How Long Do Tires Last?

Asking how long tires last is a pretty open–ended question and there are dozens of factors that can play into it. With the right driving habits, maintenance, and care, you can make tires last through their entire warranty phase and maybe beyond, which on average is 45,000-60,000 miles. On the other hand, tires that are poorly maintained, overloaded, underinflated, or abused might not last for 20,000 miles. One thing for sure, though, is that tires are one of the most important parts of your driving experience and your safety, since they’re what’s actually in contact with the pavement every time you drive. We’re going to break down some of the things you need to be aware of if you want to get the longest service life out of a set of tires on your vehicle.

What affects the lifespan of a tire?

These are just a few of the things that can figure into the service life of your tires:

• Proper inflation: Tires need to be inflated to the specifications that are recommended by the vehicle manufacturer. Don’t go with the recommended inflation on the tire’s sidewall; refer to the inflation that’s specified on the automaker’s sticker (usually found on the door frame on the driver’s side). Underinflated tires will overheat due to heightened rolling resistance, causing the tire to wear prematurely, use more fuel to get down the road, and (worse still) lead to a dangerous situation with impaired handling and braking.
• Proper wheel alignment: Think for a moment about someone who walks with their right foot skewed to the side. That person’s right shoe is going to wear differently from the left one, and that’s not a lot different from what happens to a tire that’s out of spec as far as wheel alignment. Your vehicle leaves the factory with the wheels set to predetermined angles for the best handling, ride quality, and road manners. A hard hit on a curb or pothole can be enough to jolt a wheel out of alignment and, as you drive down the road, that tire will constantly try to steer the vehicle in a different direction. As you keep driving in a straight line, that tire gets dragged along and will quickly scrub off its tread along the outside or inside edge.
• Balance: As tires lose their tread and wear down, their balance changes due to a reduction in the mass of rubber. When a wheel alignment or tire rotation is performed, the balance of all four tires should be checked. An out-of-balance tire will cause a vibration, maybe at only specific speed ranges, and the tire that’s poorly balanced will “hop” and wear prematurely.
• Overloading: Do you drive a truck that often carries heavy loads or tows a trailer? You need to be mindful of the load rating for your tires, as an overloaded vehicle will cause tires to wear prematurely and can be downright dangerous as far as handling and braking.
• Ozone: If a vehicle is parked outside for long periods without being driven, exposure to the elements and ozone can be enough to start breaking down the rubber compounds that the tire is made from. That will show as cracking or “dry rot” on the tire’s sidewalls; minor cracking may not be a big concern, but a dense network of cracks is dangerous and can lead to tire failure.
• Abuse: This should be a no-brainer, but if your driving habits include breaking traction and burning rubber on hard acceleration, or hard cornering or braking, your tires are going to wear a lot more quickly!
• Age: Tires have a definite shelf life. Even a set of tires that has 15-20,000 miles on it can be due for replacement if those tires are more than five or seven years old. Age and exposure to the elements will just start to break a tire down over time, unless that tire was stored in a cool, dark place the whole time.

Signs that it's time for new tires

Sometimes people just don’t realize when it’s time to move on and get a new set of tires. It’s important to be aware of all the signs that mean your tires are just about at the end of their service life.

Bald spots

A bald spot (or a series of them) on a tire usually means that tire has been driven out-of-balance, although bald spots, “cupped” wear, or “feathered” wear can be due to worn suspension parts or a failure to rotate the tires regularly. In either case, you could be looking at an unsafe situation and should have your vehicle gone over by a reputable shop.

Cracks and splits

Cracks and splits are to the aging/dry-rot issue we were talking about a minute ago. Tires that are starting to show cracks in the sidewall are just plain dangerous and can lead to complete tire failure. Splits in the tread are an even bigger problem, meaning that the tire is starting to come apart internally and could be in danger of separating at highway speed, leading to a blowout and possibly an accident.

Worn tread

This, of course, is the most common scenario. You’ve been able to get 50,000 or 70,000 miles out of that set of tires, you’ve been diligent about wheel alignment, tire rotation, inflation, and everything else, but they’re just wearing down to the point where they’re not safe anymore. These are things to look out for:

• Wear bars showing at the base of the tread grooves. Tires are designed with wear bars that are molded into the casing at a right angle to the tread grooves, and when the tread wears down to a point where the bars are flush with the face of the tread itself, your tires are in need of replacement.
• Degraded ride quality, handling, braking performance, and increased noise. The extra rubber in a tire’s tread helps cushion the ride and keep road noise low, and a tire that’s worn down to the point of not handling or braking well is dangerous. Tires that are this worn are especially dangerous on wet pavement, since the tread grooves are too worn and shallow to effectively be able to evacuate water from the tire’s contact patch anymore.
• Decreased tread depth. It’s pretty easy to check your tread depth with a coin. Minimum tread depth by state law is 2/32”, so stick a penny into the base of a tread groove. If the tread reaches the Lincoln Memorial, your tread depth is 6/32”. Try again with a quarter – if the tread touches the top of George Washington’s head, tread depth is 4/32”. Finally, if you insert a penny and the tread touches the top of Lincoln’s head, your tread depth is 2/32” and your tires will definitely be due for replacement.

How to make your tires last longer

The good news is that it’s fairly easy to make your tires last through their entire service life. Just be aware of some maintenance and care items, even though it’s easy to just walk away and forget about tires as part of routine maintenance (at least until something goes wrong).

Regular maintenance

These are not only important details, but they’re things that will void a tire warranty if you neglect them:

• Tire rotation: Since braking, acceleration, and cornering all shift the vehicle’s weight due to momentum and inertia, that means that tires will be subjected to those stresses. Regular tire rotations (roughly about every 5,000 miles) will ensure that tires will wear evenly. You’ll notice a difference in your vehicle’s road manners and handling every time after a rotation.
• Proper inflation: We talked about the importance of proper tire inflation above, for your car’s safety and fuel economy as well as the lifespan of the tires. Even under regular circumstances, tires will lose a pound or two of inflation over the course of a month as air molecules migrate through the rubber walls of a tire. Always check your tire inflation when the tires are cold, before air has had a chance to heat up and expand enough to throw off the reading. Use a good-quality tire pressure gauge (don’t rely on the one built into the air hose at a gas station), check all four tires, and top off as needed.
• Vehicle maintenance: Like we pointed out above, your tires will wear unevenly due to poor wheel alignment, worn suspension parts, or worn shock absorbers. A vehicle with poor wheel alignment will pull to one side or the other while you drive in a straight line, and the steering will feel “heavy” with poor return to center after rounding a corner. If you’re noticing those kinds of problems, have your alignment checked.
• Tire inspection: From time to time, just have a good look at your tires for damage, bulges, uneven wear, excessive wear, cracks, or any debris stuck in the tread. Run a hand lightly over the tread itself and feel for roughness or a “sawtooth” texture, which can be enough to indicate a problem.

Driving habits

This probably should go without saying, but:

• Avoid hard cornering when possible
• Avoid hard braking when possible
• Go easy over ruts, railroad tracks, potholes
• Don’t break traction and burn rubber when you accelerate

Storage

In some parts of the country that see a lot of snow that lingers for weeks, winter tires are the only way to safely get around. If you need winter tires, remember that their tread compound is designed to stay soft at sub-freezing temperatures but will wear quickly in warmer weather, which is why winter tires should not be used when temps are consistently above 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Your winter tires should be stored either in special tire storage bags or in taped-up black trash bags, then stored away from sunlight and any electrical devices like motors or fans that can generate ozone.