Shaking. If you consistently feel shaking or vibration in your steering wheel at speeds at or above 40mph, your tires need attention. Shaking is often a sign of uneven wear and rotation may solve the problem. However, if the vibration persists following rotation, you need new tires.
Worn tires are more likely to lose air pressure, which impacts a car's fuel economy, braking and steering. Low pressure is also a major cause of tire blowouts, and blowouts can potentially lead to losing control of a vehicle.
If the treads are gone and the surface of the tires is smooth, you have bald tires. If you forget to look, your tires will let you know by losing traction on wet roads, skidding when you come to a sudden stop, or becoming harder to steer at high speeds.
Wheel and tire problems
The most prevalent cause of vibration is problems with your wheels or tires. The potential problems include improper wheel and tire balance, uneven tire wear, separated tire tread, out of round tires, damaged wheels and even loose lug nuts.
Bald tires are more easily punctured due to the lack of remaining tread. In addition to the possibility of a flat tire, a puncture could cause a blowout, and might even result in a loss of control of your vehicle.
To put it simply, bald tires are not safe. A car with bald tires may not break down after driving 200 miles on the highway, but bald tires can cause a lack of control, hydroplaning, blowouts and understeering. Bald tires in wet weather increase stopping distance.
Tire Noise That Sounds Like Trouble
Alignment problems, suspension issues, or improper tire inflation can all cause strange or unusual tire noise that sounds a bit like thumping or bumping. Misaligned or underinflated tires might sound like squealing or screeching.
It may be tentative, but tires do have an expiration date. There is a general consensus that most tires should be inspected, if not replaced, at about six years and should be absolutely be swapped out after 10 years, regardless of how much tread they have left. How do you know how old your tires are?
New tires will naturally feature maximum tread depth. This fresh tread is stiff, smooth, deep, and could feel like unyielding, thick cushioning between you and the road at first.
On average, tires last about six years or between 36,000-75,000 miles. But the actual lifespan of tires varies with factors like climate, maintenance and driving habits. No matter how they look, tires should never be used longer than 10 years.
Tires that are out of alignment tend to drag to the side, forcing the driver to keep a hard grip on his or her steering wheel. Misalignment can adversely affect how a vehicle brakes and handles, compromising safety on the road.
If your car makes a humming noise, it could mean the differential needs lubricant, the transmission is failing or the universal joints or wheel bearings are wearing out.
New tires may produce a different (or more) noise than the previous tires due to different tread patterns and tire compounds. Brand-new tires also may need a few miles to "break in." The wider the tire, the larger the tire's contact patch on the road, which can increase the road noise.
As a tire wears and the thickness of the tread and its sound insulating properties are reduced, it gets closer to its belts and reinforcements – this can increase tire noise. Directional tires often get louder as they wear; much more than non-directional tread designs.
Uneven tire wear is usually caused by improper alignment, overinflation, underinflation or a worn out suspension.
However, a variety of factors can cause a tire to wear out sooner than expected, and/or cause it to wear irregularly and create noise or vibration. Two common causes of early tire wear out and irregular tire wear are improper inflation pressure and out-of-spec alignment conditions.
The tread patterns of a tire are designed to displace water so that the tire and the road maintain contact. If you only drive on dry, flat ground, you will be fine with a smooth-surfaced tire. But since rainy, snowy days are inevitable in most parts of the country, tires with tread are the best option for safe driving.
The wobbling is most likely caused by a separated tire. Separated tires are a very serious safety issue, and must be dealt with immediately, since it's just a matter of time before the tire blows. A tire failure of this type almost always causes damage to the vehicle. Do not put this off.
Wobbling wheels are most commonly caused by unbalanced wheels or suspension issues. Wobbling wheels are bad signs on any car. If the wobble can be felt through the steering wheel and you're having trouble keeping your car pointed straight, the issue is even more serious.
This can cause swaying and bouncing. To summarize, the four main reasons for your car bouncing or swaying are wheels that are not aligned, excessive or uneven wear on the tires, damaged struts and worn shock absorbers, or a loose steering linkage.
While it may seem logical that if you have a tire blowout, you just need to replace that 1 tire, you may actually need to replace the others as well. Why is that? It's usually dependent on the vehicle itself and the remaining tread depths on the other tires. It's always best to replace all 4 tires at the same time.