Finding The Perfect Car

Three Things You Can Learn About A Used Car By Looking At Its Tires

31 March 2016 by Julian Moya

You can tell a lot about the condition and history of a used car by looking at its tires. As long as the car has had the same tires for a long time, their manner of wear contains vital clues about the car. Here are three things you can learn about a used car that way:

Cupping

Watch out for a tire with a wear pattern of alternating hills and valleys. This kind of wear is known as cupping, and it usually points to a problem with the suspension components. This includes damage to the springs, bushings, wheel bearing and any other part of the suspension system.

It probably means that the previous owner of the car drove with a damaged suspension component. This caused the tire to bounce up and down, which made some of its parts to come down harder on the road than others. The parts that come down hard on the road experience extensive wear. You will need to change the damaged or worn out suspension components if you buy the car.

Flat Spots

A tire has a flat spot damage if one part is worn down more than the rest. There are two major ways tires can get flat spots. The first one is skidding; when a car skids, the part of the tire touching the ground experiences serious friction that causes extreme wear within a short period. The second one is long-term parking, which bears the weight of the car on the same part of the tire for the duration of the parking. If you are dealing with flat spots caused by skidding, then the edges of the spots would have additional wear; however, flat spots caused by long-term parking don't have additional wear.

It is the flat spots caused by long-term parking that you should be worried about. Cars parked for long without adequate protection or preparation may experience other damages, such as:

• Rust and corrosion
• Rodent invasion  (they can chew and expose electrical wires, which increases the risk of electrical short-circuit)
• Engine damage from oil contaminants

This is not to say that every used car with flat spots on its tires has experienced the above damages, but it warrants a careful examination of the car.

Single-Side Wear

Finally, you should also be concerned about tires having one-sided wear. That kind of wear is usually caused by wheel misalignment, which makes the car lean too much to the outside or inside. As a result, one side of the tire bears more load than the other side.

Wheel misalignment is caused by worn or damaged suspension parts, which cause the vehicle to sag in one side. For example, hitting a pothole at high speed may damage the suspension enough to cause a misalignment. Depending on the nature of the damage, repair or replacement of the affected component will be needed.

Most of these issues can be fixed. Use your observations to ask more questions and know more about the car. You can then use the information to negotiate a better price for the vehicle. 

For used cars, contact a company such as Kar Connection. 

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