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2007-07-13

Importance of tyres, brakes and suspensions  

Tyres

Tyres are a very important (maybe the most important) component of your car or truck because they represent your only contact between you and the road surface. Drive with bald or faulty tyres and you run the risks of accidents and injuries. In the United Kingdom, the law requires a minimum thread depth of 1.6 mm in the main grooves which are situated in the central three quarters of a tyre. On average, you should replace the tyres every 40.000 km. Irrespective of distance travelled, you should change the tyres if the thread depth is below a safety level, but really you shouldn't need a law to force you to change tyres when it is time, for your life, the life of your passengers who will most likely be your family members, and the life of other road users depend on you doing the right thing. If you happen to reside in Eastern Australia including Queensland, New South Wales, Canberra, Victoria and Tasmania, JAXQuickfit Tyres currently have 72 locations spread across the states mentioned above where you can get a quick change of tyres. They claim that they can likely offer you cheap deals. They also do tune ups.

Tyre pressure

Maintaining tyre pressure according to the vehicle's manufacturer's specification is also very important. For one, under-inflation of tyre pressure can affect your fuel consumption, something that is very important in this era of increasing fuel prices and depleting fuel supply, plus unnecessary extra fuel consumption lead to unwelcome increase in CO2 emissions and contribute to the serious global warming problem. Maybe for you, even more important is its effect on your pocket (you end up paying for fuel wasted). Fuel consumption increases by 1% every 0.2 bar (2.9 psi) the tyre is under pressure specified by the vehicle manufacturer.

Under-inflation can also lead to higher tyre temperature and increase tyre wear, thus faster need of tyre change and more money and resources wasted. Tyre wear increases by 5% every 0.2 bar (2.9 psi) the tyre is under pressure specified by the vehicle manufacturer.

Over-inflation tyre pressure leads to bumpy ride and may lead to poorer grip on the road (less contact surface area) and to skating. So it is important to monitor your tyre pressure regularly. JAXQuickfit Tyres can make this tedious task easy for you as they have a Tyre Pressure Monitoring System. Their Permagard 3rd Eye Tyre Pressure Monitoring System alerts you instantly of tyre pressure or pressure irregularities by sending an alert to a receiver fitted inside the cabin on the vehicle.

Vehicle suspension

A properly fitted vehicle suspension leads to smoother ride, maintain correct vehicle height, reduce effects of shock forces, support the weight of the vehicle and keep the tyres in contact with the road.

Shock absorbers are part of the vehicle suspension and are constantly working hard to absorb shocks as you travel over uneven roads, and can get worn out. They should be checked every 20,000 kilometres. Worn shock absorber affect safety. When shock absorbers aren’t working properly, there will be poor tyre-to-road contact leading to braking distance can be increasing by two metres when travelling at 50kmh, there will be excessive tyre bounce, premature tyre wear, reduced handling and braking performance and increased noise and suspension vibration.

JAXQuickfit can also help you to check, repair and maintain your vehicle suspension system.

Wheel alignment and balancing

Wheel alignment

It is important to keep your wheels properly aligned as wheels out of alignment will result in increased and uneven tire wear, increase fuel consumption, lead to poor vehicles handling and cause the car to pull to one side. Wheels alignment can be disturbed by hitting pot holes, riding the vehicle up curbs, etc. However, even without abuse, front wheel alignment can get misaligned under normal driving conditions after some time. The change may be so gradual that it may not be not noticed. You will probably first notice mis-alignment when peculiar wear patterns shows up on the front tires. One you can't miss is when the car start to pull to one side. When these appear, the vehicle should have its alignment checked. It is also good to send your vehicle for an alignment every once in a while and whenever you change new tyres.

JAKQuickfit Tyres offers the JAXQuickfit Tyres Ace Alignment System to keep your vehicle in proper alignment.

Wheel balancing

When something spins, there are what one refer to as centrifugal forces. If a wheel is not balanced (weight equally distributed around the wheel) these centrifugal forces will cause the wheel to vibrate, usually when it reaches a certain speed. Other than the vibrations, you will know your wheel is out of balance it you see scalloped or cupped wear pattern on the tyres. Out-of-balance tyres normally will cause a car to vibrate when the car is travelling between 80 to 110 km/hour. Unbalanced wheels will make an uncomfortable ride and lead to premature wear of many vehicle components.

Normally one would sent the vehicle for wheel balancing when one noticed the symptoms of unbalanced wheels or when changing tyres. JAXQuickfit Tyres can do the wheel balancing for you.