Keeping your wheels properly maintained is a no brainer. There is nothing else which can simultaneously make your car safer, easier to drive, and better looking. Wheel maintenance begins with the tyre, but your wheel has got a whole lot more going on. From alloys to rubber, here are our wheel & tyre maintenance tips for keeping your wheels in great condition.
Tyre Maintenance Essentials
There are two basic tyre maintenance checks that you should be doing weekly. Assessing the tread, and checking your tyre pressure. These checks not only protect you from the risk of driving on an unsafe tyre, but also give you valuable information about how your car is running.
Tyre and safety experts believe the 1.6mm legal minimum is insufficient to guarantee safety – most recommend a minimum tread depth of 3mm for tyre replacement. Tests by UK technical organisation MIRA found that, once tyres are below 3mm, stopping distances increase dramatically. The difference in wet braking distance between a tyre worn to 3mm and one worn to 1.6mm can be as much as 44%.
Worn tyres are particularly dangerous when it’s wet because a tyre’s tread helps disperse water away from the contact patch between tyre and road. If there’s less tread depth, less water can be shifted. This increases the risk of aquaplaning, and losing grip. In heavy rain, each tyre can shift one gallon of water every second, illustrating just how hard tyres work.
If your tyres are over or under-inflated, this can result in uneven wear. This is because incorrect inflation can cause increased abrasion between the road and tyre tread - resulting in parts of the tyres being worn more quickly. Where a tyre is over inflated, the tyres will tend to exhibit more wear in the centre whilst under inflation usually results in more wear on the outer section of the tyre.
The tyre pressure numbers that are recommended by your manufacturer should always be followed as they are designed to give a safe and comfortable ride.
Further Wheel Maintenance
Your wheels need to be correctly aligned as per the manufacturer's guidelines. Misaligned wheels are a common source of uneven wear and also reduce the lifespan of the tyres and reduce fuel efficiency.
After cleaning and waxing your wheels, it’s worth checking what brake pads are fitted. Aftermarket pads could be fitted to save money over original factory parts, or to improve the efficiency of the brakes, and in most cases, there is a trade-off; the brakes operate at a higher temperature or wear quicker. Neither is ideal when you’re looking to keep your wheels looking attractive.
Is there a worse sound than hearing your pristine alloy scrape along the edge of a kerb? Light scuffs and damage can usually be repaired by a mobile dent or a repair technician for minimal money, but if the damage is bad, there are plenty of services offering full wheel-refurbishment, sometimes with astonishing results.
Usually only a professional can tell you if your wheel is salvageable and sometimes the cost could outweigh replacement costs, but if your wheels are rare, or you just can’t find something else you like quite so much, it’s a further avenue of investigation.
Keeping Clean
It seems that for many, taking their car down to the local hand car wash where their pride and joy will receive attention on the bodywork is enough, but the wheels and tyres aren’t always included. No matter how hard you polish the paintwork, the wheels remain a dead giveaway as to how the car has been treated and there are a few ways to keep the wheels looking good.
Cleaners
It wasn’t that long ago that the only option for getting your wheels really clean was to spend some time with a stiff brush (non-metallic), detergent and plenty of patience, and that was magnified ten-fold if you had anything remotely intricate for the pattern.
Nowadays, a quick spray with a chemical cleaner will remove 90% of the dirt and dust, making the job of keeping your wheels in tip-top condition easy. While polishing rims, it’s good to be aware that some chemical cleaners will tarnish the alloy wheels, leaving a dull, matte finish that can only be brought back to life by re-polishing them.
Wax
Just the same with the bodywork, waxes are available to help protect the finish of our wheels, and a decent wax can keep your wheels looking better for longer.
It isn’t just about the shine; specially formulated wheel waxes help to repel the dust and grime, which has a twofold benefit – not only does it make it harder for the dust to stick in the first place, but it also means that when cleaning time comes, most of the dirt will rinse off with minimal use of harsh chemicals.
Final Thoughts
Plenty of motorists keep a winter set of wheels – road salt can be a killer for alloys, and naturally it makes it easier to have a seasonal tyre more suited to the conditions.Winter is the ideal time to get the wheels refurbed and looking great for summer.For little effort, it’s possible to maximise the styling that the original car designer wanted us to see. It’s worth keeping in mind that when selling your car, a damaged set of wheels can lose you the sale, or a decent percentage of the selling price.Whether it’s a daily driver or future classic, keeping your wheels in good condition can transform the look of it. An extra ten minutes spent waxing your wheels could be the detail that you’re missing; the link between making your car look washed, or making it look spruce.