What happens if you drive with worn tires

The tread helps keep this damage from happening because it makes it more difficult for debris to get into your tire in the first place. It also provides a thicker surface that takes more effort to puncture.

A worn tire is an easy target for road debris. It fails to keep things from getting at the tire. A healthy tire tread helps protect your tires from puncture damage.

The penny test is a quick way to check your tread depth on your own. If you can see the top of his head, then the tread is dangerously low. This keeps your tires cool, but a worn tire without the proper tread is more likely to run hot — and that can cause problems. No matter the weather, a worn tire that runs hot is a danger that should be replaced.

Sometimes a puncture is immediately noticeable with a sudden loss of air pressure, but it can also be a slow process. A leaking tire with a slow reduction in air pressure gradually reduces how well your car handles. A worn tread makes your tires more susceptible to damage that causes tires to slowly lose air. Hydroplaning Is Easier The tread on tires keeps the car in contact with the road. Stopping Time and Distance Increases The tread on the tire also helps slow and stop the vehicle.

Find A Location Near You. Safety Tips Aug 9, Safety Tips Sep 5, Safety Tips Dec 12, Manufacturers have made bald tires easier to spot by placing a series of molded horizontal bars at the base of the grooves. That's also the point where tires will flunk a state safety inspection—and where tread must be worn for you to collect on a tire's tread-wear warranty.

For more information on this. Based on their warranties, the tires should travel roughly 25, to 40, miles before their tread reaches the halfway point. To simulate wear without the wait, we used a special tire lathe to shave approximately half the tread depth from three sets of tires, one set for each model. Next we logged 1, road miles, then compared the half-tread tires with identical sets of new tires in tests through wet, dry, and snowy conditions.

Actual road wear would have also aged the rubber, reducing grip even further. But differences between our half-tread and full-tread tires were striking:.

Winter grip slips. Deep grooves and an array of small slits, called "sipes," help most new tires bite into snow. Shallower tread and worn-away sipes reduced snow grip markedly for our half-tread-depth tires.

Accelerating to 20 mph on our snow-covered track took an average of 12 feet longer than it did with the full-tread tires, resulting in nearly 15 percent less snow traction overall. Hydroplaning starts sooner. The faster you drive, the greater the risk of hydroplaning, since higher speeds allow less time for water to escape through the tread grooves. Shallower tread worsens that situation by allowing more water to stay beneath the tire.

Our half-tread tires began to skim over the water's surface at as slow as 40 mph in our hydroplane test, about 3 to 4 mph slower than the full-tread tires. As the chart in All-season-tire wear shows, that represents a nearly 8 percent drop in hydroplaning resistance compared with the same model tires when new.

Longer wet-weather stops. Reduced wet-weather braking can be even more dangerous than hydroplaning. Compared with new tires, those with half their tread depth took 3 to 6 feet longer to come to a stop from 40 mph on our wet track with the antilock braking system engaged.

Better dry-road performance. Bone-dry pavement is one place where less tread means more grip, since shallower grooves and sipes put more rubber on the road. Another problem with bad tires is they lose air faster than tires with good tread depth. Even if you check your tire pressure on a regular basis, low-tread and worn-out tires can lose their air sooner than you think.

They can cause the car to skid during sudden stops. They even put a dent in your bank account by reducing gas mileage. Under-inflation also causes the remaining tread to wear out quicker, which requires replacing your tires sooner than expected.

Treads help reduce the chances of suffering a blowout while driving. Blowouts are dangerous at any speed; at high speeds, they can be fatal. There is a direct correlation between tire tread and stopping distance when you press down on the brakes.

You always want your tires to ensure you can quickly and securely stop your car when you step on the brake pedal. If the tires are worn out, an abrupt stop can turn into an accident. Each state has its own guidelines relative to tire tread. You can also bring your car to a certified auto technician, who can inspect your tire tread and replace any defective tires.

It can be expensive to replace your tires, but the costs of doing so rises even further if you wait too long to do so. So, by being proactive in your efforts to replace defective tires, you may be able to avoid additional vehicle maintenance and repairs. A simple visual inspection is all it takes. If the treads are gone and the surface of the tires is smooth, you have bald tires. If you forget to look, your tires will let you know by losing traction on wet roads, skidding when you come to a sudden stop, or becoming harder to steer at high speeds.

Your ride will also be less comfortable, as worn-out tires have nothing to cushion the impact of bumps, potholes, or hitting small objects in the road. Tires can make a humming sound that changes with speed. This indicates there may be a chopped tread, due to lack of. Meanwhile, a thumping sound is a sign that there may be a flat spot on a tire.

The spot can be caused by a defect in the tire or locking up the brakes. It can cause you to feel like your car is bouncing up and down. You may see your steering wheel move on its own. Wobbling occurs due to separation of the internal belts. This can lead to a large bubble on the tread, resulting in wobbling. There may be times when tire tread develops a defect that cannot be balanced out. This can be caused by a small separation of the steel and polyester bands inside a tire.