Why does your car keep getting flat tires?
Multi wheeler vehicles have completely changed the way humans commute to places. They have made a great number of contributions to society by enabling people to travel easier. Tyres have a long way ever since they were discovered in the stone age. At first, they used to be carved out of rocks and were only used for making small carrying carts. Tyres in the present day have evolved as a result of multiple innovations and offer their best to cope with modern transportation needs.
However, tyres might tend to frustrate someone who is often harassed by their faults. Nothing is more annoying than taking your car to a servicing shop for a frequent car tyre repair. While a tyre generally suffers from problems like puncture or tears, sometimes the problems go beyond them. Different reasons are possible for such failure. Here’s a detailed rundown of what might lead to the flat tires:
Rotting:
Modern car tyres are made out of a mixture of natural and composite rubber. As a tyre is exposed to extreme weather conditions for longer periods, its surface begins to develop melt spots. These melt spots are nothing but degradation that occurs due to the rotting of the rubber used to make tyres.
It usually occurs due to comparatively less heat resistance of the rubber tyres and is likely to affect the sidewalls of a tyre. Rotting is sometimes also believed to be occurring due to the natural decay of natural rubber; leading to a brittle surface.
This brittle surface further leads to cracking and flaking in the near future by drying out the rubber moisture in the decaying process. Here are some of the reasons that cause the rot and eventually lead to a car tyre replacement:
- Parking the car around toxic, corrosive chemicals.
- Exposure to extreme weather and excessive temperatures.
- High damage from Ultra Violet rays coming from the sun.
- Not using a car for a very long time.
- Relatively lower tyre pressure.
While such kind of degradation might seem inevitable to avoid at first, they can be prevented with the assistance of regular inspections. Activities like regularly gauging a tire to regulate its pressure and inflating it when needed assures that the car tyre stays intact even if the car stays parked for a long time. Rubber and direct sunlight do not go hand in hand and decay the rubber. Such a natural decay can be avoided by parking the car in a shed or garage.
Leaking bead:
A leaking tyre bead, also known as wheel leak, rim leak, or bead-seat surface leaks may also lead to car tyre replacement.
To explain what to take care of, a tire bead is a holding edge that indicates where a tire fits inside a rim or a wheel. This holding edge is made out of hard metal-reinforced metal. Such a composite material offers resistive advantages like an airtight seal and tyre grip on the rims.
Rim leaks are mostly a result of a bad car tyre replacement taken from unauthorized car tyre repair providers or corroded/bent/damaged tyre rims often caused by accidental damage or keeping a car exposed to extremely moist conditions.
Bad valve stem:
A car tyre has a lot going on when it is moving on the road. A tyre has to not only resist the friction of movement but also has to face the severity of different terrains it passes through. Pressure regulation is one of the crucial operations that keeps a car stable and keeps it going for miles to come.
A valve stem helps regulate tyre pressure. Core and cap are the two most important components that help regulate such pressure by allowing the air to enter and exit out of the tyre tube and keeping the contaminants out of the tube. Assistive devices like pressure monitoring systems help a valve stem in this entire process.
Valve stems too age with time and may develop cracks due to different factors. Such damaged components can cause serious issues like bad pressure regulation, rim leaks, and even recurring flat tyres in some cases. Driving a car with such bad components can degrade the performance of a car by resulting in premature tyre treading, less fuel economy, and poor handling. Such kind of issues can be addressed by swapping the old valve stems for new ones.
Bad monitoring:
Modern cars are equipped with a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). This system smartly tracks tire pressure with the help of sensors and notifies people if is lower than a certain value. This is highlighted by a lit-up dashboard sign that looks like an exclamation sign in a circle.
Sometimes this light may turn on randomly, even when a tyre’s pressure is normal. Issues like bad wiring, uncalibrated sensors, or weak batteries are often the culprit behind this and often light up the sign after a minor servicing like a tire rotation or sensor calibration. TPMS is a sensitive device and is often known to break under situations when cheap replacement solutions are used to fix old components. Such light may overwhelm and lead a car owner to go for car tyre replacement for no good reason.
Age of tyre:
This goes without saying: tyres age too. Car tyres are made out of rubber and it degrades over time. Whether the tyres are used or not, they tend to degrade over time. Degradation is visible in terms of quality and reliance one could have on them as opposed to freshly manufactured tyres.
Tyres have the same on the road and shelf life of about 4-5 years. Car tyres, whether they are actively used or kept in storage should be discarded after 5 years. This is because tyres used beyond their healthy life are bound to often cause troubles like flat tyres, rim damage, and so on. On-road tyres used beyond 5 years are likely to have developed cracks; leading to excessive rotting and eventually to flat tyres and blown tubes in some cases.
Whenever such kind of issues are noticed, they should be immediately brought to the notice of car service providers. This ensures that a major issue is averted and saves one from running into flat tyres frequently.
