Care and Maintenance Tips Keep Your Car Running in Top-Notch Condition We’ve compiled our best expert advice, surprising tricks, and car care tips to prolong the life of your Buicks, GMCs and Subarus Fort Worth!
1. Be patient during the break-in period
You’ve bought your dream car and now you want to make it last at long as possible in top condition. Here are some things to remember as you pull it out of the dealer’s lot:
During the break-in period, typically the first 1,000 miles, keep your speed under 55 mph.
Avoid heavy loads on the drive train, such as towing trailers, and loading the roof rack or trunk with heavy construction materials.
Do not allow your new car to idle for long periods — this is good advice for the life of your car, but especially during breakin. The oil pressure generated by doing so may not be sending oil to every part of your engine.
Use only light to medium acceleration, keeping the engine rpms below 3,000 for the first few hours of driving.
2. Drive with care everyday
Being car considerate shouldn’t stop after the break-in. Drive with care every day and your car will reward you with longer intervals without repair.
Do not race your car’s engine during start-up. This is a quick way to add years of wear to your engine, especially if it’s cold outside.
Accelerate slowly when you begin your drive.The most wear to the engine and drive train occurs in the first ten to twenty minutes of operation.
Warming the engine by letting it idle in the driveway is not a smart idea.The engine doesn’t operate at its peak temperature, resulting in incomplete fuel combustion, soot deposits on cylinder walls, oil contamination, and ultimately damaged components.
Put less strain on your engine and automatic transmission by shifting to neutral at red lights. Otherwise, the engine is still working to push the car even while it’s stopped.
Avoid driving at high speeds and accelerating quickly, especially when it’s very hot or very cold outside. Such driving behavior will result in more frequent repairs.
Extend the life of your tires with careful driving. Observe posted speed limits. Avoid fast starts, stops, and turns. Avoid potholes and objects on the road. Don’t run over curbs or hit the tire against the curb when parking. And, of course, don’t burn rubber.
When turning your steering wheel, don’t hold it in an extreme right or left position for more than a few seconds. Doing so can damage the power-steering pump.
Consolidate your short driving trips. Most of the wear and tear — as well as the pollution your car generates — takes place in the first few minutes of driving. Doing several errands at once, during low traffic hours if possible, will keep your engine happier longer.
3. Buy gas at reputable service stations
Ask whether the gas you buy is filtered at the pump and if the station has a policy about changing the pump filters regularly. If you get a song and dance, find another gas station. Some stations don’t have pump filters, making you more vulnerable to dirty gasoline. Other stations may not mix alcohol and fuel properly — or worse, water down their product. Find a station you trust and stick to it.
4. Don’t fill up if you see the tanker
If you happen to see a gasoline tanker filling the tanks at your local gas station, come back another day or go to a different station. As the station’s underground tanks are being filled, the turbulence can stir up sediment. Sediment in your gas can clog fuel filters and fuel injectors, causing poor performance and possibly necessitating repairs.
5. Go easy when you’re stuck
When stuck in mud or snow, don’t make the problem worse by damaging an expensive component. Gently rocking in an attempt to free the car is fine. But if it looks as though you’re really stuck, don’t keep at it. Throwing your car from forward to reverse repeatedly, as well as spinning tires at high speeds, can generate lots of heat and spell trouble for transmissions, clutches, and differentials. It may be cheaper in the long run to call the tow truck rather than risk big repair bills down the road. It’s a good idea to carry a traction aid in the trunk, such as sand, gravel, or cat litter.
6. Lighten up your key chain
Does your car key share a chain with a dozen or more other keys? That’s a pretty heavy load hanging off the car key when it’s in the ignition.The weight, combined with bouncing while you drive, can wear out the tumblers inside the ignition and eventually lead to ignition switch failure.To add years of service to your ignition switch, purchase a lightweight key chain that allows you to separate your ignition key from the others. Drive with only the ignition key in your ignition. If your ignition key “sticks” when you try to turn on the car, it’s a warning that your ignition switch is about to fail. Replace it before you get stranded.
7. Choose a good car insurer
Sometimes, no matter how careful you are, disaster inevitably strikes — typically in the form of an accident. Make sure that your car will be repaired to the best possible standard by finding an insurer that will pay for parts from the original manufacturer and guarantee the repairs it authorizes.
8. Keep an auto log
Keep a pad and pencil in the glove compartment and use them to record your gas fill-ups and mileage. If you notice that your gas mileage worsens, mention it to your service man. It may be an early warning sign that something is wrong with your car.
9. Preserve your car during long-term storage
If you are not going to use your car for more than a month, store it properly to prevent unnecessary damage and repairs upon your return.
Fill the gas tank to help prevent condensation from accumulating in the gas tank. Add a fuel stabilizer and drive the car around a bit to distribute the additive to engine parts.
Wash and wax the car thoroughly to protect the finish.
Place a vapor barrier on your garage floor. A 4-mil polyethylene drop cloth will do.
Disengage the parking brake to help avoid brake corrosion.
Put the car on jack stands to take the weight of the vehicle off the wheels and tires.
Disconnect and remove the battery to keep it from draining. Place the battery on a trickletype charger. Or periodically drain the battery, using a small light bulb, and then recharge it with a low-volt charger.
Plug the tailpipe with a rag to prevent moist air from infiltrating into it.
While not everyone is planning on taking their car to a race track, most people do want to find ways to get more power out of their vehicle. The problem is, most people don’t understand how more power is made in the engine to begin with. The most straight forward way to get more power is to allow more air to get into your engine and pass through it quickly. The more air there is, the more combustion is made when the fuel is sparked inside the engine.
This means that you can get more boost from your car without having to drop in a new engine. But how do you get more air into your car? The easiest way is to keep your air filters clean. The longer you drive without changing or cleaning your air filters, the less air goes into your engine. If you are driving with a dirty filter, your car is actually doing more work to bring air in, and still creating less power. This will also take away from your gas mileage since more fuel is required to combust.
Another way to help air flow is to allow the air to exit your car faster. This is done through your car’s exhaust system. The bigger your exhaust pipe, the more air is allow to be pushed out of your car. But sometimes you don’t need to buy a new exhaust system, you just need to keep your exhaust pipes clean and unobstructed. By checking and cleaning your exhaust regularly, you will get more power, and it is another way to squeeze in a few miles per gallon.
If you are looking for easy solutions to get a little more kick out of your motor, as well as save some money at the tank, just be sure that you are keeping your air flow strong. If you have any other questions on how to put some more horses under the hood, feel free to come by, and we’ll help you out.
When you buy a new car, nothing is better than feeling the smoothness of a drive. Unfortunately, over time you may start to feel vibrations in your car as a result of wear and tear. The hardest thing about these vibrations is that they can be hard to pin point what is causing them. It can be anything from the tires to the engine.
While taking your car to a mechanic is the best thing to do if you are experiencing vibrations in your car, I found a great article from howstuffworks.com that may help you diagnose the problem.
Engine Problems
Sometimes a shake or shudder will emanate from the engine compartment, because the engine isn’t getting enough air, fuel or spark that it needs to run smoothly.
Symptoms that might indicate such an engine-related case of the shakes include the following:
Shudder or jerking occurs during acceleration
Staccato shaking, as if over a highway “rumble strip,” within a specific speed range
Car starts and drives fine for a while, but later begins to shake
Axle Problems
If an axle gets bent — which is actually quite easy to do in a collision or other mishap — it will create a jostle of a ride afterward. With this problem, the vibrating often picks up in intensity the faster you drive.
A related problem would be that the driveshaft also needs inspection. This rapidly spinning part transfers engine power to the rear axles and wheels in rear-wheel drive vehicles. If it’s bent, shaking may result.
Brake Problems
Do those bad vibrations appear or intensify when you apply the brakes? If so, there’s a strong possibility that your car is tooling about with a warped brake rotor, or rotors.
The rotor is the shiny, silver disc-shaped component on vehicles with a disc brake system. The rotor can get bent out of shape due to heavy wear and tear — basically, overheating from more stopping than that particular rotor can handle. Instead of being uniformly flat all the way across, a deformed rotor is raised or lowered on part of its surface. The calipers and brake pads, which squeeze the brake rotors to make the car stop, can’t get an even grip on a warped rotor. Hence, vibration.
Wheel Problems
One or more wheels may suffer from excessive “play,” or wobbliness, at the hub itself. The diagnosis and cure for this is pretty involved, as it could point to any of a number of issues. First, let’s just assume that each wheel is fastened securely to its hub with properly torqued lug nuts.
With that out of the way, the solution to a shaky wheel might entail replacing the wheel bearings. On most modern vehicles, wheel bearings are meant to last the life of the car or truck. But as you may already know, if you subject your vehicle to worse-than-typical wear-and-tear (off-roading, extremely hard driving, high mileage), it’s not unheard-of for bearings to wear out.
Another thing to look for is “runout.” This is the term that describes how much a wheel deviates from a perfectly circular rotation when it is spun. Wheel technicians use precision instruments to determine if runout on any particular wheel exceeds half an inch. Much of the time — but not all the time — the solution is a new wheel.
Tire Problems
The full list of ways in which tire issues can contribute to your vehicular shake, rattle and roll is a long one. But here are just some of the major ones:
Car vibrates at certain speeds — requires tire balance
Tires have separated tread — requires tire replacement
Uneven tire wear — requires tire rotation
Tires are “out of round” and roll unevenly – requires tire replacement
If you are experiencing car vibrations, be sure to read over the entire article to try to pin point the problem. The best thing you can do is take action as soon as the problem starts. Feel free to tell me if you are experiencing vibrations in your car.
When you decide to get a new car, there is one very important aspect of the purchase process…Leasing Vs. Buying: what’s better for you? Leasing a vehicle is a lot like renting an apartment. You pay a monthly fee to use it — but you don’t own it and aren’t making payments toward ownership. You have no equity stake in the deal. A leased vehicle remains the property of the lessor — the company that issued the lease.
Just like and apartment lease, a car lease will have a fixed term — typically two or three years. You’re obliged to make what amount to monthly rent payments for the length of the contract in order to continue using the vehicle.
With a lease, you’ll probably have to put down some cash, too, as “security deposit” at the lease inception. This money will be used to pay to cover any damage to the vehicle — things like body damage, stains on the seats, etc. — when you return it at the end of the lease.
Want to cancel your lease? You may be able to get out of the lease before the end of the contract — but typically there will be penalties, such as the forfeiture of your security deposit.
The big advantage with leasing is flexibility. You aren’t making a long-term commitment as is the case with buying.
The typical lease contract runs for 2-3 years. The typical new car loan, on the other hand, is 5-6 years. When the lease period is up, you can simply bring the car back and walk away. Or you can buy it if you like (by paying off the remaining balance — called the “residual value” — which you’ll negotiate in advance at the time of lease inception).
Another leasing plus: Since you are only renting the car, your total cash outlay should be much less. While you may have to come up with the security deposit, as well an initial payment, your monthly payment will be less than if you bought because it’s not based on the full purchase price (plus interest) as it would be if you bought the vehicle.
This means you’ll have more money in your pocket to spend on other things. Or, if you prefer, you can probably afford to drive a more expensive car when you lease — since the monthly payments will be comparatively lower. This is one of the biggest single attractions of leasing for many people. A car (or truck) that might cost you say $500-$600 per month to buy could be $100-$200 per month less to lease.
Another nice thing about leasing is that you’re always driving a new or nearly new vehicle — and you don’t have to worry about the potentially expensive repair and/or maintenance problems that inevitably crop up as a car ages and is no longer covered by the warranty. The leased car will typically be under factory warranty for the duration of the lease — and many lease contracts even have provisos that cover routine maintenance, such as oil changes, etc.
Of course, there are downsides to leasing.
For one, you won’t have anything tangible to show for your money at the end of the lease. If you spend, say, $10,000 on lease payments (about $400 per month) over two years, that $10,000 is gone — forever. Every penny you put toward the lease contract is now in the hands of the leasing company. And the car will be, too. You’ll have to either sign up for a new lease (and come up with the cash to do that), buy a new or used car (and come up with the cash for that) … or walk.
A person who buys his vehicle, on the other hand, has the comfort of knowing that one day, his vehicle will be “paid for” and — assuming it is still in good shape at that point — it’ll be “free transportation” until it breaks down or the owner decides to sell it.
In addition, a person who owns his car has equity (value) in the car or truck. Even though it will depreciate with each passing year, so long as it’s still serviceable transportation, it will always be worth something. That something can be used to help raise money to pay for a new one when the time comes – or for some other need.
The person who leases must start from scratch every time — every 2-3 years.
There’s also the mileage issue. If you exceed your maximum mileage, it can get very expensive. Per-mile charges over the stated maximum are often exorbitant. Be extremely careful about this. Don’t guess what your annual mileage is. Know. And figure accordingly.
Also: If you lease, you’re not allowed to modify the vehicle — and if you get into a fender bender, the car must be repaired on your nickel.
The person who owns his car, meanwhile, can drive it as much as he wants, and do pretty much whatever he feels like with it, too. He can swap out the stereo, add different wheels and tires, change the exhaust system — whatever. Do this with a leased car and you’ll have to pay whatever if takes to put the car back the way it was.
Probably the single biggest potential downfall with leasing is that the process is more complex than buying — and people who don’t understand often-inscrutable financial language can find themselves on the short end of the stick. Always closely read — and be sure you understand — every provision of the lease contract before you sign.
That same advice goes for a normal sales contract, but with a lease deal, the non-expert is much more vulnerable.
So, take your time — and be sure the deal’s right for you.
Here’s a nice video explaining the differences between leasing and buying a car.
You may think that jump starting a car is a simple, no-frills process, and it can be. However, there are necessary precautions that you must take when working to do this correctly and to prevent injury. You need to know that car battery actually is a “live” thing and contains explosive hydrogen gas. Albeit while it is a small amount, it is a battery charging by-product and can be dangerous.
Here are some rules to obey when jump starting a car:
• Always avoid having any flammable material that can produce sparks around a live battery. Furthermore, no live electric or flammable material should be kept around jumper cables that are in use.
• Remember to never hook a car battery in a position that could be considered a series circuit. If this is done, there is a high possibility your car’s entire electrical system could catch fire, also ruining the starter.
• When jump starting the car, make sure the batteries that are connecting have the same voltage. While most vehicles today use a 12 volt battery, some older models use batteries that have different properties.
• Always ensure that the batteries that are being connected to each other have the same polarity, in that they both have the negative terminal grounded.
• Keep the vehicles a reasonable distance from each other, do not let them touch.
• Make sure vent cap holes are not covered or obstructed by any material.
• Do not smoke while you are jump starting a car and keep lit cigarettes away from the batteries.
• If you are trying to jump start a car in cold weather first make sure that the battery electrolyte is not covered in ice or frost. This is highly likely if your car’s battery has been discharging liquid in cold weather.
• Make sure the electrolyte fluid stays away from your skin. Contact medical care if this fluid makes skin contact.
It is important that you work to make sure you and other parties stay safe when jump starting a car. Always use your hazard lights and make sure you are pulled into a secure location or parking lot. If at all possible, avoid jump starting a car on the side of a busy road or highway in inclement or bad weather. Not only do you increase your chances of doing something wrong because you have to maneuver a car to reach a stalled vehicle, but it is dangerous to be so close to traffic.
Finally, after you are done jump starting the car and feel confident that the vehicle has been sufficiently charged, make sure you turn on the headlights, the heater and rear defroster of the jump started vehicle and the vehicle that was being used for the charge as this will help reduce the possibility of a voltage spike after the jumper cables are disconnected. A voltage spike is very common, especially in cars that have computer controls. Follow these guidelines the next time you are faced with a car that needs a jump. Know it is an easy process, but you must consider correct safety measures in order to guarantee complete safety.
You waited 16 years and the day has finally come. The day your precious little snowflake hits the road on their own leaving you to hope and pray that they paid attention in their driver’s ed classes and are smart enough to eliminate distractions while driving. Crossing your fingers isn’t the only thing you can do too help your teen be a successful and safe driver, the car they drive will be playing a major role in that as well. So, what’s the best car for a first-time teen driver? It is the one that will decrease the odds of that first-time accident happening — and minimize the potential for harm if it does.
Even if your kid is mature and responsible, he or she is still inexperienced behind the wheel. The object is to shield your teen as much as possible from the almost inevitable consequences of youth and inexperience. It takes a lot of seat time to become familiar with how a car behaves in various situations — for example, in ice and snow, at night, under unexpected conditions — and also to get a feel for how others behave in their cars.
According to the National Motorist Association, the first 12-24 months are the “danger zone” when accidents due to errors of judgment, lack of experience — or just plain old being in the wrong place at the wrong time — are most likely to happen. It’s also why it costs so much to insure a 16 or 17-year-old driver.
Here are some general car-buying guidelines that will help keep your teen driver out of trouble:
* Choose a car.
SUVs and pick-ups are poor choices for first-time drivers — especially SUVs and trucks without 4WD. They tend to be light in the rear (because the weight of the engine/driveline is concentrated up front) and so have a tendency to fishtail during panic stops or when the road is slick. You can crutch this somewhat by loading up the bed (or cargo area) with a few hundred pounds of dead weight — or by springing for an SUV or pick-up that has 4WD. But even with 4WD, pick-ups and SUVs are inherently less stable, more tipsy, take longer to stop — and are thus more dangerous for a just-minted teenaged driver. It’s better to learn the essentials in a car before moving to a specialty vehicle of any type — whether it’s a pick-up, SUV or sports car.
* Choose a larger car.
Bigger and heavier is inherently safer — especially in the event of a crash into a fixed object (such as a tree) or with a larger vehicle (such as an SUV). Larger cars offer more built-in occupant protection because they’re able to absorb more force than smaller, lighter cars. Vehicles in the full and mid-sized category tend to score much better in crash testing than cars in the compact and smaller categories. Avoid subcompact-sized cars — even if they do get better gas mileage. A very small car like a Toyota Yaris or Honda Civic coupe stands little chance when T-boned by a Suburban.
* Choose a car that’s in good overall shape.
Basic reliability can be as important as basic safety. You don’t want your kid learning the hard way about bald tires, bad brakes, shot shocks and a worn out suspension. Whatever car you end up buying, take the time to make certain it is mechanically sound and completely roadworthy. Have a reputable shop or mechanic give it a thorough once over — and fix anything that needs fixing. Leave the broken down el-cheapo special “beater” for your son or daughter’s next car.
* Choose a car without a wing, hood scoop, loud exhaust or powerful engine.
Teens being teens, few have the judgment to resist being egged-on by other teens to “see what it’ll do.” If it looks fast or sounds fast you can bet they’ll want to see just how fast it really is. And the end result is often tragic. Just as new pilots don’t start out in F-18s, new drivers should be kept away from cars with capabilities beyond their limited experience. V-8s and powerful V-6s should be off the menu, period — but be careful about four-cylinder powered cars, too. Some modern four-cylinder engines have turbochargers and other power-adders that make them as or even more powerful than the V-8 muscle cars of the ’60s and ’70s.
Also keep in mind that you/you teen will pay much less to insure a basic sedan or wagon vs. anything “sporty” or powerful.
* If you do choose a small car, be sure it has multiple air bags.
Air bags protect against impact forces in a crash — and are particularly valuable in smaller vehicles as they compensate to some extent for smaller size and weight. If you must buy a smaller car, try and find one with both frontal and side-impact/curtain air bags as they will dramatically improve the survivability/crashworthiness of a smaller car, especially if it’s hit from the side by a larger vehicle.
* Choose a car with a manual transmission.
In some European countries, a license applicant must take his or her driver’s test in a car with a manual transmission. The reasoning is that a person who has mastered starting a car on a hill without stalling or rolling backward, who knows how to smoothly engage the right gear at the right time to safely merge into traffic and so on — has probably mastered the basic skills necessary to be a safe driver.
Modern cars are deceptively easy to “drive” in the sense of getting them going — and going very fast, too. Almost any 10-year-old could physically put the key in the ignition, move the handle from “Park” to “Drive” — and floor it right through the closed garage door and straight into your kitchen. Operating a manual transmission, on the other hand, is a skill that takes time to develop and which imparts respect for the skill it takes to do so competently. Learning to drive on a stickshift car is a great training tool that will help your teen become a better — and therefore safer — driver.
Bonus: a car with a manual transmission is usually capable of better fuel economy and is typically cheaper to buy, too.
* Choose FWD or AWD over RWD.
Front-drive cars (FWD) and all-wheel-drive cars (AWD) have better traction in rain and snow and so are more controllable than a rear-drive (RWD) car. Rear-drive cars also have a tendency to oversteer (tail out) when they begin to slide out of control — while front-drive cars tend to understeer (the front of the car “plows”), which is easier for the novice driver to deal with. If you must go with a rear-drive car, try and pick one that comes with some form of electronic traction control to limit wheelspin on slippery surfaces and ideally, an electronic stability control system — which uses the anti-lock brakes to keep the vehicle on course when it would otherwise begin to slip out of control.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly — do all you can teach your teen driver to drive with respect for others and to obey common sense as much as the letter of the law.
For example, “speeding” is considered by some to be the Primal Sin of driving; but tailgating can be more dangerous and likely to result in a wreck — even though cops don’t pay nearly as much attention to it as they do to drivers doing a a few MPH over the posted limit.
If you can afford it, consider enrolling your teen in a car control/vehicle dynamics/accident avoidance course such as those offered by Bob Bondurant, Skip Barber or other professional driving schools. These courses explain what happens during emergency situations — such as panic stopping or an abrupt swerve to avoid and obstacle on the road — and how to handle them — in a safe, controlled environment.
Though the cost can be high, it’s a lot cheaper than a totaled car — or a lost life.
Fort Worth, if you have any questions, comments or would like to bring your new teen driver in to test drive cars that you both can feel safe in, swing on by and check us out.
If your engine has been misfiring and you suspect a bad fuel injector, I’ve found a simple trick clean it out. Almost all of the fuel injectors these days fail because they are plugged up and not because of an electrical problem. Take a look at the video below for a quick trick.
Here are some signs to look for:
No-Start Condition
If a fuel filter is totally blocked or clogged to the point of blocking fuel flow to a vehicle’s engine, the vehicle will not start. Fuel combined with air is what is ignited inside a vehicle’s engine to get it started.
Hard-Start Condition
A partially blocked or clogged fuel filter will often result in a vehicle that is hard to start. Adequate fuel flow to a vehicle’s engine is needed to produce engine starting. A reduced or restricted fuel flow to a vehicle’s engine will hinder normal starting.
Frequent Engine Stalling
For a vehicle’s engine to run efficiently and adequately, a constant flow of fuel needs to reach the engine. Any disruption of this fuel flow, which is what happens when a fuel filter is clogged, can cause an engine to frequently stall.
Engine Hesitation
Engine hesitation is a common symptom of a clogged fuel filter. By causing an abnormal fuel flow to a vehicle’s engine, a condition that results in abnormal engine combustion and reduced engine power, a clogged fuel filter can cause an engine to hesitate or stumble during acceleration.
Erratic Engine Performance
A clogged fuel filter often results in erratic engine performance by causing an abnormal or alternating pattern of fuel flow into a vehicle’s engine. Under heavy acceleration or at high engine speeds, fuel pressure may be sufficient to allow adequate fuel flow past a partially clogged filter, which results inadequate engine performance. When engine speed is reduced, fuel flow may be restricted to the point of causing reduced engine power and performance.
Now if you are still experiencing problems, then it is advisable to take the “Old Girl” in and have the Pros take a look at her.
Would you know a transmission problem if you heard it? Do you think that you may have a transmission issue, then this video is for you. There are two types of transmissions manual or automatic, and signs of failing transmissions include unusual noises, grinding gears and whining sounds. Find out how transmission gears can wear out if the transmission isn’t lubricated properly with help from an auto mechanic in this free video on car maintenance.
Did this video help in any way? If you think you may have a transmission problem, or might be developing on because you’ve heard some strange noises, I suggest you bring it in for us to look at. A catastrophic transmission failure can not only cost you a lot of money, it can also leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere.
So, take a listen when you are driving…that’s right, turn down the radio and actually listen to your car…I can give you a lot of warning BEFORE it needs tuning.
You probably have noticed a set of numbers and letters on the side of your tires before, but not all know what they mean. They may seem a little perplexing, however they’re really very simple to understand. In this case we’ll focus on one of the most purchased tire sizes: P 215 / 60 R 16 89S.
In this case the P is P-metric (it can be remembered as Passenger) meaning that the tire is meant for use on Passenger vehicles. This can include Light Trucks, SUVs, Vans, and certainly regular cars.
Others you may find are:
T which is placed on the spare – it stands for temporary.
LT is for Light Truck metric and is designed for tires on automobiles capable of carrying sizable loads and trailers. Trucks and SUVs will often have LT tires.
C means for commercial and will typically be seen on vans and delivery trucks that can move big loads.
ST means Special Trailer and really should only be used on utility, boat, or car trailers. They should never be put on regular cars or light trucks.
If your tire doesn’t contain a first letter it simply means the tire size is metric size and mostly found on cars in Europe.
This is the collection of numbers after the first set of letters. It defines how wide the tire is from the widest portion of the outside sidewall to the widest part of the inner sidewall. In this case the value is 215 millimeters (nearly 8.5 inches – simply divide the value by 25.4 to see it in inches).
Following the first group of digits and a slash is a two digit value that defines the tire’s aspect ratio. This is the percentage of the tire’s sidewall height in comparison to the section height. In this case it is sixty which means the section height is nearly five inches. The larger the number is the taller the sidewall is and the lower the number the smaller the sidewall will be.
After the second set of numbers is a letter or two (R in this case). This stands for the tire’s construction type. R means that the tire is a radial. This will be seen on most all cars. Another letter you may see is D which means the plies are diagonal. This will most usually be found on light trucks and spares. If the letter is a B it stands for Belted and implies that the plies are reinforced with belts and are crisscrossed. This will not be seen on many cars these days.
Together with the second group of letters you can sometimes spot a second letter, most likely a Z, which stands for the tire’s speed rating.
Many tires will also have a final set of numbers and letters. The Service Description for the tire can be found here. They define the speed rating and load index. In our example the last three are 89S. This means that the tire has a load index of 89 and a speed rating of S. 89 equates to 1323 pounds (per tire). S means the tire is safe at speeds of up to 112 miles per hour.
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