GreenYour.com

Maintain your tires to maximize the fuel efficiency of your car or truck. Maintaining your tires reduces fuel consumption and emissions from your vehicle.

How to maintain your tires

The key to keeping your tires in tip top shape is to know your unique vehicular requirements. You can find information about your tires in your vehicle owner's manual or in the tire information placard in the driver's door frame, glovebox, or trunk. The tire information placard contains information about:

• Correct tire size
• Tire inflation pressure
• Vehicle capacity weight (how much the vehicle can safely carry in both passenger and cargo weight)
• Gross axle weight ratings (how much weight the front and rear axles are designed to carry)

Now that you've got some background knowledge of your particular car, you can begin proper, regular maintenance procedures:

• Conduct a visual inspection: Check your tires for cuts, slashes, nails or other punctures, and any other irregularities. If you find any damage to the tire or other irregularities, the tire should be inspected by a licensed mechanic.
• Keep 'em inflated: At least once a month, check your tire air pressure. [Keep your tires properly inflated|Keeping your tires properly inflated] is a crucial part of properly maintaining your tires and reduces both fuel consumption and emissions.
• Ensure regular rotations: Every five thousand miles (or as directed by the manufacturer), have your tires rotated and your wheel alignment checked. Rotating your tires means having your front and rear tires switched and moved to the other side of your vehicle to ensure even wear. Tires should be rotated in the following manner:

• Maintain proper alignment: Have your wheel alignment checked by a trained technician with the proper equipment every time your tires are rotated. If necessary, have your alignment adjusted so that the wheels are positioned correctly. This should correct any steering anomalies that might exist, such as veering to the left or right on a straight, level road, and will help to maximize both your fuel efficiency and the life of your tires.

Maintaining your tires helps you go green because…

• It can improve your vehicle's fuel economy by up to 10 percent.[1]
• Using less fuel equals lower carbon dioxide emissions. Conserving just 1 percent of the fuel used by an average vehicle each year (about eight gallons of gas) would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by that vehicle by over 150 pounds per year.
• It prolongs the life of your tires, which means that fewer raw materials need to be consumed to make new replacement tires (each automobile tire contains about 2.5 gallons of oil, for example).[2] Prolonging the life of your tires helps keep them out of the waste stream, which minimizes the risk of other environmental problems like tire fires.

There are over 160 million cars and light trucks in the US, and over 126 billion gallons of gasoline are consumed by them each year.[3] Thirty percent of all of the carbon dioxide emitted each year in the US comes from cars and light trucks.[3] If every car and light truck had their tires properly maintained, less fuel would be consumed and less carbon dioxide would be emitted by driving.

Related health issues

Proper tire maintainance is critical to the safe operation of your vehicle. The major causes of tire failures like blowouts, flat tires, and tread separation are underinflation, overinflation, and overloading. Properly maintaining your tires not only improves your fuel economy and prolongs the life of your tires, but also impacts the steering, braking, and traction of your vehicle.

External links

• Green Car Congress
• FuelEconomy.gov - Keeping Your Car in Shape
• Rubber Manufacturers Association
• US Department of Transportation - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Tire Safety page