A parked BMW holds its full weight on four small contact patches for weeks at a time, and rubber held compressed under that load takes a set. That set is what people call a flat spot, and it shows up as a steering wheel vibration at highway speed rather than a visible dent. To prevent … Read more
Yes, a car can sit for six months without harm, as long as you prepare it first. Most of the damage that people blame on long storage actually starts before the car ever goes dormant: a low battery, half a tank of gas, and tires that never moved. Get those three right and the rest … Read more
A puddle of engine coolant on a driveway comes out in four moves: contain it, absorb it, scrub it with dish soap and hot water, then rinse. Learning how to clean up a coolant spill in the driveway properly takes about 45 minutes, and doing it in the wrong order can drive the stain deeper … Read more
To dispose of used motor oil: drain it into a clean, sealed container, keep every other automotive fluid out of it, and hand it to an approved collection point such as an auto parts store, a household hazardous waste facility, or a used oil collection center. It costs nothing, it takes about an hour from … Read more
If you’re wondering how to dispose of old tires, you have four practical routes: hand them to a tire retailer, drop them at a county landfill or transfer station that accepts them, hire a scrap tire hauler or recycler, or give them away and put them to another use. For a single worn-out tire, the … Read more
New tires typically ship with 10/32 to 12/32 of an inch of tread, which is roughly 8mm to 9.5mm. Performance tires start shallower at 8/32 to 9/32, and winter or off-road tires start deeper at 12/32 to 16/32, so the number you measure depends on what kind of tire you bought. The bigger surprise for … Read more
A slow leak in a tire is almost always a small, steady loss of air rather than a blowout, and you fix it in two stages: find the leak with soapy water, then match the repair to where it is. A small nail hole in the main tread gets a plug. A weeping valve stem … Read more
What is tire feathering and what causes it? Tire feathering is uneven tread wear where one edge of each tread block wears down to a sharp edge while the opposite edge stays rounded, so the tread is angled instead of flat across the tire’s width. It happens when a wheel is not tracking straight, usually … Read more
Knowing how to store tires over the summer comes down to five conditions: cool, dry, dark, sealed, and supported. Clean the rubber, bag each tire airtight and opaque, lift the set off bare concrete, store it in an orientation that protects its shape, and keep it away from ozone sources. Get those five right and … Read more
If you want the plain number: most passenger car tires last about three to five years, stretching to five to seven when the car is driven gently, kept inflated and rotated on schedule. Ten years from the date of manufacture is the hard limit that brands like Michelin and Bridgestone put on their own products. … Read more