six months will last longer.

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