Best Tire Service Automotive Shop in Louisville

Proper tire care can prevent dangerous driving conditions such as blowouts, flat tires, or bad traction in inclement weather. Maintaining your tires keeps you and your loved ones safe while driving the highways and backroads of Kentucky. The experts at SMI Automotive Service are your home-grown tire specialists in Louisville, Kentucky.

How Can I Tell if My Tires Need Service?

Understanding your tires makeup can help you to recognize potential problems before they happen. In addition to keeping your tires inflated to the recommended PSI and regularly rotating them, giving them a quick visual scan once a week is a good practice.

What to look for:

• Tread is “where the rubber meets the road” and provides traction for all Louisville weather conditions.
  Insert a penny into the grooves of your tire. The penny should not go deeper than Honest Abe’s head. If it does, your tread is no longer optimal.
• Side Walls are the side of the tire and are supposed to flex with changing air temperatures and pressure which can happen overnight in some places.
  Look for wear and tear on the sides such as cracking or splitting.
• The Inner Carcass is designed to absorb impacts such as potholes and bumps in the road while keeping the tire from deflating or popping (known as a “blow out”).
  Keep your tires properly inflated to the PSI indicated on the side of the tire.
• Beads are the part of the tire where the rubber touches the metal of the wheel.
  Look for gaps or signs of wear in this area that could allow air leaks.

Taking Care of Your Tires

• Avoid driving through construction zones or neighborhoods where houses are having the roof reinstalled. These areas often have sharp debris that falls into roadways and can puncture your tires.
• Avoid “peeling out,” as it can rub the tread on your tires down faster than normal, causing you to replace more frequently. During hot and dry seasons, this is much easier to do at lower speeds.
• Take turns at lower speeds to put less pressure on the side walls and tread of the tires.
• Keep tires properly inflated to the recommended PSI found on the side walls of the tire.
• Rotate your tires regularly.

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