Trying to find Tyre tread rules

Wig

The written rule is easy enough to fiind, but what about pictures of tyres that are legal and tyres that are not. A picture says a 1000 words. And if I had a digital camera I'd give you guys a picture.

My spare wheel has the three central grooves easily at least 3mm deep and the TWI are there below the surface. But it's the little treads towards the edges. on one side there is barely a mm on the other the small treads are gone completely. but the side treads are all intact. and right in the centre of the tyre between the "blocks" is another raised tread area which is worn to almost nothing.

Here the red parts are filled on the tyre with a higher tread which is at a height greater than the twi which are indicated in yellow, and the red bits are not all the way across between the blocks it is as indicated they are only about 1cm long and the groove between each block is 2cm, so there is 5mm of groove either side of the red parts


How can this tyre be illegal if the twi have not come anywhere near being touched let alone worn. The only way I can explain this is to say it looks as though this tyre started out in life with 6mm tread on the main parts and only 3mm tread on some of the minor parts, the 3mm has worn down to almost dissappear in some parts but I still have 3mm in the main treads.

I have just been to a tyre man he said it was legal, the problem is the MOT tester might say it's not, I have to be sure of the law so I can challenge his decision at the gov test centre. The tyre man said another guy he told his tyre was legal the MOT guy failed it the other week.

I'll try to find a picture online and photoshop it to highlight what I mean. (edit I did this already it is the picture above with the red & yellow bits)

pompeyrich

Spare tyres are not part of the MOT so no need to worry

Wig

I want to change a wheel to the spare before the test because one of other tyres has a small cut on it which could also possibly fail

jrrowleyws

If its an MOT fail its dangerous. For your own safety you shouldnt change it and then change it back to the other just to "pass". A cut can cause a blowout, which if you crashed could cause you to lose more than a few tenners for a new tyre.

Tyres are the only point of contact your car has with the road, dont cut corners!

Wig

Oh puuuhhhlleeeeze! Give it a break. I'm asking if this tyre is legal or not if not what are the rules to say this? How can a tyre have varying tread depths all over and TWI set lower than some of the treads?

Neither of my tyres are dangerous IMO, but I don't want them to fail on some idiot tester who thinks I'm going to pay his companies prices for a new tyre. What horror stories you want to throw at me about blow outs...I'm not interested!

jrrowleyws

No need to be rude, I only stated the facts.

rikbar

Wig,

No need to be rude to people about their comments, tyres are one of the most important parts of a car as they are the bit that keeps you on the road. While you may think it a silly matter that your tyres, by your own admission, are potentially dangerous, the third party you hit when you spin out of control may not be laughing. If you think the tyres are liable to fail due to damage or wear look for a cheap replacement prior to the test, then you have no need to worry about whether they will pass or fail.

Tyres rarely wear evenly mainly due to suspension problems, incorrect tracking, hard cornering/driving style or inflation errors.

Over inflated tyres will wear in the centre, underinflated will wear on the shoulders. Hard cornering will wear the outside edges and tracking problems or suspension problems can cause uneven wear.

Any of these could be your problem, and as such the tyre that is spare may have been kept after this issue was rectified, and your current tyres may not show the same wear.

Hope this helps and good luck with the test

rikbar

Sorry for the double post but I found this on the Dunlop site, I believe that all tyres shown here are MOT faliures

http://www.dunloptyres.co.uk/ourTyres/car/tyreCare/

Cheers

Wig

You're another one, I'm not interested in people giving me safety advice. I am perfectly cabable of assessing my own risk when it comes to cars.

This is not uneven wear if you look at the picture in the OP you can see the red areas are throughout the tyre they are areas where the tread is much higher than the surrounding tread and they are also much higher than the TWIs.

Wig

Thanks for your link though, it doesn't have a picture resembling my tyre but I did see this there

"No tyre must have a break in its fabric or a cut deep enough to reach the body cords. No cut must be more than 25mm or 10 per cent of the tyre's section width in length, whichever is the greater."

So it seems my cut tyre is probably legal I'll have to double check it. dunno what the bit in bold means though, anyone ?

MrsTinks

Rule of MSE number 1

Please be nice to all Money Savers

I am sure the people who have taken the time to reply have no intention of costing you money but only have your safety in mind

Also - an MOT certificate is invalid even as you leave the test centre IF the vehicle is not road worthy. If your tyre passes or not - if you get stopped and the police deem it "not safe" then you will get 3 points PER illigal tyre (I am not certain about spare tyres if you would get 3 points for that too) and a fine. And spare tyres DO count in an MOT you are right there - if the car has one (it doesn't have to if I remember rightly...) it must be road worthy!

As far as the law goes on thread then this page give a good illustration of what is legal and what isn't.

As far as being able to assess your own safety... if your tyre has a "nick" in it it is possibly illegal - this is not because people want to fleece you and sell you a new tyre, it's because the tyre has a much higher chance of blowing out when being driven. If the MOT centre fails you then you don't have to buy your tyre from them, infact I'd recommend you don't - shop around for a good price! The MSE way But saving £ should NEVER take priority over safety - yours and other road users whom you might crash into if you have a blow out on an unsafe tyre

Thanks

Tine