AUTONET TV

When Are Your Tires Worn Out?

Hey Louisville area drivers, are your tires worn out? What is the standard for our KY streets? How can you tell on your vehicle?

While there may be legal requirements for the Louisville area, there are safety concerns that go beyond meeting minimum replacement mandates.

Two-thirty-seconds of an inch is the depth of the tire tread wear indicator bars that US law has required to be molded across all tires since August 1, 1968. When tires are worn so that this bar is visible, there's just 2/32 of an inch – 1.6 millimeters – of tread left. It's that level of wear that's been called into question recently.

We're referring to the tread depth on a tire, it can't move surface water out of the way and you start to hydroplane.

In a safety study, a section of a test track was flooded with a thin layer of water. If you laid a dime on the track, the water would be deep enough to surround the coin, but not enough to cover it.

A car and a full-sized pick-up accelerated to 70 miles per hour, or 112 kilometers an hour, and then made a hard stop in the wet test area. Stopping distance and time were measured for three different tire depths:

• New tire tread depth
• 4/32 of an inch, or 3.2 mm
• 2/32 of an inch, or 1.6 mm

So what happened with the 2/32 inch/1.6 mm tires on the car? Get this – when the car had traveled the distance required to stop with new tires, it was still going 55 mph/89 kph. Stopping distance was nearly doubled to 379 feet/116 meters, and it took 5.9 seconds.

Wow! That means if you barely have room to stop with new tires, you would hit the car in front of you at 55 mph/89 kph with the worn tires.

Now, with the partially worn tires – at 4/32 of an inch, or 3.2 mm – the car was still going at 45 mph/72 kph at the point where new tires brought the car to a halt. It took nearly 100 feet, or about 30 meters, more room to stop and 1.2 seconds longer. That's a big improvement. We can see why Consumer Reports and others are calling for a new standard.

Of course, stopping distances were greater for the heavier pick-up truck.

How do you know when your tires are at 4/32 inch or 3.2 mm? Easy; just insert an American quarter into the tread. Put it in upside down. If the tread doesn't cover George Washington's hairline, it's time to replace your tires. With a Canadian quarter, the tread should cover the numbers in the year stamp.

You may remember doing that with pennies. A penny gives you 2/32 inch, or 1.6 mm, to Abraham Lincoln's head. The quarter is the new recommendation – 4/32 inch, or 3.2 mm.

How do people feel about replacing their tires earlier? Well, tires are a big ticket item and most people want to get the most wear out of them that they can. But do you want that much more risk just to run your tires until they are legally worn out?

For us, and we would guess for many, the answer is "no".

American Brake Centers Inc.
3435 Bashford Ave Ct.
Louisville, KY 40218
502-459-0355
http://www.americanbrakecenters.biz

I'm Cool With That (AC Exchange)

On a hot day, you want your vehicle's air conditioning to work.  When the air blowing out of your vents isn't cold, it's easy to think, "I'll just take it by the shop and have them top off my refrigerant." But while some people think air conditioning is that simple, it's actually not.

If your refrigerant is low, something has to have happened for it to be depleted.  Perhaps there's a leak in the system.  Or some hoses or clamps have failed.  If the system isn't evaluated by someone who knows air conditioning, it's possible that adding refrigerant will just be a band-aid solution.

It's also possible that contaminants have gotten into the refrigerant, such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, argon, or air.  Some of those gases do not condense like refrigerant does which can increase the pressure inside the system and strain the lines and other components. At that point, the best course of action may be to have the old refrigerant (with its contaminants) bled from the system and have your AC recharged with new refrigerant.

Bring it to us, and we can inspect and test the system and all its components.  That will include a pressure test for leaks.  Most vehicle manufacturers don't have a service schedule for air conditioning systems, so one way to know when you should have it looked at is when it's not behaving the way it used to.  For example, it may not get cold as fast as it did before or even at all.

So, when hot air is exiting your vents when you want it to be cold, schedule an appointment and have a trained technician take care of it.  Are you cool with that?

American Brake Centers Inc.
3435 Bashford Ave Ct.
Louisville, KY 40218
502-459-0355
http://www.americanbrakecenters.biz

Automotive Tips from American Brake Centers Inc.: Timing Belt Overview

In your engine, valves over each combustion chamber open to allow fresh air in, close during the combustion event, and then other valves open to let out the exhaust. All of this happens over and over thousands of times a minute when you are driving around Louisville. The timing belt’s important job is to make sure that all of this happens as it should – at precisely the right time. If the timing is off, your engine won’t run efficiently or maybe not at all – so a good timing belt is important. If it should break, you could end up at American Brake Centers Inc. with expensive engine damage.

Ask your friendly and professional American Brake Centers Inc. service advisor when your timing belt is scheduled for replacement.

Give us a call.

American Brake Centers Inc.
3435 Bashford Ave Ct.
Louisville, KY 40218
502-459-0355
http://www.americanbrakecenters.biz

Automotive Tips from American Brake Centers Inc.: Making a Battery Last Longer

One thing all Louisville drivers can do to extend the life of their battery is to keep it clean. A greasy, dirty battery holds in damaging heat. Same goes for removing corrosion from the terminals. American Brake Centers Inc. can help maintain your battery.

Allowing your battery to be deeply depleted – like from using your headlights when the engine is off – is very harmful to your battery. Most automotive batteries can only take that about 10 times before they are ruined.

Also, making sure you have a full charge every month or so extends battery life. Either an extended drive at freeway speeds around the Louisville are or using a battery charger will preserve your battery’s ability to hold a full charge.

Give us a call.

American Brake Centers Inc.
3435 Bashford Ave Ct.
Louisville, KY 40218
502-459-0355
http://www.americanbrakecenters.biz