Car tyre limits

BeenThroughItAll

arcon5 wrote: »

As for DVSA, DVLA, VOSA ---- how about the pedantics around here shut it, everybody know what op mean and nobody cares about your superior knowledge about which agency it is now

Just because you can't be arsed to care, doesn't mean the rest of us should not. It also doesn't give you the right to tell us to 'shut it'. And it is important - especially since you can't even tell the difference between DVLA and another two agencies which have never had even close to similar responsibilities. In your eyes, we should surely still be happily referring to the DVLC, I presume?

Oh, and another thing... It's 'pedants'.

Johnmcl7

AdrianC wrote: »

Still eminently possible...

No, it's not eminently possible for a tyre with sufficient tread depth across the tyres to fail an MOT for not having sufficient tread depth. My point was the garage were scaremongering me into replacing the tyres on the basis they were going to fail the MOT when that wasn't the case at all and I can see other people who haven't checked their tyres falling for this.

John

AdrianC

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

No, it's not eminently possible for a tyre with sufficient tread depth across the tyres to fail an MOT for not having sufficient tread depth.

It is, however, possible for a tyre to have 4mm tread in the deepest part, but not over 3/4 of the width, or with no visible tread pattern on other parts. Which would be illegal and a fail.

Johnmcl7

AdrianC wrote: »

It is, however, possible for a tyre to have 4mm tread in the deepest part, but not over 3/4 of the width, or with no visible tread pattern on other parts. Which would be illegal and a fail.

Then quite simply that would mean it would have insufficient tread depth - as I said, my tyres were measured as having sufficient tread depth which the garage admitted when pushed therefore it would have been impossible for it to fail on insufficient tread depth. When talking about sufficient tread depth it's completely pointless to be talking about one specific point on the tyre as that's not how it's measured nor what defines the legality, so that's not how I was referring to it.

John

AdrianC

Perhaps not, but if you were referring back to somebody having said "Ooh, it's 4mm" a month earlier, it may well be how they'd measured it.

Joe_Horner

AdrianC wrote: »

It is, however, possible for a tyre to have 4mm tread in the deepest part, but not over 3/4 of the width, or with no visible tread pattern on other parts. Which would be illegal and a fail.

Car tyres can be bald outside the central 3/4 and pass. It's only vehicles that have the old 1mm depth limit (basically lorries, buses and motorbikes iirc) that must have all tread visible.

Depending on the original tread pattern, cars may also have some grooves at less than 1.6mm - or even completely worn away - within that central portion because it's only the primary grooves (normally the ones with wear indicators in them) that matter.

The chance of a car tyre being worn so unevenly that it has 4mm in one of the primary grooves but less than 1mm in another primary is pretty remote!

Norman_Castle

74jax wrote: »

I had my car in for an MOT at the dealer where I bought it, it failed on a tyre - the garage said it was 1mm and that they couldn't allow me to drive my car away without it being changed.

Are you sure they didn't say you cannot remove the car, replace the tyre, then return for an MOT pass.

74jax

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Are you sure they didn't say you cannot remove the car, replace the tyre, then return for an MOT pass.

It was back in November, when my dad died. Hand on heart I can't remember his exact words other than a call earlier in the day saying it had failed and for me to collect the car I would need the tyre changed.


We had various emails back and forth of photos, etc, and my tyre place sending their records from a month earlier, then I had some news and just called the garage and asked them to change the tyre as I needed my car asap.


I collected the car, made sure I kept the tyre and left.


It's only now I am wondering if I can still use the tyre when one of my tyres wears down, which I think I will do. I will store the tyre in the conservatory until I need it.

Mercdriver

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

No, that Sandy Lane centre was the old VOSA site.

OP - the point being made here is that VOSA does not exist any more, it has been replaced by DVSA.

You didn't speak to VOSA, but you may have spoken to DVSA. They took over the majority of VOSA's responsibilities.

This isn't the only forum I belong to that will take over a whole thread just for the sake of pedantry!

BeenThroughItAll

Mercdriver wrote: »

This isn't the only forum I belong to that will take over a whole thread just for the sake of pedantry!

Or for the purposes of having a pop at pedantry, I assume?


If you notice, the first line of that post was actually imparting a fact about the Sandy Lane site, a site I drive past several times a week. The pedantry was tacked on to the factual content.