Replacement tyres

Why would I need replacement tyres on a new lease car?

While your new lease car will naturally come with new tyres, they may not last the lifetime of the lease, especially if you have opted for a longer lease or if you are a high mileage driver. If you have opted to lease an electric car you may find that your tyres wear faster than you are used to as EV’s are typically heavier than their conventional petrol and diesel equivalents.

As well as wear due to regular use, tyres can also be damaged by debris in the road at any time. You should check your tyres regularly as a matter of routine.

What checks should I carry out on my tyres?

To ensure that you vehicle is both safe and fuel efficient you should check the tyre pressure regularly to ensure that all your tyres are set to the manufacturers recommended pressure levels. A modern car is likely to have tyre pressure sensors installed. A sudden drop in pressure on one tyre may mean that you have a slow puncture. Check your tyre for sharp items such as screws or nails that may have punctured it but partly blocked the leak. If your tyre does have a slow puncture, get it replaced as quickly as possible to avoid a sudden blow out.

You should also check your tread depth regularly to ensure that you have a good depth of tread across the whole of all you tyres. The legal minimum tread depth is 1.6 mm, but the tyres performance will start to deteriorate when the tread is less than 3 mm. Most manufacturers and motoring organisations recommend that you consider changing your tyres when the tread depth falls below 4 mm.

You should also check the side walls of your tyres for damage. A cut in the side wall is a puncture risk and could render the tyre illegal for road use.

How do I know what tyre to buy for my car?

If you are replacing a tyre or tyres on your car you should always fit the correct tyre size for your vehicle. You can look up the tyre size on the side of the old tyre or find it online via a registration look up with our partner National.

Tyre width

The three-digit number tells you how wide your tyre is. This figure is in millimetres and is the nominal measurement from sidewall to sidewall at the tyre’s widest point.

Profile / Aspect ratio

The aspect ratio indirectly tells you how tall your tyre is. It is expressed as a percentage of the tyre’s width.

Contruction

The optional letter following the aspect ratio indicates how the body of the tyre is constructed. Standard construction for almost all consumer tyres is radial ply, which is indicated by an R.

Rim diameter

Following the tyre body construction letter is a two-digit number that tells you the diameter of the rims that the tyre is meant to be mounted on. This measurement is expressed in inches.

Load index

The tyre load index indirectly states how much weight a tyre can bear. It is a numerical code that can be used along with a standardised reference table to look up the tyre’s actual safe load, in pounds, at maximum inflation pressure.

Speed rating

The tyre’s speed rating is also expressed indirectly, this time using a letter code. This letter can be used to look up the maximum speed that the tyre can safely withstand with a fully loaded vehicle (according to its load index rating).