What Can Cause Excessive or Uneven Tyre Wear?

Tyres are the only point of your vehicle that is always in contact with the road, making them extremely important. You need them to be strong, hard-wearing, and good quality to ensure you can continue to go from A to B safely.

However, your tyres will begin to wear away over time. Depending on how much you drive, you should need a new set of tyres every few years or every 20,000 miles. We don’t recommend driving on tyres that are older than 10 years. Even if they aren’t worn down, old tyres can begin to dry out and crack, particularly when a car is sitting on a driveway or in a garage for weeks at a time without being driven. Cracked tyres can cause a blowout.

But how about tyres that begin to wear down? Wear on a tyre is normal - think about how much your tyres go through when you’re driving. But uneven or excessive wear could suggest there are other problems with your vehicle. For example, you might be experiencing issues with tyre tracking, wheel balance and alignment, or you could have a wonky suspension. Below, we outline some of the main reasons tyre wear happens, how you can identify excessive wear, and how you can prevent it.

The most common reason for tyre wear on the edges is underinflation. If you’ve noticed wear on the inside, check the outside of the tyre too. Underinflated tyres tend to distort the tread away from the road in the centre, which results in the edges becoming worn.

You should ensure that your tyres don’t have a slow puncture as this will cause them to become slightly underinflated. If you’re finding that you’re frequently putting air in your tyres, there could be a leak. You should get the tyre looked at to make sure there isn’t anything stuck in it or that there isn’t a leak allowing air to escape.

Your tyres may be wearing away more in the middle because of overinflation. If your tyres have too much air in them, the tread will bulge in the centre, which could result in more wear in the centre of the tyre.

You shouldn’t be tempted to overinflate your tyres in the thought that you won't have to pump them up again for a while - this can cause more damage to your tyres’ tread. If you think you have a leak or slow puncture, take your car to a garage. Don’t try to fix the problem by frequently overfilling your tyres.

Alternatively, your wheel tracking or alignment may be slightly out.

If your tyres are wearing away in a particular spot, but you don’t think you have a problem with under- or overinflation, your wheel alignment could be out.

Wheel alignment, or tracking, refers to the angle at which your tyres are positioned. You want them to be absolutely straight to ensure that your steering is accurate. However, sometimes the tyres can tilt one way or the other.

If you’ve noticed that your vehicle pulls to the side or your steering wheel vibrates, your vehicle may have an alignment problem.

First, you should look at the wear on your tyres. Is there wear on the inside edge of the tyre, but nowhere else? Conversely, is there wear on the outside of the tyre? If you answered yes to either of these, your tyres may be ‘toed’. A toed tyre will tilt either to the right or left slightly so that the full weight of the car isn’t on the flat part of the tyre, but to the side.

You can take it to a garage that has a laser alignment tool. Using this tool, a mechanic will be able to tell if one or more of the wheels aren’t aligned properly. Correct wheel alignment could make your tyres last for an additional 12,000 miles, so it’s important to ensure that they’re perfectly straight.

The quickest and easiest method to check your tyre tread is the 20p test. Take a 20p coin and place it inside one of the main grooves of your tyre. It might be easier to turn the engine on and turn the steering wheel. If you’re checking the right tyre, turn the wheel to the left. If you’re checking the left tyre, turn the wheel to the right.

Each 20p coin has a border around it. Once you’ve placed the coin inside a groove, make sure that you can’t see the full border of the coin. This means that the tread is deep enough, which is good. If the border on the coin is visible, then it means that your tyres are quite worn and may be below the legal limit.

When you’re doing this test, don’t just test one place on the tyre. As we’ve outlined above, your tyres could wear unevenly depending on inflation or wheel alignment. Check at least three different places on each tyre. If your tyres are worn down in any of the places that you check, you should take it to a garage to be looked at by a mechanic.

It’s impossible to completely stop your tyres from wearing; however, there may be some steps you can take to prevent unnecessary wear.

You should try to avoid potholes where possible. This is because they can knock a tyre out of alignment. However, you should only avoid potholes when it is safe to do so. You shouldn’t swerve out into the road as there may be something coming the other way. If you can, try to drive safely around them.

You should avoid bumping into kerbs at awkward angles, as this can also knock the tyre out of alignment.