What Should You Look For When Buying Used Tires

Buying brand new tires can be an intimidating task, much less buying used tires. Used tires have the possibility of being too used, risking damage to yourself, your car, or even others. So what can you do to ensure that you are buying safe, dependable used tires?



Looking up reviews about a tire store is always a good start. See what the general consumer consensus is about the shop. Do they treat their customers well? Do they go above and beyond the basic level of service? Are they dependable and fair? If so, then they're worth looking into buying used tires from. If they seem like they take cheap shortcuts and cause more problems for their customers than they fix, you might want to keep looking.

Once you've determined a good place to shop, you'll want to take a look at the actual tires.

Fist, make sure you're looking at the correct size tires for your car. The size of the tire is shown on the side of the tire and usually starts with P or LT. It's always a good idea to check your car's manual instead of assuming that your current tires are the correct size. If you don't have a car manual, you can also check for a metal tag in your driver's door jamb, your glove compartment door, or your fuel hatch.

Once you're looking at the right tire size, then check the physical condition of the tire for this possible wear and tear.

Thread Water

Use the penny test to figure out if the tires have enough tread. Take a penny and put it in the middle of the tire's tread. You want to be able to see the heads side of the coin, with the top of Lincoln's head towards the tire. If the tread covers up Lincoln's hair, then the tire has plenty of tread left. If you can see the space between Lincoln's head and the edge of the penny, the tread is too worn out. Move on to the next pair of tires. If you can't see that space, but you can see some of Lincoln's hair, then there is still some life left in the tires, but proceed with caution.

Wear Distribution

So now that you have determined how much wear there is on the treads, check for how the wear is distributed. It should be even across the face of the tire. Be wary of wear that is only on one side of the tire, is only in the middle of the tire, is only on one place on the tire, or is in spots across the tire (cupping). Also look for bubbles or pockets of air underneath the rubber of the tire. Uneven wear diminishes the effectiveness of a tire and can be dangerous to use.

Matching Treads

Try to find treads that match, whether this is replacing one tire and matching it to your other tires, or finding four tires that all match each other. Having tires with the different treads can reduce the effectiveness of the tires as a set, causing more wear or dangerous driving conditions.

Punctures/Patching

Check the sides (and insides, if you can) of the tire for patches, plugs, etc. If a tire has several repairs done to it, it's probably an indicator of a problem tire.

Leo and Ed's proudly offers only the top quality used tires. We would be more than happy to help you find the perfect used tires for your car, keeping you, your family, and your friends safe, happy, and confident in the tires on your vehicle!